Days 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. and 136. Good people.

Day 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, and 136. Good people. Day 131. Tuesday. We had one class in the morning. Restaurant desserts demonstration. Chef showed us what we were going to be making for the next two days. After class, a group of us (Maine, Essex, Jordan, Poland, Delhi, Oman, Israel, California, and me) headed for London's best doughnuts....well at least what five different websites claimed to be the best. It was a bit of a trek, and when we got there, it was a restaurant with a bakery in the corner. They only had one flavor for the day, vanilla. It was a creme filled doughnut, light, fluffy, not greasy, and the filling was creamy, soft, airy, and not too sweet. It was a pretty good doughnut for a trek. After that, we headed to dim sum. We'd been before, and I must say there are plenty of placed to eat in this town, I need to stop repeating places. We split up from there. I was pretty tired. I went home, dropped off some things and headed to the store, for a three things, ginger & clove and treacle. They don't have molasses here. The next best cousin is treacle. As I bought/found it in Wales no problem I figured it would be at the store down the street here. Nope, not at the next or the next. Five grocery stores and I finally found it. It's Essex's birthday on Thursday and I asked her what her favorite cookie/biscuit was and she said Ginger. I asked if she had ever had them dipped in chocolate, and she said never, but it sounded amazing. The recipe I used is now complete with the treacle and spices in hand. I made the dough at home that night, and called it a night...8am class the next day.

 Day 132. Wednesday. We made two of the four desserts for the restaurant segment, and tempered chocolate and tulle decorations for our final desserts the next day. Six hours making mousse, parfaits, sauces, sables (crusts) before having another demonstration class to show us how to put it all together. I think this class would have been nice to have before we made our chocolate & tuille decorations, but now we had to make due with what we had the next day. Nine hours at school is very long. Poland, Singapore, and Vermont were getting sushi after class, I wasn't that hungry, but went for the social part. Two sisters from Canada in the intensive cuisine program joined us as well. It was nice to compare programs/chefs. Came home, made a dozen cookies, dipped them in chocolate, and headed to bed.

 Day 133. Thursday. We completed/plated the two desserts from the day before, ate the remnants after chef critique, and made the other two of four desserts, and plated them as well. We worked in pairs for these two days. She made stuff I wasn't proud of (overcooked sable) and I made stuff she probably was not proud of either (gelatinous mousse). Oh well, we pressed on. We used what we had and turned out with some stellar plated desserts for first timers. We had to do two identical platings for the Ricotta Mousse...I redid my chocolate piping 5 times on one plate to get them exactly the same. That is the way of restaurants, consistency in all plates. It had been a long two days of desserts.

No one was ready for another lecture class, but we had one. This time a tech on Restaurant menu planning. After about an hour lecture and me zoning in and out it was time for a quick break before an 'activity.' We never had activities in tech classes. Chef divided us into groups, had us draw a restaraunt type from slips of paper, and then each team made a menu, pricing, aimed clientele, etc. There was Windsor, Heathrow Airport, SE London, Hong Kong Central, and we had a Country Manor. As our group was planning the menu, I busted in with my British accent. Its getting better than before I came here. My group was laughing at my attempts at saying "raspberries" and they insisted I be the presenter for my group, only with the accent. I was a bit nervous, hoping I would not pee my pants, but once it was my turn, I got up, and presented our English Country Manor in my best British accent. "Good afternoon and evening everyone, and welcome to our Country Manor." I began in a british accent. Singapore, (who was in another group), later told me that she thought when she first heard me speaking she thought something was wrong with my voice, and then she realized I was up to something. I had the class roaring in laughter with my descriptions and my accents. I could not even look at Poland, Vermont, Maine, Malta, Essex, Delhi, really anyone as I spoke. Chef was even red with laughter. "Our next selection will be a chocolate surprise. If you haven't seen this you need to look it up on the internet, its like a chocolate bomb, or a chocolate shell the size of a ball that when you pour hot fudge over the top it melts and opens up like a flower to discover a a chocolate fondant cake inside. Seriously brilliant!" The group laughed at my "bomb" and "brilliant." It was quite a fun time performing a menu of all things to people.

 Friday. Day 134. We had a class in the morning about the requirements for our entremets dish that we will each be creating/making for our final. There are lots of details and components that go into it. Seriously a bit overwhelming to be planning (a mousse, sponge, crust, insert layer, tuille, tempered chocolate work, and decoration), ingredient and equipment lists, cost sheets, time tables, oh and presentation. No big deal. Ha! I talked some ideas over with the chefs. I have a rough idea of what I would like to do, but it could be different. We will see soon how it all turns out. One of the chefs helping us/answering questions was the chef from teh night before. He is British. I apologized to him if my British accent was offensive. "Quite the contrary. Are you an actor? [No.} Have you done performing like that before? [No.] Best presentation in five years. You had me rolling in laughter. I hope I was not distracting to you." Ha! From behind us, a squeal comes from Delhi, "See I told you it was good!!" I can pull off an accent. My life is complete.....with a backpacker in Amsterdam it would be really complete. Ha! We were done earlier than expected.

I had lunch plans with Essex ,but her group met at 1130, and mine met at 8am. I had plans to work on that imaginary chocolate paper I need to write about, but Jordan, Poland and Delhi wanted to go to brunch. Anything to prolong doing work was good with me. Jordan had been to this hotel before and said it was excellent for brunch. She was throwing her daughter's surprise birthday party here next week. The hotel was amazing. It was formally a car park [garage] turned into a hotel I could see anyone with a designers eye would love. It was a mix of mediterranean, african, and topiary. They had a bowling alley with four lanes in the basement of the hotel....with a dance floor off of it. The wall had Tiffany blue wallpaper covered with colorful butterflies, that was topped off with alligator sculptures made from wood pieces. How do I know about the bowling alley? As we sat down for brunch, Jordan told the man who seated us that we must have a tour of the hotel after we eat. The rest of us were a bit shocked at the request, I didn't know anyone could get a tour of a hotel. But we did. They showed us two of the hotel rooms, the rooftop garden, the party rooms, bowling alley, and library. Amazing hotel. Brunch was good too. I had baked eggs. I liked the ones at St. Francis in Phoenix better (its a good place....go my PHX peeps!) Funny story about brunch. Poland told the waitress that she is allergic to wheat and wanted to know her options. The waitress said that they have 100% rye bread toast with avocado and if she would like she could add tomato & poached eggs to it. Poland said that was fine. On the menu I could only see the toast with avocado for five pounds, not the added extras. When the bill came, it was a bit of a shock for Poland's order. Five pounds for the toast & avocado, plus four pounds for the sliced tomato, and plus another six pounds for two poached eggs!! Fifteen pounds for toast and add ons! Crazy! You can buy two dozen nice eggs for six pounds here....Poland was shocked as the rest of us, as she only really wanted a coffee and bread. Poland said as we were leaving the hotel that a big group was meeting at Borough Market and that I should come. I told her I would see how long lunch went with Essex.

Thus began my expensive weekend. I walked back to school and met up with Essex and Oman for lunch at a cute Italian order at the counter place called Princi. They had slabs of pizza, salads, breads, desserts. I didn't want Essex to know I already ate brunch an hour ago, so I ordered a small salad plate with a pesto curly noodle salad, and a roasted pumpkin salad as well. So amazing. Essex used to work in the area, so she knows amazing places to try. After lunch was over, Essex headed home to meet her sister who was coming for the weekend. Jordan had messaged Oman about the group going to Borough Market and so Jordan wanted to go. She told me that she had never been. What!?! Its a foodie place!! I had to go with the first timer. The 'big group' ended up being Poland, Singapore, Jordan, Oman, and me. It was a good time going around, trying samples, and finding the doughnut stand (the same company as the other day has a booth at the market) that had lemon doughnuts this time. Still amazing. I asked if they were hiring. They said that if we could bake bread like theirs, they needed two bakers. We said we could, and they gave us their business cards. Watched everyone eat oysters.

 Jordan saw The Shard (a massive business building that looks like a shard of glass) from Borough Market and insisted we go to the top to see the view from the bar and hear them play jazz music. Well, we made it to the 42nd floor, but as we approached the bar doors, security told us that they had a strict dress code policy and no trainers [aka sneakers] were allowed. We all looked at everyone's feet to see who was being denied access, myself and Singapore. Jordan persisted with the men telling them that we were planning a party and we all needed to see the bar. Security was not having it. We assured her and the others that we were fine waiting for them, and to go in and check out the view. They all went in, but Jordan came out two more times to try and get us in. No way Jose. I was really fine. I could see the view from the elevator area. There was another bar opposite this one. Jordan said that they were run by different companies, so we could go in there. Denied again. #comfortoveraviewanytime #carryingmyballetflatsfromnowonnot

 I headed home after that to drop off my bag before heading out to meet Dierdre for dinner. Yes, this is still Friday. Three meals out, plus a doughnut snack. It was an adventure of a day. We met at Leicester Square and walked tell we found a place, turned out we went to Jamie Oliver's Italian. I think I've been to most of his places now, and this one was reasonably priced. I got a board with an array of cheese, olives, veggies, slaw for eight pounds. Cheapest Jamie meal yet. After dinner we tried to walk to find dessert, but it started raining and was getting late so we said goodbyes and headed to our homes. Long fabulously brilliant day.

 Saturday, Day 135. I got up, tidied my room and heard the vacuum running outside my door. “Do you want to vacuum your room now?” My landlady asked as I headed to the bathroom. “Um yah sure.” I think it reassures her to hear me vacuuming my room, so that she can believe that it is getting done, rather than me verbally telling her so. After that I headed out for an errand before meeting Maine & his girlfriend for lunch. It was my first time meeting the girlfriend, and she was quite nice. We went to Granger & Co. I had heard great things about it. I didn’t know if it was worth an hour wait, but Maine & GF insisted that the eggs alone were worth the wait. I got the ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter with a side of eggs. The eggs looked like a pile of hard scrambled eggs, but in the mouth, they were light fluffy layers of eggy goodness. The hotcakes were great too. Maine bought my meal as my delayed happy birthday meal :) happy me. I had to jet before GF was through with her second plate (seriously she could eat) as I was meeting Delhi and Poland at 345, and it was 330. Whoops.

 After multiple texts we finally met up, and I discovered that it was more than just Delhi and her boyfriend and Poland, but Singapore and Vermont and Vermont’s boyfriend too. Wow. I felt terrible being late. Nevertheless, we walked to William Curley, Patissier Chocolatier shop to have the dessert bar. A six course expedition of strictly desserts. We knew that service ended at five, and the shop closed at six. We walked in at 420. When we all walked in the staff was a bit shocked at our group size, only because they don’t take reservations. There were people at the dessert bar already, and would be there for another 30 minutes. They said that we could sit at tables in the shop area and eat there, but we wanted to sit at the bar. Why? Because the chef makes the desserts right there in front of you at the bar that’s why :) The lady said that she does not normally do this, but she would take a phone number and call us when they were ready for us (the shop was small, and we were big). I pulled out my phone, pulled up my recent text conversation with Maine, and gave them my unmemorized telephone number. We headed across the street to a bar to wait it out. I watched as my buddies all drank. We told the waiter that we were only there for drinks, and they said that his was the restaurant side, and if we wanted only drinks we should have gone to the bar side. We told him we would move, and since we were willing he said that we could stay until they got busy. We didn’t mind, we knew we would be gone in thirty minutes. Thirty minutes came and went. I was a bit miffed that the chocolate shop had not called. Vermont’s boyfriend said that they probably took my number and threw it away. After 45 minutes of waiting, Maine calls me. “Um Michelle I don’t know why, but this chocolate shop keeps calling me telling me that your reservation at the Chocolate Shop is ready.” Oh my goodness. I gave them Maine’s number, not mine! Laughter ensued, as me, Delhi, and Delhi’s boyfriend ran to the chocolate shop to hold the bar until the others could finish their drinks. A drink was included in our six course dessert menu . I got Hot Chocolate of course with praline paster & 72% dark chocolate. Then the courses began. The chef told us we could ask him anything as the menu went along. We didn’t tell him we were pastry students until course four. :) Only two courses had chocolate in them, the rest were fruit based. The menu changes monthly, so February might be filled with chocolate who knows. But the courses were great. Yummy. I almost made it through the sixth course before asking for my petit four chocolates to be wrapped up like Delhi’s.

 It was a lot of sweets consumed. We needed to balance it out with some savory. We walked around for a while before I pulled out Yelp to find us a pub. There was one down a questionable alley.  But had a good soup for me.  After the pub, I was ready to call it a night. The bus line to my house ran the road that we were on, so I said goodnight, and watched my friends walk away. As I watched them, I thought about how great it is to have good people like them in my life. I am thankful for friends. 

Sunday. Day 136. The usual. I came home, and timed myself making the potential filling for my entremets, chocolate pudding, to see if it would even be possible. With an over that only has 9…8…7…6..5…4..3..2..1.. on it and not actual temperature degrees, it was questionable as to how to make this work. I’m pretty sure I overcooked it, but it turned out the same fluffy thick goodness that it has been for the past many years of making it back home. I met up with my friend Tamara for a fireside, and we chatted for a long time after. I worked on this novel during the day too. And bless you for making it this far through. Goodnight.