I Moved!

Hey All,

Just wanted to let you know I would be on Wordpress from now on. I have moved the blog to:

HERE!

See ya there!

Chef Tom

The New Deck Oven at CHIC

Howdy Bread Lovers. We have a new oven in kitchen 203! It is a Bongard steam-injected deck oven. Check out the video here. Have fun!

Chef Tom

Time to get outside! Today was wonderful. Then we get back to work in the kitchen. See you there.

Chef Tom

Howdy food lovers,

A good friend of mine has a new book coming out about wine and its appreciation. I want you to go to John Laloganes' blog at
Essentials of Wine

I think you'll enjoy it. He's a great guy and really knows his wine. Let's raise a glass to him!

Chef Tom

Live from Ottawa!

Howdy Food Lovers,

I am writing from Ottawa, Canada this week. I am here with the folks from Le Cordon Bleu North America. I am joined by my colleagues from around the country, chefs from each of the schools in the Le Cordon Bleu system. Yesterday we had a session with Chef Phillipe Guiet on teaching and learning and finished the day making Gateau St. Honore and brioche. What a great day. Today we get to produce some food on our own in the wonderfully old fashioned school. Be sure to check out the pictures from each day here.

The rest of the week will be filled with much learning about the way each of us approach the process of teaching baking and pastry. I was here about three years ago but much has changed. I can't wait to get started!

Class Notes

Currently I am teaching the second baking course for culinary students. I usually teach the first one. The first course has bread, cookies, pie and tarts in it. The second one covers smaller cookies, cakes and petit fours. Some folks like to call the second one: advanced. I don’t really think there is such a thing as an advanced course. I think cooking is a wide journey. It’s not all linear. You may disagree with this if you like. I learn new stuff all the time, some pedestrian and some transcendent.

My students this term had a hard time getting started and I think they would all agree to this assessment of their work. But this week, they have really taken off. I was not going to have them display their work in a buffet situation because I thought they were not ready yet. Last week, they weren’t. This week they have shown me what they are and what they can do. I am proud of them.

Next week they will prep for a couple of days for a buffet that will be for about 50 people. There will be cookies, petit fours, fruit tarts and much more on that buffet. I’ll keep you posted on their progress next week.