1 Apr 2011 - Sugar cooking, Knife cuts & Fruit salad

Being the 1st demonstration class as well as the 1st practical class, i bet everyone is as excited and as scared as i am. :P

okie there were quite a lot to absorb and learn on day 1. so it is no joke being here studying. it really is an accelerated program i would say. you have to learn and sort of master them within the day. we learned about sugar cooking, different knife cuts, hygiene. Demo class is basically a lecture of our practical. We also learned extra things such as sugar cooking and its different stages. Chef showed us how we can use our FINGERS to perform testing on the different stages of sugar cooking. In total, there were 11 stages. Putting fingers in hot sugar is not joke. if u put your bare fingers directly into the sugar syrup, the sugar syrup will stick to your fingers and it is so hot that if you were to yank it off, your skin will be yanked off too.

During practical, we were taught by Chef Christhope on the hand testing technique and he gave each and everyone of us a private session of learning the technique. Thereafter he left us to practise and also told us to make sure we never hesitate and is quick to prevent our fingers from being burnt. He told us to practise till hard crack stage which is about 160 degrees which the sugar will be ready for decoration. however, i forgot about the sugar and left it on the stove and well Chef Christhope saved the day. Phew! I wasn't scolded but were informed of the mistake that i had made. Bad start :( so i didnt do well on the 1st lesson and i am determined to in the next.

Moving on with the demo, Chef Matthew did a simple syrup which is a solution of equal weights of sugar and water. This is used as the syrup for the salad. it was made up of the many spices and fruit peels. Yummy i would say :)
Another type of syrup was made which was less diluted with 3 parts sugar and 1 part water. This is used for sugar decoration which you can see the pretty platings that our Chefs had done along with the many different cuts that were presented to us.

As it was our 1st lesson, i felt totally lost. Where to get what, what to do next, where to wash what, etc. i was totally lost and frantic. Though it is just a simple fruit salad, everyone didnt manage to practise making the sugar decoration today. :(

I brought back the salad and shared them with my host family. they love it and asked for more. :) i am sure everyone else will love it too..

signing off now and i will update another entry on this week's lesson later in the day :) ciaoz..