This practical, which was just over a month ago, was our most interesting yet. Instead of being given a stock list of items to produce individually, teams of two were assigned a theme for a restaurant and had to design a five-item dessert menu for it. We had to make seven of each dessert to serve to invited guests who in turn gave written evaluations about them, although the chef was still in charge of grading. I really like this idea for a practical — it’s a lot more fun than the standard format.

Our assigned concept was “Overpriced Napa Bistro.” Although we may know that kind of place well, it was still a challenge to come up with a balanced, seasonal, and varied menu ourselves for the first time, and a really good experience. From the categorical point of view, the dishes that we came up with can be summed up in a word each for me: nuts, chocolate, cake, cheese, and frozen. And of course, there’s overlap. And they were all priced at $10 each, ‘cuz we’re overpriced.

We created LuXe Bistro, a French bistro in a restored historic building in St. Helena that was supposed to be elegant, but definitely still a bistro, not fine dining. Over all, I think our desserts turned out rather well to match our concept. I liked how all of them tasted, even though there were a couple plating quirks. We practiced making a couple of them in advance, but some of them were made for the first time on the day of service (we had the day before to prep, too), and all were completely plated for the first time on the day of.

Half the class plated while half the class served, and then we switched. Service was the hardest, or at least, the most awkward part for me. I know I don’t feel comfortable being waited on at restaurants, so I wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible, but even simple things like putting down knives and forks, and picking up finished plates, and carrying plates of slide-y food, became subjects for impromptu strategy. It was just so weird to stand behind/next to someone and orchestrate what’s going on in front of them. And then to kind of watch them, but not watch them, to see when they’re done felt weird, too.

Anyway, here’s what we made…

De-Luxe Candy Bar - Mixed Nuts, Caramel, Chocolate Sauce, and Cognac Cream.

This recipe was straight out of Sunday Suppers at Lucques for the most part, but it doesn’t quite feel like their’s because it didn’t turn out to be the “chewy, gooey delight” described… Instead, once the gooey caramel began to cool down, it crystallized into a praline-like consistency… Hard, yet crumbly and barely moist. This happened on the prep day, and I was prepared to try again immediately until people started trying it… and really, really liked it. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t cut cleanly the next day because it had hardened a little more, so I made it again… and it crystallized again.

Anyone who’s made caramel knows that crystallization is the enemy and is usually the result of stirring or not brushing down the sides with water. Since I’d made caramel successfully before many times, I was afraid I’d drastically lost my touch, but we seemed to determine that there wasn’t enough dairy in the caramel for it to maintain its gooeyness. It was praline-like when we used 3/4 c cream and very gooey when we used 1 c cream, so somewhere in between there must be an amount that yields a toothsome chewy caramel for that recipe.

Also, I liked using whole nuts in this — I think it makes it more elegant than chopped. Maybe brazil nuts would fit in, too. And I used Flo Braker’s short dough, which tastes so good and vanilla-y. I didn’t like the cognac in the cream, though — it was a little too astringent, so it probably should have been made sweeter or left out altogether.  And the tart was assembled in a long narrow rectangular mold without a bottom, so it could just be cut into candy bar size.
As far as plating goes, this was one was difficult, because I think what this really wants to be is either an individual tartlet in a narrow mold (maybe a barquette) or a flat-out candy bar — as Chad said when I brought him extra slices: “If you coated this in chocolate and put it in a wrapper, you’d make a lot of money.” Either way, it should be eaten with your hands, but that was slightly controversial for a “deluxe bistro,” so we served it with chocolate drizzled on top and cognac whipped cream. The feedback we got was confused about how it was supposed to be eaten, and that’s understandable.

Marquise au Chocolate Noir - Pistachios, Chocolate Raspberries & Zinfandel Raspberry Coulis.

I got the idea for this out of the Bouchon cookbook. I stuffed the raspberries with chocolate, like at The City Bakery, but first the chocolate was too hard from being refrigerated and then melty from being left on the table. I also couldn’t get the sauce to really taste like Zinfandel with what I had, so that was too bad. We were told that the plating was too busy.

Petit Gateau Basque - Local Peaches, Apricot Cream, & Whipped Creme Fraiche.

We have a really great recipe for Gateau Basque at school (even though it’s barely like the ones I’ve had in Basque country), and this was likewise fantastic — moist, creamy, fruit. The cake is quite buttery and almost molten, which somehow gives it a slight almond flavor for me.  Since peaches and apricots go so well with almonds, they were a perfect choice. They were baked in little hollow molds.  My partner did an amazing job with this.

Fraises at Fromage Napoleon - Tarragon Macerated Strawberries, Mascarpone & Goat Cheese.

This was put together from a couple recipes in The Last Course, and I liked it a lot, though it’s not for everyone. The strongest flavors were goat cheese, orange, tarragon, and strawberries, which works for me. The strawberries were very wet, though; they probably should have been cut in bigger pieces and macerated for a shorter time. We included chopped tarragon at the last minute, but turns out that some people found the leaves annoying, like blades of grass. Oops.

Passionfruit Souffle Glace with House-Made Raspberry Sherbert & White Chocolate Sauce.

A souffle glace is made out of a sabayon that has meringue and whipped cream folded into it, and that is then frozen. For some reason, ours didn’t freeze completely, but it was still pretty good. We put the sauce on top of the souffle glace, which gave it a nice finish, but I think it blended in too much to the souffle glace.  I like the flavor combination of white chocolate and passion fruit.

And thanks to M for taking these photos!

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