"Good Morning Chefs! Its bread making day!"

Is there anything better than baking fresh bread, danishes, and croissants in the morning. NO, is the answer to that question. What did I carry in my bread basket through the streets of London on Friday you might ask? Croissants, pain au chocolate, pear danish, apricot danish, brioche, walnut bread, chocolate croissant, chocolate brioche, OH MY! I received many a 'come hither' look from passers by and passengers on the tube. Giada De Laurentiis once said in an interview, "I gained 30 lbs while in culinary school, because they send you home with a big box of croissants and I had no problem eating each and everyone of those croissants". Needless to say, I can relate. Although I have not gained anything yet, the increasing volume of butter that I am introduced to each day is inevitably going to catch up to me or friends, who have been benefiting from this culinary adventure of mine. 

I must have given my brioche dough enough "passion" on Thursday, because it turned out "lovely". In the afternoon we had a class on candy making...can you get more fat and sugar into one day? One of our English chefs taught this class and his grandmother was a chocolatier, a very well known one I might add. It blows my mind sometimes that I am getting to learn from these great talents in the culinary arts world. I hear things so casually (not arrogant at all) like "oh yeah when I was cooking for Madonna" or "the Queen Mother's cake was covered in my hand-painted chocolate paintings of all the castles" or "yeah I make desserts for some very high-end clients, but I have very strict contracts with them, so I can't divulge who they are, they like to keep it private"....I always try not to seem like a star struck girl, who just desperately wants to know about the famous person, so I simply nod my head and say something like "oh yeah, wow, that must have been a great experience" or "yeah, I bet celebrities can be pretty demanding sometimes". 

The candy was fabulous. We learned things like nougat with mixed nuts and honey, fluer de sel caramel, and fruit jelly rolled in sugar. What a sweet way to start my weekend!