1. Over the break, I worked on my senior project by tackling a form of cooking I've never truly been comfortable with: baking. Originally I had plans to bake with three friends, one of whom has been baking for three years. We were going to bake tons of pies on December 23rd, but they all ended up getting sick that day. I was sad that my plans were cancelled, but then I decided to do them on my own. I chronicle my work on these three pies in the post Happy Holidays! I also did a lot of cooking (mostly breakfast), eating, and even caught up on my research check! Sadly, the lace I do my mentorship at was completely closed, so I didn't get any hours there. However, I feel the amount of work I did do over break was an excellent amount.
2. I feel the most important thing I learned over break was that I am capable of baking on my own. Spending a day baking pies really helped show me that it's not much different from cooking, except that there are some things in which only the recipe will work. Like any recipe, all the ones I used had variables. In the case of baking, however, variables are different from regular cooking; this was broken down further when I read the Batter section of the Mike Ruhlman book Ratio. When baking, you have to use a certain ratio to create any dough or batter. When creating the fillings to the pies, it was obvious how important the amount of cornstarch and sugar cooked would completely determine the consistency of both the lemon meringue and chocolate pies. The variables, however, were the flavorings. I don't think the pies would have been hurt much if I added more lemon zest or cocoa powder; the chocolate pie didn't suffer anything flavor-wise, or even consistency-wise, once I added the coconut (though the texture was very weird). These types of additives, unless specifically a thinner or thickener, can be changed. To make this evident, the instructions for both the chocolate pie and lemon filling were extremely similar; the only big difference was one used lemon juice and zest while the other used cocoa powder. Though it wouldn't be smart if I changed how much cornstarch was used, If i switched out the lemon with chocolate, I would probably have a decent chocolate filling on my hands.
3. I think I would like to talk to either the owner of the restaurant I do my mentorship at, or a man my dad is friends with. I'd want to talk to the owner of the Avocado House because almost everything we cook there is a recipe she personally created and fine tuned the recipe for; she had to find a way to make a recipe that retained flavor and was also consistent. However, I'd most like to talk to my dad's friend. Though his name escapes me, this man used to work in a Beverely Hills restaurant. He was a head chef, which meant he created new recipes and had to experiment to get them. According to my father, his friend rose up to this position, starting as a busboy and dishwasher, slowly working up to cook. The only reason he no longer is a head chef is because he now manages a restaurant himself.
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