Ultimo Foodie Finds

So, the other day we had a evacuation drill at work. Conveniently, the assembly point was just around the corner from a new cafe that I'd heard about in Ultimo called 'Le Depot'. They are one of the few spots around Sydney that are selling MakMak macarons, which I've been hearing some good things about.

Fellow foodies Jonathan, Laura and Jo came along to check it out.

We're not the only ones that have heard about the macarons - I was looking forward to the raisin toast flavour, but they'd already sold out.

Since I'd already had a piece of Zucchini Cake with Crunch Lemon Glaze for morning tea, Jonathan and I decided to get 3 flavours between us and have half of each.

We finally decided on salted caramel, lemon and black sesame.

The girls both got something for lunch.

Poached egg and proscuito roll with hollandaise (we all stuck our fingers in the hollandaise - so delicious):

A jazzed up cheese and tomato toastie:

Walking back to the ABC and we found that another little placed had popped up along the way.

We popped in for a look and were rewarded for our curiosity - the lovely guy behind the counter gave us all a small piece of a pear and almond tart to try (good move, we're so going back). They bake their own bread on the premises (I stuck my head in the kitchen to see their set up) and have a nice selection of pastries.

So - what about the macarons. Well, they were so so. They looked perfect and the shells were great, but the fillings let them down. Regardless, I'm still keen to try the raisin toast one.

Do you want to see my croquembouche? More from Intermediate Patisserie

The last few weeks of Intermediate are a bit of a blur. It flew by.

I remember pizza.

I was over the moon with my croquembouche - my lovely classmate Pixie took these photos with her very fancy camera.

Everything you see (even the flowers) was edible. The sad thing about it was that the whole lot went into the bin! Croquembouches don't have a very long shelf life - because of the creme patissiere they need to be kept in the fridge, but that speeds up the melting of the toffee. What does a girl do with a croquembouche at 11:00pm on a Saturday night?

And finally, Intermediate Patisserie assessment day - Gateau Opera.

Mine is the one closest on the left. By the time I took this photo I was so over it! This assessment was nowhere near as fun as the last one. We had a lot more time for the Basic assessment and we were making two things, so it felt like if you didn't do as well as you hoped on one product, you could make up for it on the other. For this one, it was just one 20 x 20cm layered gateau. I was nervous the whole time (especially when it came to piping 'Opera' on top - I had to have a stern word with my shaking hand - it didn't listen!) Also, unlike the Basic assessment all our cakes were taken out of the kitchen and assessed by 3 chefs while we all stood around in the kitchen wondering if we had passed or failed (we all passed).

The last couple of lessons were biscuits, biscotti, macarons, shortcakes and sable breton - forgot to take photos.

We made macarons using the French meringue method and to my surprise they worked (previous tries at home with the French meringue method were a bit fat flop).

I also tried a new method of tempering chocolate - ice bath. Most people stay away from this one because of the potential of ruining the chocolate by splashing water into it, but I took various precautions and my chocolate was just perfect. It's much less mess than tabling and quicker than the vaccination method.

So, with that my journey at Le Cordon Bleu has come to an end. I've decided not to go on to Superior Patisserie as the curriculum just isn't going in the direction I want to go. I mean, I could happily stay in that kitchen 3 days a week, every week, for the rest of my life, learning new things everyday and hanging out with my great classmates and our chefs. Instead, in November I'll pack my bags for San Francisco, Toronto, Amsterdam and Paris. 46 sleeps and counting!

Bonjour Balmain!

Lately, it seems that nearly every weekend I find an excuse to go the Essential Ingredient - my bank account has suffered greatly since they moved back over the bridge and onto my turf. And since I'm going to Rozelle, I thought, I may as well continue on to Balmain for some pastry perfection.

A long overdue trip to Adriano Zumbo and Victoire - the perfect way to spend a gorgeous Sydney spring day.

I was prepared for half of Sydney to be doing exactly the same and for the line to be halfway up the street, but I walked straight in and hadn't even finished looking at everything before one of the staff asked if they could help me.

The Zumbo front window is full of Viennoiserie items, quiches, cookies and bread - my kind of window. The shop is long and narrow, with a glass case counter running all the way along that houses 'the collection'. Right up the back of the shop are the macarons and a large number of people wedged into the small space in front of them.

Macaron flavours for the day were mango/tonka bean, strawberry/mint, coffee, chocolate/early grey, rice pudding, salted caramel, passionfruit/yogurt, fennel/pear/pistachio - naturally, I ordered one of each. I also got a 'Quasimodo' (can't remember all the elements exactly but I was sold at pistachio and cherry) and 'Escape from a Colombian Rainforest' (chocolate mousse, dark chocolate fizzy discs, cherry cola jelly).

My next stop is Victoire - it used to be directly opposite Zumbo (and the man himself worked there for a number of years), but it has recently moved up to the Rozelle end of Darling Street - I wonder how much of this had to do with the competition that popped up directly opposite.

I want to buy one of every type of bread in Victoire, but I settle for a small levain and a rustic olive. I've eaten a third of the rustic olive before I even make it back to car. It's delicious with a thin crust and a chewy, moist crumb and just a little salty from the olives.

The demolition of the goodies from Zumbo happens later in the afternoon at my brother and sister-in-laws house.

Anything containing fennel makes me so very happy, so I went for the pear, fennel and pistachio macaron first. The macaron shell is light and crisp on the outside and a little chewy in the inside and the ganache is super smooth. I must admit, I couldn't really taste either pear or pistachio here, only fennel - not a bad thing given my love for it.

Probably the flavour winner for the macarons is the passionfruit/yogurt. It's tangy, fresh and very passionfruity!

The 'Quasimodo' isn't particular pretty, but is very tasty. The top is quite squidgy, almost like rice pudding with a creamy/nutty flavour. Underneath is a layer of cherries and a cakey base.

The 'Escape from a Colombian Rainforest' looks great. It is super smooth and light chocolate mousse, flourless chocolate sponge, cherry coke jelly covered with a red fizzy powder and topped with a silver painted disc of chocolate that looks like the top of a coke can.

And lastly - the aftermath:

Very happy belly.

Intermediate Patisserie... so far

Well, I've only got one week of Intermediate Patisserie left to go. This term has just flown by. At times it has been a little bit scary and it has been a lot of hard work, but most of all it has been fun. Every day there is laughter and fun in our kitchen - it seems like most of our little group feel so lucky to be doing what we are doing. I think me most of all (somedays I still can't believe my luck).

Sacher Torte

Swiss Roll

Feuille d'automne

Gateau Concorde

Tranche aux fruits

Gateau St. Honore

Plated desserts - Panna cotta, mousse

Chocolate Pudding

Crepes Suzette

Savarin

Souffle

Souffle glace

Baklava

Bread - foccacia, bagette, lavosh

Gateau Opera - this is what we make for our practical test

Strudel dough - this was amazing, you don't roll strudel dough, you have to stretch it out until it is paper thin.

Apple Strudel

Chocolate croquembouche

Raspberry mousse cake

As amazing as this has been, I've decided not to go on to Superior. I'm going to miss our great group and the amazing chefs, but I've got something else planned - will share soon.

The rest of Basic Patisserie

OK, so I was kidding myself if I thought I'd come home every night after school and type up a blog about what I did that day. On Thursday and Friday nights I go and see people for dinner on my way home and by Saturday night I'm pooped, Sunday is my only day off - something had to give.

Anyway, I'm on holidays now - I've finished Basic Patisserie and am looking forward to Intermediate. What better time to catch up on the blog.

I think I got through week one, so that just leaves weeks 2 - 9.

Week 2

* Finally being able to tie my tie and it looking semi-normal.

* My gorgeous tarte aux fruits - we will make this again later for our final basic exam.

* My first cut in the kitchen, not while chopping anything, but whilst cleaning the knife.

* Biscuits galore (checkerboard cookies, viennese, diamantes).

* Floretines (our first time tempering chocolate - messy uniforms and tables that day).

Week 3

* Choux pastry, choux pastry and choux pastry - we make eclairs for the final exam as well, so we have to nail it.

* We make puffs, eclairs and paris brest.

* Tempering the stupid fondant proves to be much more difficult than tempering the chocolate the week before (trust me, the chocolate should be the hard one!)

* Learning what happens when you don't cook out your pastry cream (first hand).

* Being constantly amazed by how the French manage to sneak that little bit of extra butter in to everything.

* Fun with spun sugar (again, very messy work bench that day).

Week 4

* Puff pastry week. We learn French, English and Scotch (rough) methods. We do a 3/4 puff (1 measure flour:3/4 measure butter) for all three. We learn single and double turns and have very sore forearms from all the rolling.

* We make several savoury things - boeuf bourguignon, vol-au-vent de poulet, salmon en croute.

* Of course, we can't forget the sweet - pithivier and palmiers.

Week 5

* Baked cheesecake, bread and sandwiches.

* Fire alarms + bread making = fun and chaos.

* Knife skills!!! Lots of chopping for the sandwiches and finally I know how to use a knife properly. It has changed my life.

Week 6

* AWESOME WEEK. It's breakfast pastry week and I can barely hide my excitement.

* Croissant and brioche doughs.

* We make many shapes out of the broiche dough (some of the heads pop off my parisiennes, giggles all around and Chef Michael thinking 'the Headless Brioche' is a great name for a patisserie.

* Brioche doughnuts - for those moments when you can't possibly get any more butter into a product, just go ahead and deep fry it.

* Croissants, almond croissants and pain au chocolat - very happy with my final products and had a great family breakfast on the Sunday.

Week 7

* Poached fruits, cointreau jelly, crostoli, red wine poached pear tart, creme brulee, tarte tatin, baked apples.

* Cointreau makes an appearance in one our recipes, since LCB is owned by the Cointreau family, it is to be expected. Cointreau is yum.

* My pear tart rocked - Chef Karen asked for a picture of it to show future students.

* Creme brulee = playing with the blow torch = fun.

* Tarte tatin - one of my very favourite desserts. Caramelised apples and puff pastry. Doesn't get much better.

* Very excited that I still fit into my regular clothing by this point.

Week 8,

* Frangipane pear tart, light fruit cake, steamed puddings, sauce anglaise (that I took home and turned into ice cream), tuille paste, gateau japonaise and more chocolate tempering.

Week 9 - Assessment Week!

* Making ganache and hand made truffles

* Basic Patisserie assessment. 6 hours in the kitchen to produce 10 coffee eclairs and 1 tarte aux fruits. Very happy with my final products.