My Pastry Life the last few Months

Hello to all!  First of all, I'm sorry its taken me so long to actually post something here.  It felt like the day I wrote my first entry all of a sudden things just got crazy busy here and all of a sudden I found myself to busy to even think.  Well, I'm finally all caught up and I think I have myself a little better organize now so hopefully, I will be here at least once a week liked I originally had planned. 

With that being said, so much has happened since I last been on here.  In October I had the pleasure of working an event called "Outstanding in the Field."  It was simply amazing!  It's put on by this group from California and their mission is to inform local communities around the country of value of experiencing "farm to table" eating.  They travel all around the country for 3 or 4 months stopping in different cities and hiring a chef to put on a meal literally outside.  Amazingly, the tour was coming through Oxford and my Chef/Owner was asked to put together the meal and he asked me to take care of the dessert course. 

It's a very nice meal laid out with white table cloths candles and all.  Here is a picture of the site. 

So, I was faced with my first challenge of making something elegant to keep the flow of the meal going.  Also, it had to be something that could withstand the heat but couldn't be hot nor could it be an item that required freezing.  All while maintaining true to the season.  Therefore, I decided to go with a fall spiced plum gallette with a ginger pastry cream and crystallized rosemary!  I was able to keep the pastry cream on ice until I needed them and I piped and plated everything on site.  It turned out very well. 

The following week from that we had a buyout at the restaurant for a 21st Birthday party.  If there is one thing about the south is that we have a lot of Belle's floating around and here in Oxford there is a lot money to spread too.  I must say that the girl who the party was far was a complete sweetheart.  She wanted a cake but was sure exactly what she wanted.  All she said was that she wanted it to be tiered, Tiffany Blue, and no white chocolate.  :)  So I thinking  OHHHH NO!!!  I rather have a person who knows just exactly what they want that way no one is surprised when the big day comes.  However, it is my job as a professional to deliver no matter what so I talked with her for a bit more and all of a sudden this is what popped into my head......

Thankfully, she loved it!!! 

Finally, we are moving into the holidays and I was informed that we would be putting out a special menu for new years eve.  It would be a tasting menu consisting of 8 courses all paired with wines.  I was ubber excited about this for I felt that it would give me a chance to hopefully be able to impress the diners of Oxford and give them something a little different than what I offer on the menu everyday.  The hard thing about being a pastry chef here in the south is that southern cooking is still very active around here.  So, I need to always remember to offer a classic southern dish like apple pie, or bread pudding to keep majority of the folks happy.  Fancy dishes don't always cut it around here.  But I said what the hell...it's new years lets try something new! 

So I came up with this....

It is a passion fruit charolette, with an orange/vanilla gel, champagne gelee and blood orange sorbet.  Now honestly, I didn't think it would go over well but I'm glad to say that I was wrong.  They actually like it :-) !!!  I was thrilled.

So those have been some of my bigger challenges and accomplishments for the last couple of months.  Sorry this is so long I just wanted to get you guys back caught up with what's been going on.  I hope you find this as interesting to read as I found it to type.  Let me know what you guys think I would love the feed back. 

So until next time......


A Southern Pastry Chef