Cooking 101 Recap: Week VII

by Campus Executive Chef Tom Barton

Last night was week seven of our Cooking 101 class in the Xhibition Kitchen and after learning about knife skills, cold preparations, and entrées over the past few weeks we had finally reached most everyone's favorite area of the kitchen: dessert! We brought in a heavy hitter, Ritz-Carlton Boston Common pastry chef Bouchaib Errafiy, to work with us and show us the finer points of several desserts. Chef Errafiy spoke about the various differences between all of the flours and sugars that we see these days at our favorite market. The discussion was very lively but I could tell everyone was ready to start making (and tasting!) some great desserts.

First off -- cheesecake. We learned one of the secrets to a great cheesecake is in the creaming of the cream cheese and sugar. We spoke about the technique of creaming and its importance in many dessert recipes. We then moved onto the classic recipe of profiteroles au chocolate. The nice thing about learning how to make profiteroles is that the same recipe can be used for making the shells for cream puffs and other pastry items throughout the kitchen. Chef Errafiy garnished the profiteroles with thin pieces of edible gold leaf that he brought with him. Finally, I think we saved the best for last as we finished up with a fallen chocolate cake, more commonly known as a molten chocolate cake. After a quick ten minutes in the oven we were all treated to a chocolate sensation most people can only dream of. I know I'm still thinking about it this morning!

Next week we will be practicing the dinner that our student chefs will be making for their special guests in two weeks. We're still finalizing the menu but I think I know which dessert we will be serving!