Intensive Patisserie—Fast and Furious

Let the Celebrations Begin

I am sorry to not have written in a week but I am literally dead on my feet! It has been an action-packed week and I am finally having a moment to write this from a cozy hotel lobby in Copenhagen where snow is falling fast—more on that later!

Last weekend, after our marathon lunch, I hurried home and huddled up, prepared to begin the study process of memorizing all the recipes that were potential candidates for our final exam on Wednesday. I typed up all my notes and mentally tried to catalog different elements of the pastries based on whether they were whipped, baked, boiled, cooled or piped in a pastry bag. It was a lot of information. My head was swimming and the texts amongst our group were flying with questions. In addition to whichever recipe we were going to be asked to prepare, we needed to be ready to demonstrate a particular technique we had learned. One of those techniques was making marzipan roses. I had taken some marzipan home to practice with over the weekend and I made a lot of roses!

Me practicing roses!

As a little side project, and gift for my husband, who was due to arrive on Tuesday, I tracked down all the ingredients necessary to make a duck liver pie—he has wanted me to make this pie for forever, but it is quite complicated, and as you all know, just making the puff pastry takes a few days. But, I persevered and in between study sessions, I whipped up this little treat for an early birthday present.

Monday arrived, and as I was walking out the door at 6:30am in the rain, I got a call from Jeff—Mr. Pumpkin Patch—saying the Metro was broken down again. I swear the number 10 line is cursed. I quickly called an Uber, which takes forever when it rains in Paris, and was nearly late for class. We still had two full days of demonstrations and two more complicated desserts to make, plus the written exam Tuesday afternoon—all before the final practical on Wednesday. It was a whirlwind! On Monday we made an Alhambra cake which actually redeemed me in the sponge category, as mine finally turned out. It was good enough in fact, that I saved it for Tuesday when my husband arrived, and called it a birthday cake! Happy Birthday Les!

Making the roses over the weekend really paid off!

I was pretty proud of this cake and it was tasty. My grades were much improved from the preceding week! Tuesday, we made a Chocolate Charlotte, which was our final demonstration and practical. It is made with ladyfingers, like Tiramasu, and stuffed with chocolate mousse. As a bonus, we melted chocolate and spread it out on frozen baking sheets and then made giant chocolate curls to decorate the top—that was fun and a lot of look for the effort!

Chocolate Charlotte

After the Chocolate Charlotte was presented, we were dispatched to the exam room for our final written test. The written exam counts for 10 percent of the final grade, with the final practical counting for 45 percent, so a lot less effort went into studying for it than memorizing the recipes, and boy did it show! I still can’t find my grade on the LCB website for it, but it could not have been good—the questions covered the most obscure culinary trivia you can imagine. We were all a little stumped and I personally think it is slightly unfair to give a final exam at the end of an eight hour day!

After the written exam, I rushed back to the apartment—again in the pouring rain- to see Les, who had arrived several hours earlier. He had devoured the duck pie and the cake and was happy to help me study. It was an anxiety-fueled evening for me, but we made the best of it. We ordered Indian food, drank wine and Les quizzed me on all the recipes to test my knowledge. I also received lots of encouraging messages from you all and phone calls from my children wishing me luck! Oh—how the tables have turned!

Wednesday morning I was up at 5 and on my way to the final— again in the pouring rain— with a clean and starched uniform, and all my notes. Just like last year, we huddled around the door of the kitchen trying desperately to gauge what equipment was being prepared, so we could get a moment’s heads up for what lay in store. We saw cake pans and were sure it was a cake. Then we saw tart rings and madeleine pans, and so we finally gave up our guessing—correctly assuming the powers that be at LCB were just trying to throw us off.

Finally, the moment came when Chef announced we would have assigned spots and to proceed directly to our stations—no talking—and at 7:30am on the dot we were handed a paper with a picture of what our assignment was to be. Well—I was very happily surprised! It was the chocolate eclairs! I never expected that, as eclairs don’t showcase as many of the skills we have learned as some other pastries. And, they are super fun to make and not very difficult! I went to work and really breezed through it. They weren’t the most beautiful eclairs ever, but I knew they would earn me a passing grade. Within the 2 hours and 15 minutes allotted, we also had to make a short crust pastry and line a tart ring. Also-not that complicated and a recipe I knew by heart.

At the end, when Chef called time, I was already finished with minutes to spare. No evaluations were given in the moment and we all had to pack up and leave, waiting for the news of our grades later in the day.

In hopeful anticipation of passing grades for all, I had been planned a little celebration potluck party at my apartment for all my classmates. Les and I ran around in the rain buying wine and champagne and Aperol-seems the crowd at LCB loves themselves an Aperol spritz!

At 4pm one of the girls from class posted in our group text the news that everyone in Intensive Basic Patisserie had passed! No grades-but we were all on the right side of the pass/fail column. Let the party begin!

With the exception of two of our group, everyone came to the party and brought a dish— and they went all out! Someone made spring rolls, someone else made dumplings, a third person made deviled eggs. There was a veritable smorgasbord of all kinds of delicious things that made a great spread on the dining room table. It was a very festive occasion.

Angela-my pregnant friend and Shan Shan-my partner

The fun girls-Greer, Rihdi and Camila

The Whole Gang!

So festive in fact, that by 10:30pm I had to tell everyone they had to go—I was exhausted and Les and I were leaving in the morning for Copenhagen. They reluctantly left and immediately headed downstairs to the Highlander for karaoke night. Ohhh to be 20- something again!

I didn’t find out till the next day, but they were denied admittance to the Highlander because they were too drunk! I was shocked-I have seen people in alcohol-induced comas gain admission there. It truly was a new low. But it could not dampen the spirits of the newly minted Intensive Basic Patisserie graduates! They moved on to more welcoming locales and danced the night away!