DAY 9

I went to school and got dressed really, shockingly, fast. Since there was still a lot of time before I had to be in class, I went into the normal culinary kitchen ( I say normal because it's not the pastry kitchen) There was a class that starts just before my class so they were already working. It was very interesting watching them make all there little things. They were making little appetizers and plating them, and I would like to point out that they were absolutely beautiful. Not that the teacher chefs aren't fabulous or anything, but this class got a special guest for today, they had one of the master chefs from the main Ritz kitchen, can I just say OMG that is soooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!!! Well after watching for a while I walked back into my kitchen, with some of my other classmates who had also got sucked into the beauty of the appetizers. Well even though we only three things, we had a late start because of the spectacle from the other kitchen. I started the dough for the Panettone while my buddy worked with the slice fruit making it into candied fruit for our bread. I've never been a fan of candied fruit, but these weren't that bad. We then started on the almond cream for the Pithiviers cake that we are making tomorrow. Lets just say we had a little bit of fun making the almond cream (well it was more like a paste) After putting in the required amount of rum into the batter, we both took spoon and took two shots each; and yes i'm legally allowed to drink, Europe's drinking age is 18... We put the paste in the fridge and go back to our Panettone dough adding the candied fruit. We split our dough into two and each put our piece into the paper holder ( like a very big and tall cupcake holder) and put this liquidy topping and then put it on a speedrack to let them rise for an hour or so. While waiting for the Panettone to rise we had our tea and coffee break, don't forget our lovely history lesson while having our break. Today we learned about the background of the Panettone, well i'll keep it short for you folks at home; it's Italian, and as most Italian things go it's very good. No problems getting home today, took me long enough though. When my roommates come home, I show them what I made today (it's become sort of a tradition) and before I could say anything one of them is all like, "OMG... Panettone, amo il panettone, sono in mondo da eccitato." (for those which Italian is not your mother tongue: "i love panettone, i'm so excited") that is before I even said anything. Then spent the rest of the evening just hanging around with my roommates until midnight-ish and went off to sleep. I really didn't want to, because that would mean that it was a friday. I know, I know, most people love friday and so do I, but this friday was the last day for my class and is going to be two weeks before my next class begins.


Panettone