I have been doing a bucket load of baking this week making gifts for people and also doing some baking for a cafe
the house has smelt amazing , i made things like shortbread, chunky chocolate chip cookies, peanut brownies, spice and raisen cookies, butter cookies, gingerbread, coconut ice and rocky road . Everything made from scratch with great new zealand butter
http://picasaweb.google.com/tessa.shoebridge/MoreChristmasBaking2007
I entered a food and wine matching competition at the Salon Culinare 2007 ….. www.salonculinare.co.nz This is a national hosptality competition with over 1000 competitors in most aspects of the hospitality trade. This was my first live competition in over 20 years and I won a bronze medal . I was so pleased , I was competing against people from hotels like Skycity and The Hilton so it was really a big deal for me.
The vineyard was Dogpoint Vineyards
The wine I chose was Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc and to go with it I made oven baked pork cutlets with a orange vinecotto and grapefruit marmalade , served with crackling, steamed asian greens and udon noodles done with garlic bolt and julliene carrots.
Here are some photos of the show, me with my medal and my dish which is in the last part of the pictures, all the other pictures are just stuff that i thought was amazing
http://picasaweb.google.com/tessa.shoebridge/Hospitality2007
I have gone back to school and am studying to be a Pastry Chef , Im so excited about it . Course started in the beginning of October 2007 and will go for 1 year then i hope to go on to a higher level and do another years worth of study.
I have been very slack in posting so hope to rectify that over the school holidays.
I have so much to write about , so much to catch up on so bear with me as it will all steadily be updated.
I am in a very international college , the students are mainly from china but also from afew other countries as well . In my class I was the granny of the class:O)
we did a restaurant project where in groups we had to design a restaurant from the ground up, which was a lot of hard work but it was really challenging , I will be talking about that in depth further down the track.
Next semester our practical classes start which Im really looking forward to doing , I will be changing classes to the mornings from the afternoons and will have to get to know a whole new class
This year I have made 17 christmas cakes for people for christmas. I have been doing cake decorating for a hobby now for about a year now , and just loving it
So here are some of my gifts , im still learning this amazing art , some are good and some not bad but each one was made with love
All of these cakes were deep rich fruit cake with plenty of brandy and then covered in marzipan and fondant icing , everything on the cakes is edible
here is a link to the photos http://picasaweb.google.com/tessa.shoebridge/ChristmasCakes2007
Im now in a new place of employment and loving it. Im a Dessert chef for a busy buffet restaurant.
India and Singapore were amazing , lots of mixed reactions on the food front especially in India… Their definition of hot and my definition of hot were like the north and south pole, totally polar opposites.
But we muddled along mostly , on the days that we needed Comfort food , Macdonalds was a good option, isnt that terrible. But we knew that the place was clean and the food was safe and it tasted a bit like home in general.
There were so many things we were careful about , we didnt have much of anything from street vendors in India , it was a bit too risky and there wasnt alot of fresh fruit and veges we felt we could eat safely except for things we could peel like bananas and oranges.
By the time we got to Chennai(four weeks in to the trip) we were so hanging out for fresh fruit and fresh veges, we found a western style supermarket in a great air conditioned mall and bought some fresh fruit there. Things like figs, melon, guavas and persimons , we took them back to the Hotel and sterilised them in vodka for about 10 minutes then washed with mineral water and it was just wonderful.
This was the first time I had ever tried Persimons …… oh my goodness they were exquisite , they were so worth getting red dyed fingers and lips for. The Guavas were different tasting from what we have here and they were not ripe so didnt enjoy them as much as we would have liked.
By the time we came home there were 3 things that I absolutly craved beyond belief , they were in this order Lettuce, tap water , and beef. We only saw one leaf of lettuce all t he time we were away and that was as a garnish. Lettuce has now become one of my favourite favourite veges, i cant get enough of the stuff.
With India being a mainly Hindu country it was illegal to kill Beef, and being on the safe side of food we tended to eat mainly vegetarian while we were there, so having some Beef when we got home was a real treat.
Anyway enough idle chatter , I will be back soon …. much sooner than last time :o) and I will be talking to you about my new wonderful hobby Sugarart ….. doing all kinds of interesting things with sugar, cakes, cupcakes and decorated biscuits/cookies.
Take care now and look forward to hearing from you soon
Tessa