Culinary School - Week 7

Last week in Artisan Breads we learned all about Rye breads. I was quite surprised that I actually liked a couple of them. I've never been a big fan of pumpernickel bread but I gave it a try in class and it was pretty good! We made Sourdough Rye, Two Castle Rye, New York Rye, Pumpernickel, Volkornbort, Honey Rye, and completely unrelated...French baguettes that we shaped into Pain d'Epi's.



We went into school an extra day this week and also spent the ENTIRE day on Saturday preparing for a chocolate competition at MSU in Lansing, MI. The theme was Cabinets of Curiosity and the minimum height requirement for the showpiece was 30 inches. Originally three teams from our school were going to compete, but with a time crunch at the end, and some very important pieces turning up missing, we ended up joining forces and only one team went to the competition. Here are some of the chocolate pieces made by my classmates...


Here are 175 earl grey tea truffles dipped with white chocolate that I made for the competition...


Both students and professionals were able to enter this competition. One of my chefs {teacher} ended up getting 1st place with his entry below.


And the group from my class ended up in 3rd place.