Wednesday was swap day - from Caterina to St. Andrew's Cafe. And a very painful switch at that. About the equivalent of swimming in the kiddie pool, then getting thrown into the ocean! But this is how a real-life restaurant kitchen is, and I've experienced worse. By luck I was assigned to Pastry with Natalie, so at least I have a good station and a great partner.
It's a fairly busy station, with a lot of items to account for: 4-5 ice creams and sorbets, apple tarts with apple butter and honey thyme cream, Coach Farms goat cheesecakes with Whitecliff wine-poached pears and raspberry goat cheese, chocolate tarts with shortbread crust and dulce de leche, as well as all the desserts for each day's banquet. My favorite menu item is the Shake Sampler, which consists of three different shakes/floats, all in cute little glasses - caramel ice cream shake with chocolate sauce, a root beer float, and a shake of the day/week, which was peanut butter and jelly last week (so good!). On Monday we're doing a rhubarb sorbet float, with a dessert wine seltzer (late harvest Riesling, if we can get it...).
Banquet desserts can range from something as simple as an upscale root beer float with root beer granita to souffles. More about that later!
Overall the menu items are far more complex than those at Caterina, and the food is some of the best of any of the restaurants. Once I make it through the class, I look forward to eating here again!
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