Days 137 and 138 – Sugar Module part 2 – Mon 20th and Tues 21st August

We started the sugar work this week with another poured sugar centrepiece. I had worked out what I wanted to do beforehand and had all my equipment ready

Next we did some pulled sugar and made a 2 colour ribbon and bow.

Following that we did some blown sugar, which is a similar technique to glass blowing, just more edible. Here’s my sugar apple.

Then we did an underwater scene with corals, piped sugar fish and blown sugar fish.

Here’s a close-up of my fish.

Days 132 and 133 – Sugar Module part 1 – Mon 13th and Tues 14th August

This week’s patisserie lesson were on cooked sugar.

The first parts were on poured sugar pieces and will be part of our final exam.

We made several sugar ‘centrepieces’. I don’t think any of them are particularly attractive personally, even when I look at the best ones made by the chef.

Here are a couple of ones I made. I’m still trying ideas for the exam so these are experiments.

 

Next we had a lesson on pulled sugar, which is what rock candy such as seaside rock and candy canes are made from.

We made sugar roses and I had a quick attempt at making a ribbon, though we’ll be covering those next week.

Day 96 – Canapés, Gnocchi and Sugar Work – Thurs 7th June

Today we had 2 demos with a practical between them.

First was a cuisine demo with chef Gilles on canapés. He made 6 different types of canapé.

He made blinis with horseradish cream and smoked salmon and dill, deep fried salted cod croquettes and marinated tiger prawns.

Next were parmesan shortbread with chives and fromage blanc, aubergine and goat’s cheese rolls and smoked chicken wings with honey and lime glaze.

 

Next we had a practical with chef Neil making the gnocchi. Not a dish with much flavour. In fact the only flavour in the 2 dishes we made was the parmesan cheese. I wasn’t impressed by these dishes and when the chef-astronaut asked what I would serve them with, I replied I wouldn’t as they had no flavour. (Houston, we have a problem!)

Then we had the last patisserie demo before the exams and chef Nicolas gave us a demonstration of some sugar work.

He made some poured sugar pieces (a square, some circles, a mirror effect base, a bubble effect curved piece which would be the background and a ‘coral’ by pouring hot sugar into a jug of ice, then dusting the result with caster sugar). He then did some pulled sugar work and made a 2 colour ribbon, some roses and leaves. He assembled all of these into a sugar centrepiece.

Lastly he made a blown sugar dolphin.