Above you'll find images of my plan of attack for tomorrow, the final day and the last Practical Exam in the Intro to Patisserie and Baking class. How did it go on the first day of making pate sucree for fruit tarts, pastry cream and pate a choux for chocolate eclairs - all of which get finished tomorrow? The inexplicable factor of the unpredictable whammo hammer struck again. I made a classic mistake. Never put your tarts in an oven you can't see into. Most of the deck oven has visible windows through which you can see your product and keep and eye on its well-being. When I went to place mine during the exam today, quelle horreur, all the rows in the visible spaces looked filled, so I had to shove mine into the top level. Where there is no window.
Big mistake. Out of sight, out of mine eyes. When you've got pastry cream on the cooktop and you're watching that, while baking off eclair shells, you've got to know what the tarts are up to. I was doing fine up to the point where you "blind" bake the tart shells with beans - had the beans out and was still baking in full swing. At one point, I pulled out the shells; thought they were done but went for that browning just on the edges, or so I thought. Finishing on time, I started washing everyone else's dishes, thinking I had put the tarts on the cooling rack, but as I say, out of sight, out of mind. Oh my freak.
When I went to coat the tart shells with chocolate and couldn't find them, it was then that the worst revelation hit me squarely: They were still in the oven. They are now as brown as spectator shoes - and there's no rescuing them, because even though I had extra dough, a) we had cleaned off our table b) all of the available tart shells had been snapped up and I couldn't have bought one if I HAD time to do it over. What a terrible blow, especially since I had spent the morning carefully thinking through how to cut each allotted piece of fruit to make it stretch across six tarts for the finish. Sure, I can cover the top of the crusts with filling and fruit, but once those tarts are out of their pans, there will be no hiding the evidence. Another grimace and a sinking feeling. A major grade hangs in the balance. So the images above show you how thoughtfully I worked through how to design the tarts using every available piece of fruit that are exactly rationed tomorrow. I had done everything I could at home to be ready - and had forgotten to leave the damn dishes and watch the product start to finish.
Meanwhile, in my zeal not to undercook the pastry cream this time as I did on a previous practical, I worked it and worked it extra zealously on the stove, then zoomed it into the cooler, only to quickly realize I had not added the butter and vanilla. Grabbed it and threw it back into the bowl to beat like a crazy woman, but just that little bit of loss of extra cream that clings to the plastic wrap means I will have to figure out how to fill 6 eclairs and 6 tart shells with less - can I stretch it?
This stuff is hard, folks. We don't give enough credit to what goes on behind the curtain in kitchens across America. I have burns every which way on my hands. At one point today, I noticed I was bleeding on my apron, from what injury I do not know. To top it all off, I had sworn off free-lance assignments while I'm in school, but the chance to interview a major personality tomorrow could not be passed up. No refusing this one, or turning my apron on it.
When I accepted the assignment, it was for Friday, when school's out for one blessed week of Summer Vacation. But the highly recognizable individual's team has moved up the interview, to right before my last practical exam. I could laugh this all off. As it is, I must embrace this superb moment of serendipity - the star is in the food service industry in a big way, ya'll.
Feeling the heat and behaving badly, I remain ever mindful that someday this will all seem hilarious.
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