Double Negatives Can Be a Good Thing

With Week 3 under my belt, I have settled into a good rhythm and have a better understanding of the Chef's expectations.  Something I am beginning to pick up on is that if the Chef's comments include only one negative phrase...that's not a good thing.  If her comments contain double negatives, I'd consider patting myself on the back.  Let me better explain what I mean by sharing with you some of the things that I made this week and her responses.  

Creme Caramel:  The "caramel" on top is made by bringing sugar and water to a boil until it turns a honey color.  It is then poured onto the bottom of a small baking dish and left to cool.  While that cools, a basic custard made with eggs, milk, and sugar is prepared.    The custard is poured on top of the cooled caramel and baked until it's set.  

The result:  The texture resembled flan.  It was very smooth and mellow in flavor, but it did have a subtle egg flavor.  The caramel disk provided a sweet sugary sauce.  I ate most of it and thought it was fairly good.

Chef's comment after tasting it, "It's not horrible."

I'm assuming that means one notch above inedible.

Creme Brulee:  Many of you are probably familiar with this dessert.  For those of you who have never tried it, it's eggs mixed with heavy cream and sugar.  Without a doubt, this little dish probably has a million calories in it.  


I've used a torch before, but never to "brulee" (which is French for burnt) sugar.  The top dessert had too much sugar which is why once the flame hit the sugar crystals, they immediately caramelized and became very dark.  The bottom creme brulee did not have enough sugar which is why it seems too light.  I really enjoyed this dessert and thought it was pretty good for my first time baking it.  

Chef's thoughts, "Not bad." 

This comment gave me hope...

Cheesecake & Plating:

Keeping in line with making extremely fattening desserts, we baked cheesecakes on Thursday and spent Friday practicing making sauces and plating our desserts.  We are required to work in pairs so my partner and I decided on making a lemon cheesecake topped with lemon curd and then garnished with a raspberry and blueberry sauce.

For our first slice, we had an elaborate plan to make a birds nest out of white chocolate, fill it with blueberries and place the cheesecake on top of a small pool of blueberry sauce decorated with white chocolate. We failed at making the bird's nest so were left to play around with the sauce and white chocolate.  As soon as I poured the white chocolate onto the plate, I knew this wasn't going to look as nice as I imagined.   I immediately realized that the white chocolate was too thin for the sauce and this plate began to look like a spiderweb.  I thought it was so hideous I couldn't help but laugh and make a few Spiderman hand gestures.  I nearly scrapped the design, but then the guys in my class walked by and thought it was pretty cool.  Go figure.   I doubted the Chef would like it, but thought...well, maybe.

The Chef's thoughts, "I liked the stacked blueberries.  I don't like the plating design."   

I whole heartedly agreed with her on this one. 

But alas, the one thing that did receive a positive feedback from the Chef this week was the raspberry plated lemon cheesecake.  My thoughts, "oh my freakin goodness...this is sooo dog-gone cute."   

The Chef's response, "Nice job, ladies.  Very pretty."

Finally!  I couldn't help but walk away with a big smile on my face which so happened to last while I devoured it.

Although on most days, her comments are not quite what I'd like to hear; they are what I definitely need to hear.   Every now and then, she might slip up and toss out a positive response.  For now, I'll assume that her double negative comments are just as good as a positive one.