People who like to bake can be put into two narrow categories, those who lick the leftover brownie batter from the bottom of the bowl and those who don’t. I’m one of the people who will go to town on a bowl of cookie dough, scraping the edges with my plastic spatula, eating more than my fair share of raw eggs in the process. Salmonella I scoff at you. There is a reason why chocolate chip cookie dough is one of the most popular flavors of ice cream in the US and it’s because raw cookie dough rocks the house. Some culinary masterpieces cannot be explained and the mixture of butter, raw eggs, sugar, flour, and chocolate chips is one of them.
As a kid I didn’t exactly munch on sugar cubes but I did enjoy my sweets. I was the kid who would dump the whole bowl of Halloween candy into my bag if someone was lazy enough to leave the candy bowl on his front stoop for the taking. I’m not proud of my candy kleptomania but honestly who can expect a bunch of 10 year olds to exert any sort of will power in the face of twix bars and pixie stix. My palate has changed slightly over the years (I still eat cookie dough) but I am much more cautious about my sugar intake. I like both my feet thank you. Still old habits die hard and sometimes during service at L’Ecole I’ll sneak into the pastry kitchen when the Chef isn’t looking and snag some baking chocolate as a small pick me up before the first couple of orders come in.
Despite my sweet-tooth, I never truly wanted to be a pastry chef/cook/baker. Pastry is a lot slower paced than culinary. There isn’t the speed and heat you find in a regular kitchen. Personally I prefer pastry in the comfort of my own home where I can catch up on the latest episode of 30 Rock or take a quick cat nap on the couch. Working pastry in a professional kitchen makes me want to pull out my hair strand by strand as I wait for a souffle to rise or a tart to set only to find them fallen and frothy (don’t forget you’re not supposed to whip your custards).
Working in a pastry kitchen is good practice however for working with precision. It is much easier to mess up pastries which is why contestants cringe on the pastry challenge during most cooking shows. When cooking savory food you can add a little bit of this with a little dash of that and taste your dish along the way. In pastry it is harder to improvise the recipe.
Below are the desserts that we served at L’Ecole during my time in the kitchen.
Cranberry Almond Tart with Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Pineapple Carpaccio with Mojito Sorbet
Orange and Lemon Tart with Raspberry Coulis
Chocolate-Orange Parfait
Lemon and Blackberry Coulis Ice Cream Sandwich with Vanilla and Chocolate Wafer
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while working at Keens Steak House on 36th the baker once told me “baking is a science, cooking is an art”