Tag: macarons

Fun Food in the Mail!

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Recently I have received some fun pieces of mail, more than your average spam of  grocery store flyers. Since I like to share all things beyond the dough, I had to share:

Macarons & Makeup! French Macarons are extremely trendy right now! They certainly delicious enough to deserve that title, and I hope they stick around in a permanent way! …All pastry chefs that I have met this year, have raved about them.  The little tasty light morsels, that melt in your mouth, can be seen in infinite colours and flavour pairs. I’ve seen them on hit TV series such as Gossip Girl served at a cocktail party dessert display, and they are frequently in wedding magazines as a new favour – with French flavour! Recently I received a Clinique makeup promo flyer, and usually it falls in the pile with the rest of my spam…. but this piece caught my attention more than usual.

Where have you seen macarons lately??

Macarons and makeup

Macarons and makeup - by Clinique

Italian Kitchen’s Extraordinary Customer Service! Not too long ago I dinned at Italian Kitchen downtown on Alberni Street. The food was great – I love their Bruschetta –  the wine list was wonderful and the service was delivered with a smile. It was actually a short dining experience, followed by some window shopping, but not so short that I didn’t feel well taken care of.  When the bill arrived with customer service cards, I decided to fill one out.  Usually this leads to your name being added to a mailing list, you might get a birthday month promotion generically addressed to the “residents” of your mailing address.  I still felt like my server, Alistair, deserved positive feedback. So often customer service is only used to share complaints, but I like to give credit where credit is due.

A week later I received this in the mail. At first, I assumed it was a simple “welcome to our mailing list” card.

Thank you card

A simple note of thanks...goes a long way!

But I misjudged, I smiled when I opened the mail, to read a hand written thank you note personalized from my server! My earlier instincts of great customer service were spot on: Italian Kitchen knows how to treat their guests.

For this, I will return Italian Kitchen, thank you and keep it up! So the next time you dine out, take the time to give some feedback in your fast paced routine – a hand written note means a lot and really it can only serve the customer better in the end..

Hand written note of thanks

A hand written note of thanks.

PC Confections opening soon by Paul Croteau

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Paul and team prepping the tasting plates.

Paul and team prepping the tasting plates.

Not too long ago, I sat down to a Refuel table with some fellow Vancouver food bloggers, where two small plates of decadent sweets – also known as mignardises – were presented to us.

The sweets are the work of Paul Croteau, a pastry chef at Refuel, who also runs the pastry program at Campagnolo Restaurant, which is the production kitchen for Paul’s debut high-end confectionery, PC Confections.

PC Confections

PC Confections, first plate.

My inner child was forced to hold back from devouring all the sweets in one continuous motion as Paul began the tour, complete with his Quebec French accent and bits of broken English.

“Our main confection is the macaron, we have seven flavours right now, and we’re going to have more” he began. With, “a sweet breakfast this morning… [your] front plate from left to right, it’s a good balance, it will not destroy your palate”

The first, a passion fruit jelly, he explained how it was made and as we tasted the first light jelly bite silence found room along with several

smiles. “The passion fruit is very bright, you can see the flavour go through all the sugar. Next is the raspberry jelly. It tastes more like a jam… but its pretty good. They come together in the packaging, nice accompaniment to each.”

Paul Croteau

Paul Croteau leading the tasting tour of his work.

Nougat was next, “basically egg white with cooked honey and then we add cooked sugar. …it’s hard and soft in texture, with hazelnut, almond, pistachio, cocoa nibs, and covered with chocolate.…to protect the nougat”

Onward to the almond Florentine square – served untraditionally on a sweet dough with a subtle candied grapefruit flavour. He said, “I think it’s my favourite!”

Crackles of parchment unwrapping in the room revealed next, “The little candy is a soft salted caramel, like a caramel but very very soft and very buttery. It’s almost same amount of sugar and butter. And we add cream a little bit. It’s salty a little bit, so it comes through very nice”

We finished the first plate with the grignotines, “…hazelnut caramelized, with salt, and then covered with chocolate, and finished with cocoa powder. It’s very nice when you watch a movie you can eat them instead of popcorn, I like to do that – sometimes.” He smiled and we laughed.

Paul's Macarons

Paul's Macarons

My sugar buzz began to peak, but I forged on with pleasure to the next plate of macarons – French almond meringue sandwich cookies with seasonal flavoured ganache fillings. From vanilla

pistachio, to salted caramel, to chocolate, the light heaven bites of macaron crumble at first in your mouth and then simply melt away. “The

finish should always have a nice sheen to it, and be soft inside with a light crumbly soft texture outside. That’s the sign of a good quality macaron,” he said and I believe him because he makes up to 1000 of them each week!

PC Confection Macarons

PC Confection Macarons, plate two.

What makes Macarons so tricky? Pretty much everything. First the egg whites need to be a little bit old. It’s easier to whisk a good strong meringue. Then, this technique…the temperature of the oven, how long you have to cook them, and then the packaging [or they break]. …So it’s a long process.

Why are they more popular out west now? They are so popular in Paris.  In New York they started maybe 5 years ago, in Montréal started maybe two to three years ago. Everyone loves macarons. They are delicate, very nice texture and flavour of it. I hope that in Vancouver we are going to have the same trend.

PC Confections packaging

PC Confections packaging

What is your favourite macaron? The caramel one. I love doing the ganache but its too sweet for me. Yesterday I was cutting [almond] Florentines in the squares and I ate all the edges; and as I was wrapping the caramels, I ate a few of them too! So I go for run too.

A sweet guy with a sweet job, check out Paul Croteau’s PC Confections coming soon to 1020 Main Street.

PaulCroteau1

Paul Croteau, photo credit: PC Confections

Perfect Preview to PC Confections

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All of these things is not like the other, but I assure you they all belong… Individually they each have their own flavour, and it was an amazing way to start my day this past Thursday. This is a preview post, of how I recently sampled just a few of pastry chef Paul Croteau’s amazing confections for his new business: PC Confections…

Stay tuned for full story – its a sweet one!

PCConfections

Perfectly plated PC Confections for a delightful tasting session.

The Pastry School Switch-up with Amanda Goats

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Orange Tyme Curd Tart

Orange thyme curd tart ganished with fresh thyme and a plump blackberry.

I arrived in Amanda’s north shore home kitchen on a Monday afternoon and was offered, “an after school snack” that trumps all of my previous after-school snack experiences: an orange thyme curd tart. Garnished with a plump blackberry and a sprig of fresh thyme, from her herb garden – in one bite it’s amazing. I had never considered the combination of orange and thyme before, but these are the secrets you learn in the pastry world.

Now a trained Pastry Chef working in Vancouver, Amanda Goats shared her experience with me on the switch from a corporate world to pastry. Amanda grew up in small town BC, where food was the heart of family social occasions. “I have always loved baking, since I was young. My sister and I used to fight over who got to bake the birthday cakes… My mom would also bake all of her own bread. I guess it started from there”.

After working in the corporate world for a while, Amanda’s artistic side grew restless, so she signed up for pastry school. Instantly she said, “I loved pastry school. It was the most fun thing.” Her program covered all pastry and some culinary fundamentals. Despite the intense amount of detail learned in a short time, she said it was all fun including, “…black box competitions at the end [of the culinary course], iron chef style, and you don’t know what your ingredients are. It was intimidating, but really fun.”

French Macarons

A sample of her French macarons, not macaroons, I learned from Amanda the extra o is part of the difference between these and the common coconut cookie.

My after school snack slowly disappeared, and Amanda share more pastry adventures, including what her transition out of school. Fortunate to work straight out of school, she has now experienced designing menus and creative desserts. Amanda even shared an insider perspective on Dine Out Vancouver, where the menus are set with dessert, “On weekends we were doing 400 desserts per night, and I was having to make all that product.”

Is it what you expected? It’s a lot harder and grittier…than I expected. It is physically tiring, but you don’t realize it until the end of the day. It is very hard on you. …I find it comical cooking at home now because the portions are so much smaller. I had to scale my [pizza dough] recipe from work down. I usually make a double batch and I made one-quarter of a single batch here, which made four pizzas. I generally make a double batch [at work], which requires 22lbs of flour and 7.5L of water. …I am definitely a lot stronger.

 

What do you enjoy most? I like the people I work with. Working in restaurants attracts a different type of person, there is a different sense of camaraderie.

Where do you find your inspiration? I have subscribed to bon appetite for years. They are by far my favourite… Epicurious is a mainstay for recipe searches too.

Pastry Chef Amanda Goats

At home with Pastry Chef Amanda Goats

Where do you dine out? My favourite place [right now] is The District. It’s a Belgium pub and all the food is good. They do really good brunch on the weekend too. Fishworks is really good as well.

When did you start your SweetPursuits blog? Before pastry school. A lot of my coworkers and friends were interested in what I was doing.

Amanda is looking into starting her own side cake business now, “I’m excited to do this,” she said with a smile. Simply by talking to her you can tell she favours quality over quantity and has a pastry instinct that is sure to satisfy any customer’s sweet expectations.