Trial by fire

This is the fourth week of my 10 week long patisserie course and has it gone quickly already. I'm still not sure whether I'm fully enjoying it or not. I suspect that I am, but it's more of a post-session enjoyment than anything as when I am in my chef whites and in that kitchen, it's a crazy crazy situation.

It's very strange. It's not like I'm not comfortable in the kitchen, on the contrary. I am perfectly at home with stove, oven and rolling pin. Yet when I am in that kitchen I turn into this wreck. It's to do with the fact that
a) there are 10 students plus chef plus porter in a fairly small kitchen
b) the chef is constantly shouting instructions and warnings
c) we have to cram in a hell of a lot of stuff into a 3 hour session

I find myself being pulled along with the other students even though I should be concentrating on my own thing. Why is her pastry different to mine? How comes she's so far ahead? How comes her biscuits are that colour already? A conscientious cook should be focussed and attentive to their own produce. I was so unhappy with my puff pastry as I was too busy racing along so as not to be too behind and as a result, it was too dry and slightly lumpy. Trying to pay attention to Chef's instructions as I am reading my notes from the demonstration and keeping an eye on two things at once. It all starts to get a bit much after a while. Especially when time is running out and you then have to worry about presenting your baked goods to Chef for grading.

And then afterwards, when I have escaped the sauna of the kitchen and managed to get my pastries home in one piece, I think about how I enjoyed the cameraderie of it all. The adrenalin rush starts to ease and the deep satisfaction I get when I taste the results of my hard slog is pretty immense.

There is no doubt that patisserie is a fine art. It is pure science and a precise one at that. A gram too much, a degree too high, a second too much whisking and all can be ruins. And yet it is all worth it when the tasting spoons come out..