Day
2
Friday Morning, March 28, 2003
After breakfast and sharing menus from
the previous night’s dinners, the chefs donned their
whites and went to work in the teaching kitchen, beginning
preparations for their individual dessert presentations on
Saturday. Students and faculty were on hand to help the chefs
acclimate to a new environment, and assist with prep work
wherever they could. There was a buzz of happiness as the
chefs dove into familiar work and talked shop among themselves.
Too soon, it was time to clean the work stations and assemble
in the Ecolab Theater for the start of the presentation on
coffee and tea from Erika Masuda, pastry chef at the Omni
Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago.
Erika began by stating that in the past,
American coffee has been devoid of flavor and was used mostly
as a stimulus, with little thought to its quality. But, with
an increasing gastronomic interest, coffee and teas have
become beverages consumed for their flavors, not just their
caffeine. The source, how it is grown, and the processing
have become more important as Americans have learned what
they contribute to the flavor of each beverage. In the Mediterranean,
these factors have long been appreciated, and coffee has
been used not only as a stimulant, but also as a medicine.
She believes coffee and tea have great potential in desserts
because they are very aromatic, though she warned that any
aromatics should be used lightly, to enhance other flavors
while playing a background role.
She noted that the Mediterranean is rich
with aromatics, for “they almost bathe in them.” Coffee
and tea, especially, can be used to provide a subtle undertone,
leaving a perfume in the mouth, rather than a strong aftertaste.
She encouraged the chefs to strive for subtlety, to introduce
their clientele to the idea that complex aromas can be as
pleasurable as well-balanced flavors in a dessert. To underscore
her assertion, she presented the chefs with a tasting of
candies infused with the delicate aromas of coffee and teas
that were, indeed, background notes in a lovely symphony
of aromatics and flavors. A sampling of her candies included
Quince Paste made with fruit that had been poached in jasmine
tea and vanilla, then pureed and baked in the oven; three
types of nougat - a Torrone made with honey that had been
infused with coffee beans, a Nougat Noir made with darjeeling-infused
honey, and a Berlingot, a type of Provencal taffy that she
infused with Earl Grey tea, the bergamot lending an herbaceous
undertone to the candy.
The pastry chefs then turned their attention
to Mediterranean breads as Mark Furstenberg, founder and
head baker of The BreadLine in Washington, D.C., demonstrated
a superb example of the popular Nicoise flatbread called
Socca. Referring to it as “naked food”, he stressed
the importance of using only the best ingredients, like McEvoy
extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground, organic chickpea
flour (rancid flour results in a bitter bread). As he put
the large socca pan in the oven, he described himself as “an
American baker who looks for tradition...a baker whose soul
is rooted in the Mediterranean.” He then described
the history of bread in the Mediterranean (the birthplace
of leavened bread) and the communal ovens where, traditionally,
each family brought its’ bread to be baked. These breads
were huge loaves that would feed a family for a week with
no waste, for as the loaf staled, it simply took on a different
role in the family meal (fresh, slightly staled and grilled
or toasted, then completely dried and mashed as a thickener
for soups). He theorized that the first pastries were probably
bits of bread dough fried in oil and sweetened with honey.
He
touched on the vast assortment of breads in the region, from
the everyday breads to the specialty breads, many of them
sweet, made for rituals and celebrations. He discussed the
history of bread baking in America and spoke frankly about
the artisanal movement and the reality of running a bread
bakery. The problem, he said, was in assuming that everyone
wanted traditional, full-flavored western European breads,
when, in fact, there is no history of this kind of bread
in America. Certainly these breads have a dedicated following,
and he is content to serve those people well, but the truth
is that, “we thought Americans would embrace these
breads, but we were wrong, because most people don’t
want to go to another store to buy bread.” And what
about all those lusciously flavored breads, like walnut or
fig and anise? The most popular breads in his bakery are
the baguette and ciabatta, both simple white breads that
can be paired with virtually any meal. In the end, he stressed,
you bake because you have a passion for it, and it is important
to appreciate those who support what you do, rather than
worrying about those who buy their bread from the supermarket
bakery. He was cheered with a round of applause.
