PASSION FRUIT RERUN

We thought we'd be changing stations tonight but the switch was rescheduled for Monday so we were back in Pastry for one more night and once again making the passion fruit tart. We were told our next station would be Saucier so we'll be bringing our expediting skills (more later) to the front of the kitchen earlier in the night.

DISH: Lemon and Passion Fruit Tart, Tarte Au Citron, Fruit De La Passion

RECIPE: 6/2/06, "Level III: PASTRY"

BREAKDOWN: The tart dough shrunk back in the tart shells and the edges weren't as high as we made them last Friday. Chef suggested that the tart dough had been overworked but we couldn't figure out at which point in the process this happened. The tarts still looked pretty good all in all but would have looked better with the toasted almonds we sprinkled on top of them last time.

In addition to the passion fruit tarts we made for the restaurant (left, plating dessert for service) we made the yeast-rised cake (savarin) dough for the Tuesday class so the cakes had a chance to dry out in advance of soaking and service. Chef also gave us his recipe pages to leaf through to choose something we would like to practice. A few teammates decided to do a lemon-basil sorbet. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance this time to see how the professional ice-cream machine worked but I did get to practice some more sugar work.

Chef A. showed us how to heat and blow the sugar to create garnishes like apricots and apples using a sugar pump. He suggested that the finished products could be misted with a little water and food dyes to manipulate their color and look. He also explained that working with sugar to create these delicate garnishes would be much easier with a heat lamp, a fan, and a dehumidifier none of which we have in the pastry kitchen for reasons I don't fully understand. Chef A., suggested that if we were interested in getting some tools of our own with which to practice a good store to visit is JB Prince. The place sounds interesting and I'll definitely have to visit but at $119.80 for the sugar pump and $89.50 for a sugar lamp, I think I'll have to manufacture some homemade sugar tools, Macgyver-style until I find another source of income. Kitchen toys, a blessing and curse, so much fun but you can spend so much money playing with them!

A little in-group drama tonight. One of our teammates who had been very cool, friendly, flirtatious, engaged with class, early ambitious about food and always prepared, has been unfriendly, out smoking a lot during class, and ducked out early without cleaning not to catch an early ride home to Jersey as usual but as I understand it to join some other students for drinks. Pastry is always the last group to finish as its service is the evening's last. Everyone else in the restaurant is changed and on their way before we've finished cleaning up. Some of us weren't exactly thrilled about being left to clean up. I heard the phrase, "cooks' revenge," being thrown around.