Region:  China, Japan

Soup:  Hot & Sour Soup

App:  Sushi Roll with Salmon, Salmon Nigiri

Salad:  Snow Peas and Tomato Sushi

Entree:  Seared Beef Filet and Red Onion Sushi

Dessert:  Rice Pudding

Drink:  Oolong Tea

Region:  Indonesia, Thai, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Pakistan

Since John’s Mom is from Vietnam, we focused on that theme, but I did my favorite Lumpia from the Phillipines which remind me of my old roommate Cecile who’s from there and made them for me.

Soup:  Beef Pho

App:  Lumpia

Salad:  Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Entree:  Banh Xao

Dessert:  Tapioca Pearls in Coconut Cream

Drink:  Coconut Juice with grass jelly (don’t ask)

Region:  North America, Central America, Caribbean, South America

Theme:  Mexico

Soup:  Tortilla Soup

App:  Guacamole

Salad:  Caribbean Fruit Salad

Entree:  Mole Poblano (Chicken in Chocolate Sauce)

Dessert:  Vanilla Ice Cream with Mango and Chili Powder

Drink:  Coffee with Cinammon, Clove and Orange Zest

My team is myself, Justin, John and John

Region:  North and South Europe

Soup:  Acordas

App:  Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

Salad:  We mistakingly made a Caeser forgetting that it’s from Mexico and not the region we were in today.  It was hilarious

Entree:  Paella, which I did with clams, mussels, chorizo and chicken

Drink:  Sangria

Dessert:  Orange Mousse

I started my 2nd week of this class a few days ago and it’s one of the best classes.  We have Chef Franz as our instructor who was a chef for 45 years, hails from Austria and is very very experienced.  He brings a wealth of knowledge to this class and it’s an honor to have him.

This class is a bit different than others because it is up to us to decide what we want to cook each day.  The class is broken down into 5 teams, each at a different table each day.  Each table is also broken down into 5 different regions of the world.  We rotate tables everyday so that we have to cook from a different region, and we’ll do each region about 3 times.  We have to plate and present a soup, appetizer, entree, salad, drink and dessert EVERYDAY and we get to decide what our menu is going to be.

I will do a seperate post of the menu’s that we did each day.

So, my intro to baking and pastry was absolutely no knowledge of doughs or pies or anything.  But it was one class that I was extremely excited to take.  Our Chef instructor was Chef Peter, who’s also the dean of the school and very knowledgeable about all things baking.  Our class was the same group that I had Garde Manger with so we were all really enjoying ourselves and making Chef Peter a happy guy.  Our finished products were all turning out well, our breads were rising and our puff pastry dough turned out really great with all 1,000 + layers looking perfect.  This dough took us about 3 days to do because of all the laminating that occurs, which is the folding and stretching process, not applying a plastic layer around it.

Here’s some of the things I made:  Banana Cream Pie, Chocolate Tart with a technique on top to get the design called Feathering, Puff Pastries, Finished Production items for the day, and a brioche dough shaped into a sun.  We actually added Gruyere Cheese to the dough then covered it with a spicy salt blend of salt, cayenne and pepper.