Day 5 and the last day of the chocolate week! Now on to entremets and cakes!

Finally I had the chance to bid adieu to chocolates for now. Today's class began with the last demo of chocolates. Today we had another different chef which was Chef Patrick. We had the chance to make several chocolate molds with delicious caramel fillings, orange with anise powder and even some with roasted hazelnuts to give a good surprise crunch upon biting into the tiny little morsels. Then chef also taught us how to make some french cookies like macao, florentine and a delice a la pistache. It was all good. I particularly like the orange with anise powder chocolate and the roasted hazelnut ones.

In the class, chef told us one fact about vanilla that I had never expected. I always thought that vanilla pods grew from big plants which would then appear like french beans. But no. Did you know that vanilla pods actually come from a flower? A flower you say? Yes from an orchid. !@#!#!#@#$@%@%% A flower? Woww amazing. Plus, did you know why it is so expensive? For a fact that not all orchids would have the vanilla pods and they only produce the vanilla pods very few times a year. That's why it so expensive! Anyway here are some pictures of the what chef showed us during demo that we have to replicate later in the kitchen. Ohh ohh and I was introduced to this new caramel chocolate called Caramelia. What it is in fact is a rich chocolate couverture button with 36% cocoa solids and then a rich caramel in it giving it such an amazing taste.



Below are some more pictures of what I did in the practical kitchen after the demo by Chef Patrick. In this class I did not finish in time and so did the rest of my classmates. What a shame. Then came the double blow, not only did I not finish in time but my chocolate molds had a lil' fringe on top which made it hard to cover with tempered chocolate again to encase the ganache. I ended up trying to remove the tempered chocolate layer for the chocolate's bottom part but the ganache was exposed. Arghhhhh. Why whyyyy. I need to do better, I really need to.

Moving on, the next demo was the beginning of something new and departing from the pure chocolate making and to entremet which are like cakes but filled with lots of cream and a lot of complicated layers. Man, this class felt made me unable to breathe as Chef Patrick went on and on doing this and that without even stopping and letting us copy down the techniques in our notebook in time. One of my classmates including me had to even hold our pee literally so we wont miss a single step that the chef was showing. He went from this layer of cake no 1 and then to no 2 cake and then back to no 1 and vice versa. Even Miss Yuki, our translator had a hard time translating so fast. Lucky that we only needed to do 1 entreat for the next practice.

Likewise, even chef had not a good day with chocolates like me in class. Poor him. He tried to show us how make designs on the colored white chocolate using painted gold powder on plastic film and then transferred on the chocolate. Tempered chocolate like its own name being very temperamental refused to set and harden plus the gold coloring did not even stick on the chocolate. Chef was so upset and he tried redoing the entire tempering again discarding the previous failed ones. At least he made it through and we had the chance to see the design he wanted to convey through and got to sample both cakes in the same day. They were veryyy good. Just mind blowing flavors.
The flavors you see in the picture above are, walnut and dark chocolate and white chocolate macha entremets. Wish me luck in the making the cake. I really want to pull through and impress the chef. Till the next post.

Fourth day of the chocolate week and it's a chinese number curse!

As the Westerners fear the number "13", the Chinese associate the number "4" with death. Hotels and housing developers who are Chinese or those who believe in the number 4 usually remove the floor number or replace with 3A after the 3rd floor. Then it happened to me, this fourth day began with me totally forgetting about having a morning class. After a few days of classes which began at 2pm, I assumed that the class on this particular Saturday was also in the afternoon. At first I didn't know at all until I arrived at the school and my classmate texted me saying the school was looking for me. I thought to myself, could they be offering me a job! Nah, little did I know that they were asking where I was this morning and failed to attend the chocolate box practical class. Now I don't have a chocolate box to decorate and assemble. So screwed....so darn screwed. To make matters worse, I can't remake it before the class and the chef was a Japanese chef who is one of the big shots in the school.

I asked the school representative if I could be given extra time to remake the box and was so worried that my marks will be low due to this one class that I missed. Feeling so guilty, I requested the school rep to bring me to the Japanese chef and I apologised and explained why I was not present. To my surprise, he did not scold me but said he was worried that I was unwell or had any complications which caused me to not be able to attend the class. He also suggested that if I had extra time after doing the decorations for the class for the next practical later I could do the chocolate box that I missed this morning. Phewww.

But first the demonstration of how to decorate the box by the Japanese chef, Chef Yuji Toyonaga the huge huge celebrity chef here in Japan. He has appeared in many local TV shows here. Here is the link of his experience. But in Japanese though. Continuing on with the demonstration class, Chef Yuji is so amazing and professional working with chocolates. His working style is swift, methodical and added with the Japanese precision. I have total respect for this chef. His demonstration has led me to thinking that a chef can be both technical and performer at the same time.

In this demo he taught us how to make a different kind of flower using chocolate also but using a small knife to draw lines on a film to create the petals in varying lengths. He also taught us how to make chocolate ribbons and do the tablage (tempering chocolate on marble table to distribute the cocoa butter around easily). I just sat there amazed and mind blown by his every move. Here are some pictures of him in action.


After the amazing demonstration it was my time to recreate the chocolate box. Luckily I had enough time to complete both the box and the decorations. Lucky me. While we were doing our decorations, Chef Yuji took some time to integrate all three of his chocolate work he had done earlier in the demo class and combined it in a stunning 3 dimensional chocolate showpiece. See it for yourself how amazing it is below.



Ohh and also my chocolate box (I messed up this one I feel. Hahha). Hope i'll do better next class.

Top view of the box 

Side view of the box

Hari ketiga (meaning day 3 in Malay)

Today is the third day of the chocolate week and I have been dreading make chocolates already. But then again I told myself this is a different experience that I am getting. Hence I decided to just suck it up and learn. We continued on the chocolate journey with chocolate moulds or shells which are filled with ganaches that are vanilla flavoured, apple with rum and also spices plus freshly ground black pepper (yeah you read black pepper, that's right. At first I was shocked too as I have only heard of chilli  chocolate but then again if you have that. Interesting eh?). By the way I tasted the black pepper spiced chocolate which is the last picture in the 6 set picture below. Surprisingly there was no strong hit of pepper, rather it had a very delicate punch to it which accentuated the chocolate taste. I can't say it is somewhat like adding a bit of salt to your chocolate but I felt it was somewhat similar if you want me to describe the taste to you.

In the demonstration chef also showed some new techniques of decorating the chocolates like using the chocolate fork to draw a line on the chocolate, using a pressed on straw on the chocolate to create an indentation and some textured plastic film to create textures on the chocolate. From what I observed in the demo, it should be easy to emulate the drawing of a line with the chocolate fork. Hopefully so.



It's showtime! My turn to replicate what chef has taught us in the demo class in the kitchen. As I have expected, it was quite easy to draw the line on the enrobed or coated ganaches with a chocolate fork. Lucky me I guess. Although it was easy, I made like a small chocolate border around the pieces when I placed them on the tray to set and draw a line. Maybe I was too rough or the chocolate layer was too thick? Mmm maybe. Bring on the next chocolate class!

From left: Caramel Pomme, Ganache Vanille, Earl Grey & Framboise

Second day of the chocolate week

Day 2 of the chocolate week and so far so good. Today we began the class with practicing how to make framboise (raspberry) and earl grey ganaches that chef taught us yesterday so that we can use them in the practical class tomorrow to enrobe or coat with tempered chocolate. In this class we also make the chocolate molds so that we can fill them with rum flavoured apple ganache. How lovely! I didn't take any pictures for this practical class as it was not the final finished product.

After an one hour break, we continued with the demo class where chef taught us how to make a chocolate box to encase the chocolates as well as flowers made with tempered chocolate. The former chocolate box would also be decorated by sticking white chocolate panels on top and then sprayed with a chocolate spray. It was pretty interesting as I have only saw the spray on TV and seeing it being used in real felt quite surreal. Awesome stuff I must say.

Making the dark chocolate box

Cutting out the white chocolate panels

Sprayyyyyyy

The final box

First day of class

Today was a Monday and it was quite a fresh start for my pastry journey here in Japan. A couple of months back after I finished my level 2 pastry back home in Malaysia I had contemplated between coming here or Australia. I hope my choice was right. The class today was intense as it was a whole day class meaning I started at 10am and then ended only 9pm which is quite late in the evening for a class. In demonstration class, I felt a little weird and out of place when there were unfamiliar faces but luckily they all spoke English.

Then when classes began, chef was speaking in French and a translator was beside to translate his words and instructions. I felt a little hard listening to both at the same time or possibly a little tired due to the fact that I had to listen to chef in French first and figure out what he meant and then the translator translate. It felt like a double wham baam to my ears. I received my binder for the classes this term and it says that we would have at least 1 full week of chocolate making classes. It seems that this is the first time the students here are tempering and making chocolate products. Hmm I wonder why did they drag till the last level to make chocolates.



Then practical class came. It felt like a whole new world with all the pots and pans, tools and everythingggg was beyond me. I didn't know where was the tray located, the tools, the measuring stuff. The entire class saw me fumbling away searching or trying to figure out what am I doing. Gosh. But in the end, I did end up finishing in time and cleaning everything up till spick and span.

Here is my version. From left: Truffes au Grand-marnier; Mendiant Lait Et Noir; and Rochers Croustillants

After that first practical class was the 2nd demo where we were taught by chef on how to make chocolate moulds.  We had to also prepare the earl grey and framboise flavoured ganache to be coated or enrobed in tomorrow's practical class. 

Overall today's class was pretty intense as it was a full on 9 hours class but then again I felt energised all the way through. Till the next chocolate class!

Starting off in Meguro

After waiting for a couple of months, finally I am in Japan. Living in a beautiful yet quite happening place in Yutenji which is an area in Meguro, I find living here quite comfortable. Here I stay in a house with another housemate whom I just met just today upon my second day here in Japan. 

(Day 1)

My "salmon red" face 

Finding my house was such a big hassle. I arrived yesterday afternoon in the house after frantically searching for the place and asking every single passer-by where the heck the house is. I don't know how long did I spend to find it but after I found the place, I was all sweaty and salmon red thanks but no thanks to Tokyo's scorching 34 degrees summer sun. Then I rested, unpacked and did a quick shower and tried to even look for my housemates but they were nowhere to be found. Then evening came, I went out to buy some myself some late lunch and dinner but then my housemates were missing even after I reached home after buying all those stuff. I was beginning to worry if this house was haunted as I check high and low for "humanly" signs. I found shoes, groceries in the fridge, proper toothbrushes and toiletries in the bathroom but no humans.


 (Day 2)

Breakfast

Then day 2 which is today came. I woke up at 5am due to the fact that the sun here pretty much rises to its peak at that time and the worse part is I hadn't much sleep. I slept back and woke up several times thinking I was late for my appointment with the school at 11am. Boy, the sun here really rises early.

Bento lunch re-plated for photo

Then at 10.45am, I left the house and arrived at the school to meet a representative and arrived 5 minutes earlier. Good one I though to myself. So after the briefing on the school rules and the school tour, I walked back from the station tired and hungry so I went to the local mart and bought bento (packed meals) as I was so tired and lazy to cook. 

Once I was home, still no one. Thinking to myself, this house may be haunted whey. It was only until 3 something that I heard sounds and noisy feet walking up and down the stairs outside. So I braved myself to open  my door and find the source of the sound which was the kitchen. I slowly glided upstairs (hahaha yes glided), and then heard someone rummaging some kitchen tools. I took a deep breath and said sumimasen (excuse me in japanese), and saw a lady inside. What happened next was something I least expected. I stepped into the kitchen and she screamed and then stepped back to grab the kitchen countertop while facing me. Ahh, I felt so bad. 

But then after I introduced myself, it was all good. Thank god. She was cooking a meal for herself and even shared it with me and I was so embarrassed to eat it there and then with her as I scared her wits out earlier. Oh why oh why did I scared a perfectly fine lady. Till then, I am excited and nervous for Monday to come as classes will start on that day. Gahhh. Brace. Myself.