Puff pastry galore (day 3)

Quote of the day: "Does your duck get along with your chickens" -me asking one of my pastry classmates at lunch

Today we rolled, folded and turned. In short, we made puff pastry. Puff pastry is a delicate yet scary monster, requiring lots of strength, patience and flour. Although in the end, I think my team and I did quite well with our pastry. Tomorrow we'll get to cut it up and make tarts and palmiers.

The diversity of my classmates never ceases to amaze me. Among the 14 of us, we have a restaurant owner, a retired salesmen, two doctors, a semi-retired oil tycoon, a hand therapist (no, I have no idea what that means), a food services manager for an "adult residence" (aka assisted living), a southern belle homemaker, a financial analyst for Pepsi, a high school student, a gastronomy professional from Brazil, and a nurse. And that leads to very interesting conversations such as the one about the nurse's chickens and whether or not they get along with her one duck (they don't). Or ones about how food purees are "all the rage" at adult residences these days -- she explained the "turkey sandwich" puree which consisted of a yellow portion which represented the turkey, a brown portion which was the gravy, and some green puree which was the veggie. Apparently, it's as gross as it sounds.

Okay, summary of food eaten today:
Breakfast - at Farquason Hall as usual. An *awesome* eggs benedict.

Lunch - at the East Wing Dining room as usual. Gravalox on a bed of frissee, followed by a vegetarian stuffed cabbage with beans and rice with a curry squash sauce. Dessert was pot de creme. The dessert was as we said "Mm" but not "Mmmmmmmm".

Dinner - at the crown jewel of the CIA restaurants, the Escoffier. I had a fois gras and ox tail terrine served with a cranberry compote, braised veal cheeks with a lemon sauce and mashed potatoes with baby carrots, and a peanut butter mousse devil's food cake for dessert. Decadent yumminess, except for the dessert which was more peanut butter than mousse.

As as for what we made: we worked on making our puff pastry, and filled and frosted our sponge cake with vanilla butter cream. We also had this kickass class on dessert wines. :)

Oh, and I stopped at Baskin Robbins for an ice cream. A nice elderly couple there smiled and said, "Oh how cute -- you're a chef for Halloween." (I was wearing my uniform.) I laughed and thought, "Indeed. I am."