We were supposed to receive power at the culinary institute this morning, Jean-Luc told me as I got in. Great! But power or not, we were gonna have class, so it wouldn’t really matter except then we could work more comfortably.
Chef Emmanuel was starting his class in his cuisine lab today, we have used his lab for the last 2 days. Chef Philippe gave us 3 choices: Go home, Go field trip, Go back up to Pastry Lab and do pastillage at a room temperature of about 30 deg C. No one chose to go home, so we willingly went back up to the Pastry lab and did pastillage.
My ingredients were used by Chef for demo, I didn’t have to do the pastillage dough. My conclusion was that it was more difficult watching others do than be doing, I felt conscious of the warmth when I was not doing. I decided to wash up the stuff at the sink, just then Chef Sebastien came in with the level 1 classes – his and Chef Rudolf’s – about 20 students. When I turned around, Chef Sebastien greeted me with “Good morning, Joycelyn“, before I could reciprocate, he told his students that I was his student and now I was no longer his student, I no longer greeted him??!! Not guilty. Ha, today he said to me 2 times we didn’t greet him … again not guilty.
Back to class and finally I can shape my pastillage. It looked easy when Chef Philippe was demonstrating to the class, rather he made it look so comfortable and easy. I enjoyed the feel of pastillage more than chocolate … Use the right tool! I had taken out a knife with a sharper blade than paring knife for Jillian when Chef left the lab and we didn’t realise a toolbox existed on Chef’s work table with all the scalpels and I had conveniently used the knife on the table to cut instead of the precision blade. No excuse, got it … Roll out like a tart dough … goshI love tart dough, I mean since day 2 I rolled and shaped tart dough evenly with no issue, but somehow I had a problem – I was too conscious to roll the dough evenly, I forgot to feel and enjoy it. A simple round strip I measured and cut nicely turned out short, ok next … the second strip I cut and didn’t measure was not even in height at the closing edge and when I looked at the cross section, it wasn’t even in thickness - I really questioned my heart. It was just a strip, goodness. Then the bamboo – I rolled not once, twice, and this time the strip wasn’t long enough to wrap round the pole, tried as I might … “Oh sxxx“, oops I let out a loud exclamation, more to release the congestion in my heart … I caused a commotion in class. Chef turned round, “Joy, what did you just say? … You must put this on your blog” Anyway he assured us we still got some time … I knew Chef must have read I seldom swear – I went through level 1 and only cursed under my breath and maybe only after week 5(?), and I was now only on Day 4 in level 2 and I was just doing “play dough” which was supposed to be fun and easy. I decided I have to find a new word to release any congestion in future – I wasn’t frustrated, I just didn’t feel it and I needed to let go. Let me think of a new word.
After a break of staring into nothingness (yes, behind a noisy generator), I actually felt better. I don’t like break room, I don’t like smoke, sometimes I just need a space to breathe some air and stare into nothingness. But I made an effort sometimes to join my classmates at the stone bench. The second part was easier – flowers and butterflies. I loved the third part best – I felt better for the freehand though I had thought otherwise.
The third part – Leaves, and Calla Lilies. I will only know tomorrow if the stems I did for my Calla Lilies fit. I was happy Chef introduced Calla Lilies coz I dreamt (rather visualised) about them on my wedding cake, a small bouquet with simple greens with Lily of the Valley. Last week, at Barnes & Nobles, I read from a book (ha, and I copied down) that Calla Lilies come in ivory, yellow, orange, light pink, dark pink, red dark burgundy … More about Calla Lilies – no scent, and it stands for Ardor, Magnificient Beauty, Feminine, Modesty. Nice. And they are simple and elegant. I was looking up Lily because its Chinese name 百合 has a significance for 百年好合, which literally which means 百hundred 年years 好good 合harmony & union, a very good blessing to wedded couples, blessing them to stay in love with each other forever. But Oriental Lilies appeared too bold (more the size but what is the word?) for the cake. And Chef recommended we start looking up desired piping to practise for our wedding cake, I was dreaming about how the cake looks and still thinking about the piping fit.
Something must change … or rather I must change myself. I must relax and enjoy, I must feel it. Then I thought of tomorrow. Spray paint the pastillage?… I never painted since high school but again I have a choice tomorrow. Raffaella told me Chef will teach us the technique.
I enjoyed my class but I really pray that we get the power back. After 2 weeks of disruption, as much as Chef tried to return us to normacy, I again wondered how these 2 weeks of lost time and momentum can be reinstated without compromising on the value of a diploma certificate from LeNotre Culinary Institute?
