Pastillage

Our first foray into sugar. Pastillage is created by mixing sugar, cornstarch, gelatin and water. Then you can mold it into any shape you like. We made summer hats in class. The rose was rather tricky, but I was lucky and got mine to work with a little help from the chef.

Chef Nicolas

Chef Nicolas shows Group A how to make leaves with pulled sugar.

Masterpiece

Chef Nicolas' masterpiece in sugar. Quite talented isn't he?

Venison

Since it's game season here in France, we made our first dish - venison. It's served with quince, celery root and baby pears cooked in red wine. While it was a rather pretty dish, I didn't like the gamey taste of the meat.

Rabbit on a stick

Anyone care for a rabbit popsicle? The chef demonstrated how to debone a rabbit thigh, so he passed one around so we could get up close and personal. Note: my tongue is not actually touching the meat!

Stuffed Rabbit Thighs

Rabbit thighs are stuffed with ground veal and served with olive polenta and wilted endive.

Assembly

Our first opportunity to assemble a sugar sculpture. If you'll notice all the broken pieces at the base of the piece, you'll see what I broke. It was like a sugar competition you see on TV. My decorations broke three times before I finished. When it breaks for the first time, you're heartbroken. When it breaks for the second and third times, you sigh and work with what you have. A good learning experience on what works and what doesn't.

Finished Piece

Here is my finished piece. It certainly didn't turn out the way I pictured, but I enjoyed the process. The colors are supposed to be orange, yellow and blue. Unfortunately - and because I wasn't thinking - the blue mixed with the yellow to make green which didn't look so good. Oh well, now I know it's probably best to stick to two colors.

Peek-A-Boo

I'm playing peek-a-boo with my sugar sculpture. Since we only had one class and it was a Friday, several of us bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate. We started drinking at noon and kept going through the night. It was a good day!

Discussion

The chef discusses placement and color with Susan as she finishes her sculpture. I liked her colors the best - simply yellow and red but the results are gorgeous.