Streets close, police escorts, police with dogs and police on horses, follow massive crowds through the streets of London to the pitch. This happens when there is a game. People of all ages join in a crowd and begins chanting their team's chant. Then they begin to walk as one to the pitch to watch the game and get drunk on alcohol. I got to witness this event this afternoon. It was pretty cool. I was amazed at the man power they dispatch for this kind of game, almost every week. They have police escorts to the pitch and away.

My house mother was nervous, but that is expected. She is nervous and frets over everything. It is actually alittle annoying. She dwells over things far more than I could. She is a constant worry wart. Oh well.

I only went to school twice this week. It was a module in bread. It was ok. We never made any bread by ourselves, except for the brioche, which is also on our final. We made the bread three times. We made bread as a group and then shaped it by ourselves. I like the shaping part. We made loaves, braided breads, filled breads of both savory and sweet, and so much more. In making bread, you can let out stress and anger, when you knock the bread down.

The bread module was good. The next thing we move on to is plated desserts, or so I am told. This will be helpful for my final assessment.

I have decided to quit the program after graduating with the diploma from patisserie. This is for personal reasons. I will graduate with a diploma in patisserie, basic and intermediate certificates in cuisine and the dux award for patisserie from Australia. If I choose, I can come back to any Le Cordon Bleu school within two years and finish Le Grande Diploma. There is always that option. I haven't been to the school in Ottawa...For right now, I am content with this.

The weather here in London is changing, as the seasons is around us. Spring is settling in nicely and I love feeling the warmth of the sun on my face as I walk to the train station. Soon it will be spring in full swing. London is a great place. I can't wait for the summer. I just wish I had more dresses and skirts to dress in!

cheers

I AM DONE WITH CHOCOLATE UNTIL MY FINAL IN JUNE!!!!!!!!!!

Superior patisserie is what I thought culinary school should be like. Tons of time dedicated to one aspect in the pastry field, then moving on to another aspect of the culinary field. This is how it should be. (Plus, in the beginning people should learn the basics. I guess we did that in Basic, but intermediate was kind of a waste, it you ask me. And if you didn't ask me, tough.)

The chocolate module ended on friday. We completed our huge class masterpiece and it was amazing! Then on thursday and friday we had our assessment. On the first day we tempered chocolate, cut out pieces for a windmill and made molded chocolates. On friday, we tempered chocolate, assembled the windmill and unmolded our molded chocolates. It went ok.

We also had a new chef who came in to grade us. His name is chef Pascal. He is from France originally. He seems great. He did not teach us, only watched and took notes. Then he played with chocolate while we did our assembly of a windmill. I have been told he is quite and is true. But I am sure I will be taught by him soon.

Our next module, I over heard was bread. This is only for a week with two times going to school for about 6 hours each. We are making tons of different types of bread - baguettes, savory and sweet breads and a curry bread - interesting. I love making bread. I just wonder if we will be making it by hand or using a machine.

We got our papers for the final, in June. We have to make 5 different things. A brioche a tete - a bigger size of a regular brioche and they gave us the recipe; molded chocolates - truffles - again, they gave us the recipe; a type of cookie called sable holandaise - two flavors molded together in a pattern, cut and baked - again, they gave us a recipe; a sugar piece and finally two identical plated desserts. They did not give us the recipes for the last two. We have total of 25 ingredients and we get bonus points if we use them all, if we don't, we get points taken off. I have managed to use everything except a few items, so I am trying to rethink my plated dessert. I have alittle over a month to decide what I want to do, draw up a time line, recipes and gather information before I have turn in my proposal of my final, by May 25th at 5pm. So I have been busy working on that.

Other then that, nothing is really going on. The two girls that were staying at the house left on thursday. I have the house to myself again. But this bliss will only last for alittle bit. In a week or so another person is coming from Austria for alittle bit. Things are going...3 weeks have passed. Well I better get going, I'll be writing more later, ta

Another week of school have come and gone. This was the second week of chocolate. It went fast. Wednesday was the worst, I was at school for the whole freaking day, from 9 in the morning until 8 at night, with a 30 minute lunch break. We have had two lectures about flour and plated desserts. They did not last long, thank god. We were in and out in about 30 minutes to an hour. It was awesome.
the rest of class time was spent doing chocolate, so much tempering, huge bowls of white and dark chocolate. The smell of chocolate at such an early time is not good for the stomach. One of the ways to check the temperature of chocolate is by touching the chocolate to the bottom lip of your mouth. This is one of the spots on your body that can determine temperature. I would not taste chocolate at 9 in the morning, so I went for another method of checking temperature, touching the front part of your pinky into the massive bowl of chocolate. I like to think it works much better!
So one day we worked on airplanes. It was OK. I was getting tired so I did not put in a lot of effort, but I was the one only one to give my plane a call number - B52. I also painted the plane in dark chocolate and a blueish color. It looked cute. By the time I got home the plane has crashed. The wings had fallen, I guess when I was in the metro, I must have hit something. Oh well. I did not get a good picture.
The rest of the week was spent working together, the whole class. We are making a huge class centerpiece. It is themed after New York City! It is going to look awesome. Everyone has a task and in a few days we are going to put on the final touches and assemble the whole piece. The center of the piece is Ms. Liberty's torch. The highest point is the flame with fingers and the hand that holds it. A little farther down will be a plate that holds part of the Empire State building in 3D and street signs of 5th avenue, Madison and so on. On the opposite side, farther down will be the trees from the park and of course an apple since New York is called 'the big apple'. Again, going farther down and on the opposite side will be foods that goes hand in hand with New York - pizza, pretzels and hot dogs. At the base will be the New York sky line and the words of New York. The words are going to be in white chocolate and then sprayed with the colors of the flag and maybe a few stars added. It is going to look awesome. If I can figure out a way to put the picture of the centerpiece on my blog I will. I hope it is going to be awesome!!
School is school and that is what I am trying to focus on. I am assembling a list of places I want to go - it is a long list - but I think during my break will be the best time to go see all these things, on a pass. The pass will allow me to pay one price and then have my run of national treasures to go see. So if anyone wants to come over....please do! I hope everyone is doing well. Take care