Pleasures of the Plate

What I have been up to – Le Cordon Bleu – back to basics

LDM — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 06:59:16 +0000

Wow, it has been very hectic here. I have been up to my elbows in spatuals, piping bags and oven mits! And loving every moment of my Julia Child experience. Le Cordon Bleu is amazing. Here’s a photo journal of the delicious morsels I have been creating. Enjoy!!

Plain scones with raspberry jam and quenelles of chantilly cream.

Madelines and fruit scones.

And my favourite:-

Fruit flan with cream patissiere

Stay tuned for the next update.

images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

It must be love…

LDM — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 07:32:21 +0000

Today we welcomed the newest member of our family – a beautiful 5 year old mare called Crystal. She is my baby’s horse. My baby spent the day bonding and making friends. Such a heart-warming sight! Stay tuned for more…

images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

Sugarcraft Blueberries – work experience at Faye Cahill Cake Design Studio

LDM — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:01:27 +0000

I really enjoy creating things by hand and as a realist artist I love making things so that they look as close as possible to the real thing. Making flowers, leaves and fruits out of sugar icing, I find, is therapeutic. Today we are decorating a cake which is embellished with flowers and fruits. My job is to begin making the blueberries that would later be spray painted to give depth of colour and make them look realistic. Here’s the result before spraypainting.

Beautiful little blue/grey orbs. I can already visualise them peeking through amongst the flowers, raspberries and strawberries adding a balanced hue to the red tones.

Feature image: istock

other image: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

My very own experience of walking in the foosteps of Julia Child

LDM — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:49:46 +0000

The day is finally here! It is beginning. My journey of walking in the footsteps of Julia Child. Only this will be my version. Julia attended her cooking journey in Paris – mine will take place in my hometown of Sydney, although you never know, I may get to attend some one-offs in Paris at some point in the future. So, after 25 years of marriage and five children later, I am finally embarking on my journey of passion for patisserie. I am beginning my journey of mastering all things patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu Sydney. As I sit amongst all the other students waiting for directions, I feel a mixture of trepidation and excitement. I am very clearly the oldest and only Australian student here today. Does that make me feel intimidated? No way! In the short period of one day I have already met a multitude of new friends, talented chefs and administrative staff, all of whom in one way or another will play a role in my journey. They will become a part of my story. So, here is a pictorial version of Day 1. With loads of forms to complete, uniforms to be measured and fitted, appropriate shoes purchased, and textbooks garnered we are introduced to our future Chef teachers. We are escorted on a tour of our learning classrooms. Huge, cavernous kitchens full of stainless steel and tiled walls.

The above images are the kitchens, all of which will be my home for the next twelve weeks. With mixing machines that look like robots, spotless tiled floors and an abundance of stainless steel I cannot wait to begin.

This image shows a mock ‘front of house’ where Cuisine students present their work in a mock restaurant situation to members of the public. I fell in love with the artwork on the wall. I wonder if it was painted by a past talented student? The colours are so vibrant! The artwork shows Peking Ducks in all their glory hanging from silver hooks.

Chef Andre, one of the patisserie chef teachers, shows us the Demonstration Kitchen where we will be spending a lot of hours in the coming weeks. And if we pay attention, we might eventually be able to create something as magnificent as these chocolate scultpures by past students!

To say that I am bursting with enthusiasm and excitement would be an understatement! Stay tuned for updates. Monday sees our very first lesson day. I can’t wait to find out what we will be learning and making. And who knows, maybe one day, just like Julia Child, I may even get lucky and have my very own cookbook published.

Feature image: istock

all other images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

Handmade Truffles – Work experience at Faye Cahill Cake Design Studio

LDM — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:26:03 +0000

Handmade truffles are an elegant way to finish a dinner party and you can impress your guests by making themself. They are very easy to make, if a little on the messy side. Truffles can also make an impressive alternative to ribbon around the base of a cake. And that is the reason I was making handmade truffles today.

Make a batch of chocolate ganache and leave in the fridge the day before you want the truffles.

Place the ganache in a piping bag and pipe these lovely little droplets onto a perspex board. Try to keep them all the same size. Place the board in the fridge to allow the ganache to firm up again.

Once firm enough, roll each droplet into a perfectly round ball. Place them back into the fridge to firm up again. This is the messy part, as the warmth from your hands when rolling the droplets causes your palms to be covered in melted, delicious chocolate. I really did try my very best not to lick my palms! Truly!

Lastly, place each delicate rolled ball onto individual toothpicks. Then dip each one into rich, dark, tempered chocolate for a lovely shiny finish. Once dried, place around the base of your cake. Voila! Your done. Happy cooking and eating chocolate everyone!

Feature image: istock

all other images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

Sugarcraft leaves. Work experience at Faye Cahill Cake Design

LDM — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:14:26 +0000

What a fun day was had today. Learning the basics of sugarcraft. So how exactly do you make all those pretty petals, flowers and leaves out of icing? That was my mission for the day. You need some wire, sugar paste and some leaf cutters. Roll out the sugar paste until it is a fine layer and then cut out the delicate little leaves.

With a little shaping you are able to achieve the wavy natural look of the leaf. A veining press provides the vein indent into the icing. Once dried, they can be coloured and then stored for future use. Such a beautiful artform. I love it! And I had immeasurable fun learning the process.

Feature image: istock

other images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

My work experience journey at Faye Cahill Cakes continues…

LDM — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:58:16 +0000

Beware! There are dangers lurking in every kitchen. When you are in the kitchen, no matter what you are doing, it always pays to be mindful of the dangers lurking within. Even though I had been dutifully schooled on the correct and safe process of the use of this beastly machine, I still managed to do myself a minor injury. All it took was a momentary lapse of concerntration. That’s it. That did it! Here’s what transpired…

Today, my job was to neatly slice the cakes and ganache inbetween each slice. (Please note that no cakes were hurt or injured in any way during this process). The picture above shows the cake ready to be sliced and the said cake slicer. Maybe I should nickname it the finger eater? Once I had sliced all the cakes, I was ready to move onto the fun ganaching part. Make no mistake, the slicing is fun too and I might add I was quite efficient at the process. It was in the process of moving the beastly finger eating machine that disaster struck!

This image shows my bandaged appendage and the lethal blade attached to the beastly finger eating machine. One moment of lapsed concerntration saw me place my finger in the wrong Wrong WRONG position and bam! Sliced finger. So the lesson for today is: ALWAYS BE ALERT WHEN YOU ARE IN THE KITCHEN AND BE AWARE OF DANGER AT ALL TIMES! I would also like to sincerely thank all the people that helped doctor my injured appendage and comforted me in my time of feeling like an absolute idiot! Lesson learnt and enough said! But I can’t wait for tomorrow to see what I am going to learn.

feature image: istock

other images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

Stewie goes cross country.

LDM — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:49:47 +0000

Being just a wee baby horse, Stewie has never ever been on a cross country course before. In fact, Dave has only just taught him how to jump (more on that in future posts). There are a few things to try to remember when taking your horse out on their very first cross country outing and they are as follows:-

1. Keep yourself calm and walk around the entire course before you even get on your horse. If you keep calm then your horse will keep calm (hopefully)! Horses are very intuitive to emotions and to how their owners are feeling at any given time. So, if you are stressed, chances are your horse will be too.

2. As you are going into the jump it is very important to keep the right rhythm to ensure that your horse takes the appropriate amount of steps leading into the jump and that his stride is even. In other words, not taking short steps then large ones.

3. As you come into the jump, the rider needs to sit tall with hands up, legs on and look straight ahead, NOT at the jump itself. In fact the rider should actually be looking ahead to the next jump. Most new riders tend to look at the jump, but this is where you need to have faith that you have taught your horse correctly and that he will just sail right over the jump. He knows what to do so you just have to let him get on with it and look towards the next jump.

4. When the horses’ front legs leave the ground, the rider needs to go to sitting ‘two point’ until all four of the horses legs touch down on the other side of the jump. This means the rider is actually up off the horses’ back and is not putting any weight on the horse.

5. Once the horse has cleared the jump, it is very important to reward him with a big pat on the neck and verbal confirmation that he has done a good job. Make the experience enjoyable for the horse and he will want to come back and do it all again.

This is a pictorial presentation of Dave and Stewie’s first crosss country outing with their brilliant instructor Karen.

Arriving at the course and tacking up (putting on saddle cloth and saddle).

Dave then puts on the bridle. Note – Dave is wearing a jump vest to protect his torso in case of any falls (of which we hope there will be none!)

Meet Charlie, Karen’s horse.

This is how you get on up!

All aboard and off we go…

It is a beautiful day with all the pretty yellow wattle in full bloom.

First, they do a full circuit in ‘walk’ to warm the horses up and to show the horses that there is nothing scary about the logs they are going to jump.

Karen and Dotti, her gorgeously obediant dog friend.

Dave and Stewie set off…

Dave shows Stewie the first log to go over.

And over they go…

Whee…good boy Stewie! He’s a fast learner.

“Ok, now follow me” says Karen.

Karen shows Dave how. “Just watch me”.

Now you Dave.

This is how you do it Karen!

Next time you’ll be going over those jumps Stewie.

A closeup.

Karen gives helpful instructions.

Dotti stands guard.

Taking the horses for a cool-down walk. Karen has kindly allowed Abbey to ride Charlie. Once cooled down, the horses are untacked and put back on the float for travelling home. A good day’s work for all.

Feature image: istock

all other images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

Blossoms…

LDM — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 06:50:58 +0000

Please accept my apologies if I have been MIA of late, however, I am positively the luckiest person on the planet. You see, I have been spending every available second at Faye Cahill Cake Design. Faye has kindly taken me on for work experience and I am loving every second of it. So I thought I might share a few tidbits of what I get up to during my time with Faye. Blossoms…

Once all these tiny blooms have been made they then need to be positioned on the wedding cake like so…

So much fun! Can’t wait for my next work experience day!

Feature image: istock

all other images: Linda ~ Pleasures of the Plate

Happy Father’s Day

LDM — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:09:58 +0000

To all the dads out there – wishing you a fantastic Father’s Day, whether you are jumping out of a plane for spills and thrills (hopefully no spills), waterskiing, diving with sharks, revving around in a racing car or just throwing some steak on the barbie, I hope you enjoy your day! Linda

feature image: istock