I knew that pastry school was going to be hard. I want pastry school to be hard! If I knew how to do all of this stuff already, I’d have saved my Euros. And after the highs of Croissant Day to start the week, karma saw an easy target.
The last three lessons we’ve had were the toughest so far. It’s important to keep that in perspective - a hard day at pastry school is better than a good day most other places - but the lessons that ended the week really highlighted my weaknesses in a way that feels uncomfortable and unfamiliar. We had an afternoon-long piping workshop on Wednesday, and then made back-to-back fussy fancy cakes Thursday and Friday. They were the kind of high-difficulty, high-technique, low-flavor cakes that classic French pastry loves dearly - not anything most people would ever buy in a real shop, but important to learn.
Yesterday we made Savarins, which are yeasted cakes baked in tins, soaked in syrup, drenched in rum, glazed, and piped full of pastry cream. The cake is donut-shaped, but then you make a little one and put in inside the big one and cover it all. It’s like a cake pinata, sort of. It then requires all of those additional flavorings because the actual cake is bad. (Someone in class asked why we couldn’t just make a cake that tasted good and the chef didn’t have a great answer).
Today’s adventure was a dacquoise, which is two discs of meringue, with a praline buttercream filling, caramelized almonds, and a marzipan rose. Definitely more delicious, but I got the roughest critique of my whole time in Paris for it. You can see the scene of the crime at the top of the post. I was extremely proud of my marzipan rose, but it was too big. My sides were messy, my piping inconsistent, my decor a mess. I think only a chef whose first language is French would have a sufficient vocabulary of disappointment for this thing. My calling may not be becoming a professional dacquoise maker.
Part of why the end of the week was rough is that we had the same chef for the final three sessions, and he’s a real bummer. We’ve had lots of different instructors, but there are four that we’ve had the most often. I will not be using their real names, because Google exists, but they basically break down into a 2x2 box:
Handsome Chef, who the 20-somethings in my class call Chef Bae but I have too much dignity, is both an excellent teacher and extremely nice (and looks like 2005 Anderson Cooper). He has come into every class this week to say hello but hasn’t been our instructor all week. He’s being a tease.
Stern Chef, who is a great teacher but kind of a bummer - strict, preachy, uptight. Thorough and helpful, but a lot.
Eager Chef, who is incredibly nice and fun to be around but not great at explaining what he’s doing.
and Chef Ennui, who is both a huge bummer and not a very good teacher. He doesn’t seem to enjoy what he’s doing and is very unapproachable. He manages by yelling. You could write an HR textbook on him.
Overall, the quality of the staff at the school is ridiculously high, and he probably looks worse than he really is because everyone else is so good, but three days of Chef Ennui in a row was more than enough for this week. Fingers crossed that we get Handsome Chef back in our lives on Monday. We’re onto choux pastry to start the week - I can’t wait.
Wait, they KNOW that their cakes are both difficult and flavor-free? Le sigh.
Gene and I were just yesterday trying to explain to the girls how French cake is always the most beautiful and the least tasty! Thanks for confirming I will show them your blog. Sending good vibes for the handsome chef to return on Monday and that choux is a shoo in for a 5/5. 😊