Day Two: Saturday 2nd July 2005
Another Day
Another busy day today- I was assigned to help on the pastry section in the prep. Kitchen. Surprisingly, this meant more preparation of vegetables. I helped to prepare butternut ice-cream, chocolate sorbet and parsnip milk & flakes. The butternut squash iced cream is a good one. After all, if you can have pumpkin pie as a sweet, why not have an ice-cream also made from a squash. The squash is pureed and added to a basic custard, using milk powder, instead of fresh milk, to help stabilise the mix. I wonder if you could try this with swede, pumpkin and other kinds of squash or subtle vegetables?
The parsnip milk and flakes, is an incredibly fascinating idea and probably only one Heston could think of! Baby parsnips are peeled and very thinly sliced, before being soaked in a sugar stock; drained and then carefully laid out on a baking sheet covered with greased proof paper. These slices are then slowly dried in an electric dehydrator, but I should think that you could use a very low oven. The flakes are then added to a parsnip infused milk. This course becomes a variation of breakfast cereal on the degustation/ taster menu.
Today, I was asked to go up stairs to the ‘lab’, to find a ruler and humbly entered Heston’s own kitchen. The lab is the same room I had seen from a distance through the window yesterday. Heston’s domain was, just as I had imagined it. Full of complicated looking apparatus and equipment. Everything was immaculately clean and nothing was left put of place. There was what seemed to be a huge microscope in one corner and several other large pieces of equipment. I sneaked around quickly as I looked for the ruler, like a young child trespassing before they get caught. As I left the laboratory, I noticed a large book case, by the door, which included Heston’s own book and a large hardback entitled, ‘Flavourings’.
The parsnip milk and flakes, is an incredibly fascinating idea and probably only one Heston could think of! Baby parsnips are peeled and very thinly sliced, before being soaked in a sugar stock; drained and then carefully laid out on a baking sheet covered with greased proof paper. These slices are then slowly dried in an electric dehydrator, but I should think that you could use a very low oven. The flakes are then added to a parsnip infused milk. This course becomes a variation of breakfast cereal on the degustation/ taster menu.
Today, I was asked to go up stairs to the ‘lab’, to find a ruler and humbly entered Heston’s own kitchen. The lab is the same room I had seen from a distance through the window yesterday. Heston’s domain was, just as I had imagined it. Full of complicated looking apparatus and equipment. Everything was immaculately clean and nothing was left put of place. There was what seemed to be a huge microscope in one corner and several other large pieces of equipment. I sneaked around quickly as I looked for the ruler, like a young child trespassing before they get caught. As I left the laboratory, I noticed a large book case, by the door, which included Heston’s own book and a large hardback entitled, ‘Flavourings’.
No comments:
Post a Comment