Getting over last week's tough times was not as easy as pie...if it were, I'd have been in terrific spirits by Tuesday since we got into a serious pie-making mode in the Bake Shop. Chef Chad got us into "Pie Week" by having Enju rub us up about 8 pies worth of dough. Now rubbing the dough is much like kneading the dough, but in this case we just needed to rub and not knead, and therein was the rub, since Enju was really kneading without needing to when she needed to rub, and Chef Chad had her going at it until her fingers were sore. The dough was simple and enough was made to cover the many pie fillings we produced: Pecan, Apple, Custard, Chocolate Chiffon, Key Lime, Vanilla Cream, Pumpkin, and Lemon Meringue. We also made large batches of Rosemary Bread and Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread (have to keep the bake sale stocked, you know!). Since we are allowed (unofficially) to take home samples of our Bake Shop products, I had eight pieces of pie to dispose of throughout the week, one from each type of pie. I ate them.
We are joined this rotation by three advanced patisserie students that are going through 9 straight weeks with Chef Chad to prepare them with basic baking skills. They are all nice, but very quiet and seem a little timid in the kitchen. I don't say this to be mean or smart-ass, but if I were going to spend a lot of money and invest 36 weeks of my life in an advanced baking class, I think I would at least roll one or two pieces of dough at home first to gauge my ability. It just seems like a very specialized field to tackle without having ever picked up a rolling pin, which they don't seem to have ever done.
No real issues technically with our kitchen work this week, only a couple of minor flubs. When Enju made the dough she didn't quite rub thoroughly enough, so each time we made a crust we had to make little dough patches to cover the butter clumps. One of the new girls mis-measured and put in double the butter in the pecan pie so it boiled and didn't finish quite right and ended up very rich. I mean RICH. That pie was so rich it hated Obama and the Democrats. But we agreed that it was one of the best pecan pies we'd ever had, so Chef Chad suggested that we might add a little extra butter to that recipe when we make it at home.
And those were all the mistakes this week.
Oh, and I dropped my reading glasses into a big mixer bowl containing milk, sugar, and yeast. It was a simple mistake, one that could have been avoided if I didn't have my glasses in my shirt pocket (as I almost always do), or if Chef Chad was just a little bit taller. You see, because of his shorter stature Chef Chad can't work comfortably with the big mixer bowl on the work table because it's too tall for him to reach into. Because he has to work with it on the floor, he wants US to work with it on the floor. Fair enough, unless you have to bend over it to add ingredients while your reading glasses are hanging loosely in your shirt pocket. *SPLASH* I'm over it now, but talk about an embarrassing moment! It reminded me of a similar incident involving a motor coach restroom and a new pair of sunglasses many years ago. At least this time I was able to fish them out, although they were a bit cloudy for the rest of the day.
Chef Chad is very thorough. This week he explained that in addition to heat, time, humidity, moisture content, and desired outcome we had to remember that gravity will have an effect on our products. Part of his explanation was a mini-lesson on how gravity works and the fact that if we were to make a pie crust in outer space, we'd just be floating there with a non-gravity effected pie crust. Good to know in case that scenario ever comes up.
Things heard in the kitchen:
"You want those teeth to bite into your nuts." - Regarding using a serrated bread knife to chop pecans.
"If you're not careful, your nuts will be flying everywhere!" - See above.
Me: "Chef, you graduated from CIA, right?" Chef: "Honor Graduate, Dean's list!"
"You have to take the formula to the 1/1000th of an ounce, what if you have an order for 500 pies? Multiply the 1/1000th by 500 and you need almost 1/2 an ounce more...well, I guess that's not really that much for 500 pies."
"California Prisoners are going on a hunger strike demanding better food...How stupid is that?"
*SPLASH*
"I don't like gourmet cooking or "this" cooking or "that" cooking. I like good cooking."
James Beard
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