Week 2: Team work is the best work, especially in the kitchen.

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Morning glory muffins ready to bake.

How my week started: Morning Glory muffins deliciously filled with finely diced pineapple, apple, grated carrot, spices and more yummy things…

Fresh baked puffed pastry

How week 2 wrapped up: fresh baked puff pastry on a sunny day.

I feel like every experience I have had to date has prepared me for this pastry school experience. From high school foods class, to personal home baking experiences (and failures), chemistry, biology, math classes, and art too. These are all some of foundational skills of a Chef. But the lesson and skill to understand and know (that I think is one of the most important) to survive in a kitchen is about team work. Continue reading →

Week 1: Passion with a capital P (and cookies galore)!

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Well, it’s been one whole week, and it’s the night before my second week of full-time pastry school. I realized very quickly into the week that I won’t be blogging nightly, well, at least not in the first couple weeks because there is a lot to adjust to and take in, but I’m finding my rhythm already.

The first day will forever be tattooed in my brain because it was an anxious morning for me to arrive on time and settle in. But within no time at all, I felt completely in the right place, in a room full of like-minded people – there for the same reasons. I am very grateful to have this amazing opportunity/experience and it was an emotion filled day for me.

On a side note: I received an email from my Twitter account recently, congratulating me on 5 years of tweeting @beyondthedough. The account started when I began this blog, which means I have been blogging here for 5 years. I find it a wonderful coincidence that this anniversary falls on the same week as my first week of pastry school. A good sign.

Back to first week: the first morning in school consisted of checking in, receiving our uniforms, toolkits, getting a locker in the change room, finding our stations, and meeting everyone. Here I am below in my uniform, at the end of Day 2, notice my name is embroidered on the jacket – TOTALLY AWESOME!

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The Night Before Pastry School

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Shoes, back pack, textbook, ready to roll! Pastry school here I come!

Shoes, back pack, textbook, ready to roll! Pastry school here I come!

My bag is packed and my lunch is ready! I’m supposed to check in tomorrow morning at 8am to receive my toolkit and uniform, before class starts at 9am. I am looking forward to receiving my chef jacket most, as my name will be on it! This will be what we wear everyday for the program. We have to bring a calculator, notebook, pen, ruler, and lock (for our locker).

We also have to bring our own shoes – black, non-slip, no-scuff. I found mine the other week after searching several stores and trying on many pairs of shoes (looking for the right fit and comfort). I am pleased to share that Birkenstocks won, found at The Right Shoe in Vancouver. I can’t wait to break these puppies in! Continue reading →

Knife Skills 101 with Chef Kelly Schoultz

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A few months ago some friends and I realized we shared an interest in gaining better knife skills in the kitchen. Another friend is a trained chef, Kelly Schoultz, and offered to lead a knife skills class for us based out of one friend’s home. The class was arranged over this past weekend, one day. It was a fun and educational event with friends, learning to chop vegetables and fruit more efficiently than ever before – knife skills 101.

Kelly is a true whiz in the kitchen! She is full of energy, super friendly and a great teacher. We were all impressed with her speed and precision.

We were instructed to bring our own knives from our kitchens, a cutting board, and some containers to bring food home in. She provided a handout too with information about basic knife skills.

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Fun with Fats at Olives on Tap

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While working through this elimination diet for another week, fats have truly become my friend. From nuts to nut butters, to oils of different kinds. There are so many good healthy fats available to enjoy, rounding out the nutrition of any meal. I enjoy a good olive oil – especially ones fused with flavours.

Eating without dairy means no butter on popcorn for a snack. But fortunately I’ve found an awesome replacement at OLIVES ON TAP, in North Vancouver: Butter Olive Oil. I know what you may be thinking, “why would you infuse oil with another fat?”. Well first, it is actually a vegan olive oil. Apparently the supplier has a magical potion of plant extracts that simulate the butter flavour. Bingo, it’s like butter. It is actually easier to use than real butter because there is no melting and heating, you just drizzle to your hearts content. Sweet goodness of butter olive oil. Then sprinkle on your favourite salt to taste. A nice healthy snack.
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Elimination Diet + Vegan Carrot Cake

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A couple weeks ago we started an elimination diet, after reading about it on the MindBodyGreen website. This wasn’t the first time we’d read about eliminating gluten and/or dairy for health benefits, but you never really know how your body will react until you try it. Basically it’s to test for allergies.

So, for the first time in my life, I have been cutting out gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, alcohol and fast food. There is just over a week to go, then we reintroduce foods back in to our diet one at a time, and listen to your body to see how it reacts. If you don’t feel good after returning to gluten or soy, for example, then you may have a sensitivity.

If you love butter, bread, and ice cream as much as I do, then you can appreciate how much of a challenge it is. What the heck do you eat with these limitations?! A lot. Forced to think outside my food comfort zone, and try more things that I don’t normally eat, it has actually been very interesting. I am hungry more often, and never feel too full really. I find that I am eating almost every three hours and feel like I have more energy too. This was after the initial cranky-phase!

Knowing that pastry school is just around the corner I am praying I don’t have any serious affinities for any of these ingredients, but maybe that will mean I become an alternative-baker. I think I’ll be ok though.

But one of the things I miss most over this past couple of weeks is desserts. Fortunately there are a TON of gluten-free and vegan baking sites.

Oh She Glows is one of them, with an amazing carrot loaf recipe. I just tried it out last night. You would hardly know the difference, and it is chalk full of good ingredients. [CORRECTION: since this post originally was written, we’ve eaten loaf and it tasted AMAZING – moist and packed with flavour. But then we learned the hard way, that spelt flour actually does have gluten in it. My boyfriend had a reaction to the loaf – confirming our guess that he is actually allergic to gluten. So instead of using spelt flour I’m going to try the gluten-free all purpose flour by Bob’s Red Mill next time].

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Let the career switch-up begin!

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This is my last week of work in an office for who knows how long… After working in the field of communications since I graduated university, I am now embarking on a journey I have wanted to do since the beginning of time, it seems. I will be attending the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver beginning at the end of this month, for a full-time intensive four month program all about baking / bread and pastry.

It is exciting and thrilling for me, and sometimes scary too when I realize it is going to be completely different than what I am used to. From high heels to clogs, from business clothes to a chef jacket and uniform, for example. ….actually, who am I kidding, that sounds great! Though, I still have find shoes before school starts. Stay tuned for that adventure in another post.

But first, I am going to enjoy the next two weeks off and charge myself up for school to begin at the end of the month. I can’t believe it is now days away!

I timed it well to have my new contact cards arrived this week too, helping mark this transition time. Can’t wait to give these babies away! Thanks to my designer friend Maia Rowan for the fabulous design.

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Today was also my last day in the office with the full team, so they surprised me with beautiful flowers and a farewell card. It was lovely, and they smell as beautiful as they look. You know who you are, thank you!

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On my way home yesterday from work, I had this wave of excitement come over me. I felt like I was 17 again, leaving for university to start school in Vancouver with a world of opportunity ahead of me….again!

Many people have been asking me what I will do after school and the answer is that I don’t know yet. I have some ideas of where I would like to work, but I am first going to focus on school and see what I learn. I am sure I will be better at some things than others, and that is what I am excited about right now. I have never make a croissant from scratch before and can’t wait to learn how the pros do it!

One day of work left, the friday of all office-fridays. Awesome.

A cocao bean story and my night at Winnowing Wednesday with @EastVanRoasters

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Tonight I went to Winnow Wednesday at EastVanRoasters. It was a great foodie experience all about chocolate and helping a social enterprise at the same time. I discovered this event via a @ScoutMagazine Tweet:

And later read Mia Stainsby’s review of the shop in her Vancouver Sun article.

I signed up instantly.

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Pastry School Here I Come!

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It’s official: I am going to pastry school this year!

Before you read further, I’ll warn you, this particular post is a long one and shares how I came to this recent career decision. It all started somewhere around the time of this photo:

Jeanette LeBlanc helping bake in Terrace, BC, at the approximate age of 3 or 4.

Jeanette LeBlanc helping bake in Terrace, BC, at the approximate age of 3 or 4.

Well, I won’t go that far back, but there are many moments in my life that contributed to this pastry school decision. I’ll fast forward to 2014 and confirm that I’m still as excited as I was as a kid to be in the kitchen.

So, switching gears in my career from communications to enter the kitchen professionally may seem like an easy decision. It’s a big decision, but, an easy one. Continue reading →

Be Mine Valentine cake in a jar!

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Valentine’s Day is coming! Another holiday full of love and chocolate, my favourites. So, I wanted to try something simple, sweet and fun using recipes i’m already familiar with, and that are easy.

I also wanted it to be portable, so I decided to bake the cake in mason jars. This is a great way to travel with cake, because you can ice it and seal it with a lid. Then take it where you need to go, serve it up and eat it straight out of the jar! It’s really fun to see people enjoy eating cake in a jar. Continue reading →