HELLLLOOOOOO EVERYONE.

I am so sorry for not writing in such a long time. Time has really flown by. Let me try to catch everyone up with me. This will unfortunately be the last entry for about 3 months. My stay in London is rapidly coming to an end as I have finally finished Superior Patisserie on the 8th of June. But I have decided to take some time off to regroup and take a much needed break for some R and R. Then in September, I will attend Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa to finish my Le Grande Diploma in superior cuisine and finally I will get the white hat!!! But I am getting ahead of myself.

These past few weeks have been exciting. My last full week of classes were for the tea party. We made numerous types of pastries and made tray after tray of overflowing sweets. It was nice. It got a little chaotic when we were all trying to assemble the trays of sweets, but in the end it was well worth it. We had one day of prep which lasted about 6 hours and the following day to put finishing touches on and set-up the room.

I was finally done with superior patisserie classes! I was so happy. I had about a week until my mother and her friend, Charlotte, came over. So I decided to sleep and just relax, doing whatever I wanted.

Finally, June 1st, mom and Charlotte came. We were on the go, sight seeing everything London had to offer. We went to Hampton Court, saw museums, went on tours and saw Portobello Road (it wasn't like Bednobs and Broomsticks), to name a few. We even went on a boat ride on the River Thames. It has been a wonderful time.

On Wednesday, 6th of June, I had to go back to school to do my final. Mom and Charlotte went on another tour to Stonehenge and some other places. My final started at 9:45 and ended at 3:45. I had 6 hours to cook - well, one hour of cold prep (I was not able to use any heat) and 5 hours to cook. I did it.

I finished on time and I was pleased with my products. We then stayed to clean up and get a debriefing from the chefs. I did not get home until about 6 and I was tired. It was a good long day, but now I am finally finished!

The next day I took it easy. I had to return to school to get a run down on my products. Chef Pascal said I did well. I got good marks and I should be proud of my outcome. There were about 40 of us and only 2 failed. That is the lowest amount yet. I didn't get an 89%, as I hoped, but I did well enough to pass and to graduate. So I was happy. No more LCB London.

On Friday, 8th of June, we got all gussied up and went to the Four Seasons Hotel in Hyde Park for the graduation ceremony. We had canapes and champagne for an hour, then a three course meal before the actual ceremony started. I sat at table 11 with two kids from my group D and chef Pascal. It was a lovely lunch. We had wines and coffee and little sweets at the end. Then the ceremony began...Le Grande Diplomas were called first, then superior, intermediate and basic. It was great. I have a full diploma for completing the superior course and metal to show for it. I am so happy to be finished. Next step....the white hat and to complete Le Grande Diploma.

The next couple of days were filled with sight seeing and on Sunday a proper English afternoon tea at Brown's Hotel. It was lovely! I highly recommend people doing this in London. Tomorrow we will go see Kensington Palace and gardens and just it easy....soaking up as much as London as possible. Tomorrow will be our last full day and then I AM GOING HOME!!!

This 3 month stay has been interesting. I've learned a lot in superior patisserie. I really enjoyed it when I was in the kitchen. I will not miss my house mother here, her constant nagging and complaining about life has reached the top. Since mom and Charlotte are here, they have been able to cover me, so I don't have to sit and listen. That has been nice. Anyways...it is time to say good-bye for awhile. But I'll be back in September to report on my final 3 month journey into becoming a chef.

One more week of classes, then finals, then graduation, then DONE.

This past week has been our last week with sugar playing. I had my last go with my sugar show piece and received good reviews from the chef. I just have to fix a few things and I should be ok. Everyone is getting nervous because our final is coming up soon. People are asking last minute questions and practicing a lot - at home and at school. One of the chefs, Chef Julie, opened the school to some students on saturday to practice. I didn't go. I'm not going to practice - which might be bad, but I don't really care. I need to make one thing from my final, because I have never made it....but then I think I will be ok (knock on wood).

My final consists of 5 items. A sugar show piece, with 5 or 6 pieces, all attached. The piece will be the colors of red, because that is my favorite color. It is rather abstract, but I think it looks pretty cool. I just hope it goes well for my final. The second item is sable holandais. This is a cookie, almost like shortbread. It is two different flavors - cocoa and cardamom - wrapped in roasted walnuts. I am going to make a checkerboard or a swirl with the to flavors. The third item is chocolate truffles flavored with Grand Marnier and coated with both white and dark chocolate. The fourth item is bread, brioche a tete. I just have to make sure I don't kill the yeast and hopefully I won't. The last item is the creative part of the final - the plates dessert. We have to have a main item, two sauces and something crunchy - like a cookie or tuile. We may also have an ice cream or a sorbet and one sauce, instead of the to sauce rule. I am choosing for two sauces.

We have 25 ingredients to use. We have to use 20 of the 25 ingredients. Each ingredient we use after the 20, we will receive extra points. I plan on using all 25. My final is the last final of the superior patisserie groups. This is bad. The judges, our three patisserie chefs, will be sick of raspberry compote and bavarian cream - because this is what most are making. Bad luck for me. Oh well, I will impress them nonetheless.

On Wednesday, I got to see friends from home: the Cannon Family, minus two. It was a blast. I met them at an Indian restaurant called Zaika. It was so good. I admit, I am not a huge fan of Indian food, but I am always willing to try. This place was a cross of Indian food with western items now. It was very good. We had great food, great wines and great conversation. I met a cousin from France and she was so nice, very full of life. Our dinner stretched on for hours, but I loved every minute of it. It felt like home - finally being around people I liked and could get along with. There was no complaining or annoying people whining about this or that. It was a great break.

On Thursday, we finished with pastillage - a type of sugar, using powered sugar. I made a lighthouse. I thought it would turn out very bad, but I was wrong. It just needed some color and some more imagination. I thought of the lighthouse on Kangaroo Island in Australia. It was beautiful and I wanted to try to recreate it.

On wednesday we had our 5 hour sugar assessment. We had to make a rose, a ribbon, a fruit and a sugar piece. I took my time and finished on time. The chef said I did very well on my fruit, a pear; my ribbon and my rose. I decided to the colors of the rose and the ribbon in the colors of Auburn - because I knew the colors went together. A little tribute to those who go to AU and to those who support! I was proud of my work. Hopefully I got a good grade. There was only one who did not finish on time.

Well...that was my life, of last week. We have a tea party this week. I hope it will be fun. Then on Friday, all our paper work is due....so right now I am trying to finish it all. I am just trying to figure out a name for my plated dessert and how to write a description. Any ideas? I am open. I guess I better get back to work. I'll let ya'll know about the tea party.

Hello Everyone!
I am sorry to report that there is nothing new happening in my life. We have continued to work with sugar. Last week we made fruit shapes. Actually that might be unfair, shapes is a better term. Blown sugar is very hard to do. We first made circles...which I could actually do. Then the chef showed us how to make fruit shapes - a pear and an apple. It looks easy, but trust me, it ain't! I made circles, but the resemble of fruit was not very apparent. I tried. Not many of us could do it. Oh well. I would show you pictures, but I did not take any. They were just too horrible....spheres, I mastered!

This week we have two demonstrations about cake making and decorating. The cake making is not so interesting, but the decorating is so cool. I stayed three more hours after the demo ended to help and watch the chef make all kinds of flowers out of gum paste. It was so cool. She made roses and jasmine and leaves, oh my. It was really cool to watch, making flowers and a gazebo.

Wednesday is our five hour sugar assessment. We have 5 hours to make a sugar show piece, an apple or pear, pull a rose with leaves and pull a ribbon. I hope my hands can make it through 5 hours of handling hot sugar!

Tomorrow I will be seeing familiar faces from home, the Cannon Family. I can't wait! We are going to go out to dinner and it will be a nice release from the everyday routine. I'll report back after my sugar assessment, hopefully with pictures!

Pictures from LCB London. Sorry they are not straight. I have not figured out how to do that yet.

To the left: The chocolate piece with my patisserie group - New York themed

Below: The chocolate box with chocolate goodness inside.










To the left: The chocolate windmill made for the chocolate assessment with chocolate truffles.


Below: The sugar piece that I might do for the final assessment in June












Below: the first sugar show piece I did

My first sugar flowers - roses to the right

The one thing I looked most forward too in superior patisserie was the thought of playing with sugar. Sugar that is heated to untouchable temperatures and then pulled, blown or poured. It is an amazing thing to watch. For years I have been captivated with the food challenges on the Food Network channel, channel 55 at home. The channel is usually left on at home, even by my mother who does not cook, but loves to watch it. Let's face it, the Food Network knows what they are doing, even if their show personalities annoy the hell out of you!

This week we have learned about sugar. It is so cool. On Wednesday was my first go at pulled sugar. We made roses. The sugar is hot in your hands, but you just breath through the pain and continue working with it. You make about 15 petals. First pulling the petal shape then flicking the wrist to break the sugar from the mass, then reshape it in your hand giving it depth and movement. Then to assemble the rose, you use a blow torch to heat the petal ends and attach to the 'bulb' of the rose - a tightly rolled petal. It was the coolest thing to do.

The next day, we tried again with the sugar flowers. This time the sugar was not as painful. It was not as hot - I guess the hands get used to it after awhile. We also had our first go at poured sugar - for sugar show pieces. It as pretty cool as well. The sugar is heated again to ungodly temperatures and poured onto a silpat mat - a grease proof mat. There it cools down to the shapes you have outlines with shapes. You can add color and shine. You can cut the semi - set sugar with a knife, pipe the sugar and the possibilities can go on and on. That same day we had a demonstration about sugar. We learned techniques. It was a great demo.

Today we did another type of sugar - pastillage. I don't like this stuff. We have to come up with a drawing. I could not think of anything, until I was rolling it out - a light house from Australia popped into my head - my muse. We made the pastillage - combinations of lemon juice, gelatin and powered sugar. Then we rolled it out and made our shapes. The pastillage has to dry for a few days. Then you can assemble the pieces and paint color. I have a week or so to come up with a back round - hopefully I can make it look good.

We will be continuing working with sugar for the next two weeks. And the final week is the Afternoon Tea Party. It should be fun, but I have no idea what we are doing. The sugar work will be a blast. I just hope I don't get tired of it like chocolate. Stay tuned.

Last week was spent plating desserts. This was helpful since our final assessment in June includes plated desserts. We played with sauces and decorating plates. We began by dividing the recipes into groups. Each group of 2 made two dishes. I made this chocolate thing, chocolate mousse, wrapped in a tempered chocolate bow. It was not that much fun in making. I was also reminded that I hate tempering chocolate.

The plus side of plating desserts was playing with sugar. We made sugar decorations. It was so cool. We piped it, made sugar cages to hold ice cream and sorbets and I made angel hair. We also had a go in making chocolate cigarettes with tempered chocolate - it did not work out so well.

The second day, Thursday, we plated our desserts and began our assessment for the third module. I also got another go with the chocolate cigarettes - it worked out perfectly! I was thrilled. We played with more sugar. I love it.

The last day, Friday, was spent plating our final, bavarian cream with fresh raspberry compote. It was a relaxing day. More sugar and chocolate playing. We even got out early.

The weekend was spent in trying to finalize my final. I think I am almost there. I just need to test a few theories, but I think I am ok with it. My plated dessert is going to be cool.
cocoa jaconde (cake like) wrapped around strawberry bavarian cream with fromage frais
fresh raspberry compote
lemon anglaise
sugar, chocolate and vanilla tuile (cookie like) decorations.
It's going to be awesome! I can't wait to do it and be done with it all. June 6th is coming up.

A friend from home is coming to London with her parents, so that will be a nice break in the middle of May. Then my mother and her friend are coming at the beginning of June. There are many things to look forward to. I am not sure what we are doing this week, but I think we are putting on a tea party. It will be interesting to find out tomorrow at school. Until next time, cheers

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