The 3 A's of Awesome

I’d like to preface this entry by letting you know I am currently in the buzz of a sugar coma – I’ve just had my second helping of a home made chocolate brownie Sunday. My face is flushed, my head is spinning, my teeth might be falling out of my head, and I’ve had to undo the top button of my jeans because I can't breathe! The only part of me that’s happy right now is my inner 3 year old: she is bouncing off the walls shouting, “yeepee!”

Anyway, one of the unfortunate (or fortunate) things about becoming a pastry chef is that you really should taste everything you make. This is only unfortunate if you are addicted to sugar. I happen to be addicted to sugar. Hence, “tasting” my pastries is a problem for me. You see, I do not simply taste my pastries. Oh no, my friends. Do you remember that episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel are supposed to wrap chocolates coming down a conveyor belt, but the conveyor belt starts going so fast that they start having to shove chocolates into their shirts, hats and mouths? Hold that image in your mind. Now insert my face. Today, we made choux pastries stuffed with Chantilly cream (whipping cream whipped with sugar and vanilla), and topped with icing sugar and chocolate. I “tasted” one. One turned into 6 in a matter of minutes. I had chantilly cream all over my face, a threatening tummy ache, and yet I still wanted more! The irony is that I shoved them down my face so fast that I didn’t even really taste them! Oh dear – perhaps I should rethink this profession? Perhaps a gig as a professional pie eater would be better suited to me, because after today, you would have thought that is what I was in training for! As if that wasn’t enough, why, pray tell, did I come home and make myself 2 homemade ice cream brownie Sundays in a row? Um…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wp3m1vg06Q 

Rather than beat myself up over the ridiculous amount of sugar I’ve consumed today, I choose to see it as this: awesome. Why? Because choosing to see it any other way will not change the fact that I did it, so I may as well choose to see it in a positive light!

On that note, I watched an amazing video on Ted Talks tonight called The 3 A’s of Awesome by Neil Pasricha. A native of Toronto, he is the author of a blog called 1000 Awesome Things, a blog that lists life’s small and universal pleasures in an effort to remind us how much good we are surrounded by. The 3 A’s are Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity. Watch it and be reminded of the things you already know about how amazing your life is, and that the power is within you to choose the positive thoughts and things that enrich your life and move it forward. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_pasricha_the_3_a_s_of_awesome.html 

In my sugar induced coma, something Neil said really resonated with me. He said that he loves watching 3 year olds interact with their environments because they see the world for the first time, and are awed by it. He said that in order to have a sense of awareness, all we need to do is to embrace our inner 3 year old. If I may add to that, never lose your childish enthusiasm, and things will go your way!

The best things in life aren’t things. They’re living, they’re breathing, they’re laughing (thank you, Micheal Franti). They’re shoving your face with chantilly filled pastries, eating warm brownie Sundays, and laughing until you pee a little :)

All my love,

The Lobster

xoxo

Pasty school, 2nd quarter, week 2!

January 17, 2011

Oh my goodness, friends!

In the last week, I have made cinnamon buns, apple pie, 4 genoise cakes (cakes made with whipped egg whites), Italian buttercream, pastry cream, chocolate puff pastries (stuffed with pastry cream and topped with chocolate – um – heaven!), more foccacia, and more croissants. I also taught my second ever yoga class – a new project that I am SO inspired by, and simply adore! More on that another time!

This is made out of sugar, my friends!!

Chef Paul working on some white chocolate to make a rose - brilliant!

And here it is!!

Chef Paul making the leaves out of chocolate for the rose!

Chef Paul with the ribbon he crafted out of sugar - yes - sugar. No big deal !!

I was also lucky enough to be able to apprentice under an amazing pastry chef at the private club where I am a server. In 2 shifts, I scooped 264 cookies, helped put the finishing touches on 170 raspberry tarts, cracked 70 eggs to make 70 egg whites for baked Alaska, and helped plate 180 individual desserts for one sitting! I also saw how a kitchen runs when there are 180 people to feed at one time. Essentially, the kitchen is deathly quiet, and each chef has a job: one hands the plates down the line, while the subsequent chefs plate one food item each (in last night’s case, it was asparagus, red peppers, broccoli, mashed potatoes and roast beef, for a grand total of 6 people, including the person who hands out plates). I handed the plates down the line –I can’t believe I didn’t drop any! The servers line up while an expeditor hands them finished plates, at which point they scoot out to deliver them. It’s brilliant – such a well oiled machine! I had so much fun, and will be volunteering again next weekend, so stay tuned for an update.

In addition to school and apprenticing, I worked 30 hours in 4 days, and have found that pushing my body and mind this much without getting enough sleep does not work for me! As I was contemplating this through tired eyes in an obvious haze, I found myself staring at my proofing bread rising on the table on Friday morning. I thought to myself, “I should really take a cue from this rising bread.” You see, if you try to bake off your bread before it has had enough time to rise, it will crack open in all the wrong places in the oven. It won’t be able to stand the heat. You can serve it, and it’s edible, but it’s not nearly as great as it could be. It simply hasn’t had enough time to develop. Proofing bread dough is a process that simply cannot be rushed, and time to rest is the only thing that will guarantee the best possible final product. The same is true for me: if I don’t give myself enough time to relax, to rest, to rejuvenate, I will no doubt crack under the pressure, and fail to put my best foot forward. So this week, as I head into a 48 hour work week, a 15 hour school schedule, and some other volunteering projects on the side, I will take the time to rest, to practice yoga, to sleep, and to nurture my down time so I can put forth the strongest possible version of myself. Oh, and I will be looking into decreasing my crazy schedule too!!

That said, I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to be the pastry chef at a charity event called dish’ED. This event is for Imagine1Day, a local charity created by Chip Wilson of lululemon that raises money to build schools for children in Ethiopia. Well, we are one month away from this glorious event! It takes place on Saturday February 26, 2011 at Dockers. Check out the details below!

Have a lovely week, everyone!! 

Love always,

Lauren

xxx

Pastry School, Quarter 2, Week 1 - Action!

Welcome to week 1 of my second quarter of pastry school!

Under the instruction of Chef Paul and Chef Mela this week, I made blueberry muffins, peanut butter cookies (add some chocolate chips in there and you’ve got my favorite cookie!), pear frangipane tart, sweet tart dough, choux paste (this is what cream puffs are made with), and buttery, gooey dinner rolls. Are you salivating? Me too!! It probably wasn’t the smartest choice to decide to cleanse my body from refined sugar and gluten this week. Talk about a good way to test your will power, but also a good way to make friends! I have some pretty thankful neighbors in my building now: I knocked on one of my neighbors’ doors the other night with a tray of a dozen peanut butter cookies and half a dozen blueberry muffins. I told them they could take it all. They looked at me in disbelief, no doubt looking to see if perhaps this was some terrible amateur, Canadian, low budget version of Punked with some blonde chick playing Ashton Kutcher. On second thought, they might have been reluctant to take baked goods from some crazed girl in slippers they had never seen before. Hm…

Anyway, I learned more fun tricks and reasons behind certain baking methods this week. Ever wonder why your muffins just don’t rise properly, or why your cookies spread too thin and don’t hold their shape? You are probably over-mixing your batter! The trick is to cream the butter and sugar together until it forms a smooth paste – this is called the creaming method. Then, add your eggs, one at a time so they are evenly incorporated. Then add your dry ingredients all together, and STOP mixing once they are just barely wet. That’s it – follow that advice and you will have great muffins and cookies every time! 

Here is an example of over-mixed, baked muffins:

And this is what they will look like if the above methods are followed properly:

I have to tell you about Chef Paul, my intro to baking instructor who you will see in the photos below. He is a third generation pastry chef from Marseilles, France. He has won so many chocolate competitions that he’s not allowed to compete anymore!!!  He apprenticed in France starting at the age of 14 and worked 12-17 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 years making $1 a week!!!!! At 66 years of age, he has been in this business for 52 years! He is absolutely hilarious, and I know I’m going to learn a lot from him (and laugh a lot too)!

Dinner rolls before

And After:

The mise-en-place (getting everything ready to mix):

The Choux paste before baking:

And after baking:

And finally, the pear frangipane tart:

This week: more volunteering with the pastry chef at The Vancouver Club (I will tell you about that next week), more baking bread, and onward to more pastries!!

Have a lovely week!!!

Lauren

xxx

Bring your father to work day and first day baking bread!!

December 29, 2010

I had a dream last night. I was in the kitchen at school. The school was deserted. It was my first day baking bread by myself. For some reason, another one of the chefs was there helping me measure out flour. Before I knew it, he was helping me put the bread in the oven. After a few dream minutes (which translate into, what - hours?), when the bread was supposed to be ready for service time at the restaurant, I realized two things. First, that I never turned on the ovens. Second, that I never ‘proofed’ the bread (the term proof refers to the amount of time you need to let the dough rise before shaping it and eventually baking it. Typically you need to proof the bread 3 times before baking it, a process that can take up to 9 hours in total. Embarrassingly enough, for the first month of learning to bake bread, I thought proofing was poofing, a term that in the Lobley family is synonymous with farting. Fart was considered a swear word in our household, so we use to have to replace it with words like poof, fluff, toot and other terms that easily could have gotten me beaten up if I used them in public. In any case, all of the notes I took on baking bread say poof instead of proof. If I cared enough about my intellectual image, I would go through my notes and correct each mistake just in case anyone ever saw it. Apparently laughing in spite of myself is much more attractive to me, so the notes will stay as is! Funnily enough, I actually discovered the proper word by accident when I was putting the bread into the proofer machine (yes, one of those exists) and had the pleasure of reading the word p-r-o-o-f-e-r spelled out nicely for my blonde self. I sighed and laughed when I saw it, thinking, “Typical, Lauren – typical!” ).

Wow, did I ever digress! Anyway, somehow (we’re still in my dream) the bread baked without the heat generated from the ON button, and it tasted and looked great despite not being poofed – I mean proofed at all!

Coincidentally (but not really), in real life, today happens to be my first day baking bread by myself! A joyous occasion, for certain. It is even more joyous because my dad is here! He flew in last night for some much needed family time, so I decided and do solemnly now declare today to be (drum roll please) – bring your father to work day (in my best game show host voice)! It’s 7am – off we go!

7 hours later...

I did it! I baked bread for the first time by myself! Success! The baguettes could have had a bit more taste, something I will rectify tomorrow (perhaps less yeast and the addition of a secret ingredient?). I also need to work on my shapes, because some of my baguettes looked like they had seen better days. As for the fruit and nut bread, it was great! Check me out below :) I feel like Kevin James in Hitch, "Once you start it, you can’t stop it!" 

Sydney - making me some crepes after a 'hard' day's work! Thanks, Sydney!

See that beige stuff on the side? That's what fresh yeast looks like. You have to keep it separate from the salt, which is on the other side of the bowl, until just before you mix it. Otherwise, the salt will kill the yeast and your bread won't rise - no bueno!

Papa Lobley - um....I don't think he's having very much fun at "Bring Your Father To Work" Day!

 

Weighing the dough so that each loaf is even!

Smacking the air out of the dough so it has a nice, even texture, free of air bubbles!

Rolling out the baguettes!

Putting the baguettes in the proofer!!

The fruit and nut bread, rising on the table. Check out my view of the city!!

Cutting slits in the baguettes so they look pretty!

Ta-da!

My school! This is the restaurant downstairs where I also work sometimes.

Mmmmmmmmmmm!

Under those towels is San Francisco sourdough bread, rising (proofing :) )

And this is what it looks like after it's baked!

All in a day's work!

Chef Ben showing us how to flambe - Yummy!

Onward to day 2 – part deux – tomorrow!

Have a lovely day!!

Lauren

xxx