Petit Fours and Macarons course @ Le Cordon Bleu

I was back at Le Cordon Bleu today for their Petit Fours and Macarons course! It was a lot of fun and I feel like I learned so much! It's always nice too when the teacher is as great as Chef Hervé Chabert. He had a great sense of humour and kept everyone laughing and feeling relaxed.

Chef demonstrating

He made all this in just a few hours? ORLY??

We even got to sample some - yay!

Now time for the practical component:

We made these little finger cookies called "cat tongues". Infused with lemon flavour - yum!

Everyone's hard at work! Except me... cause I'm taking a picture...

Lots of yummy macarons! I learned a lot of good tips here and figured out some issues I've had with them in the past. I can't wait to make my next batch!

Sugar Decoration Class @ Le Cordon Bleu

I took a sugar decoration class on Saturday! It was a crazy, fun, awesome experience! It was my first time being in a commercial kitchen, which was a bit overwhelming, but once we got into it, it was pretty cool.

First we started with a demonstration.  Here's our teacher, Chef Cyril, doing stuff.

 

Chef Cyril's sculpture.

 

Then we had the practical part of the course.  Commercial kitchen - whoa!  So much Chaos!

 

Here's part of my workstation.  There was also a stove behind me.  You can see some of the pre-made sugar (the red and white circles) under the heating lamp at the top.  We also made our own sugar for the molds.  It was also my first time using Silpat (believe it or not), man I need to buy me some of that!

 

Everyone hard at work.  Most of what we did involved molding the sugar under a hot lamp.  And it wasn't just warm, it was HOT!  At the end I felt like my fingers were burnt.  we also worked with gas torches and hot glue guns.  Sugar sculpting is dangerous work!

Here's me with my finished sculpture!

Here's a nice pic of all my gear!  Can you believe I took this thing home on the bus and actually made it!  That was an adventure in itself...