Thread: Cake/Deserts

Originally Posted by Chefgordon

Since we're on the subject....

This is one of my favorite desserts to prepare with my students. Chocolate mousse cake covered with chocolate ganache and served with raspberry coulis and white chocolate cream. A real show stopper!

I just got a craving for Chocolate mousse cake. That looks delicious.

Cool thread! I did an apprenticeship, of sorts, back in the late 70's/ early 80's, in Classic French pastry. I worked at a chic Los Angeles restaurant that was somewhat famous in it's heyday called "Le Dome." Still there today, but new owners, menu, chefs, not quite the same place, or so I'm told. Haven't been back there since I left in 1981, or thereabouts.

The guy who taught me was a protege of Jean-Claude Bertenou (sp?) of the old Los Angeles French restaurant "L'Ermitage." My teacher was subsequently sent to study French pastry in France for one year with the famous French Pastry Chef Michele Richard. I was taught pretty much everything he learned. Or at least everything that was produced at Le Dome.

I learned everything you would ever need to know about making Feuilletage (Millfeuille or "Puff") pastry from scratch, and made the stuff in quantity almost daily (I was once told by one of the French chefs, actually the Sous Chef, that my puff pastry rose higher that any he'd ever seen! And the French hot line guys hated me! or at least resented me), Pastry creams, Creme Anglaise, French fruit tarts, Souffle, chocolate mousse, Classic Apple "Tarte Tatin" supposedly using the recipe and method adopted by Maxims in Paris... on and on.

It was a blast, but very hard, stressful, and HOT work (imagine standing in front of a couple of flat tops and about a dozen flaming burners for a solid 20-30 minutes constantly whipping a lemon cream to prevent it from curdling as it cooks. I had forearms like Popeye back then). I kept a lot of the methods and ingredients written down and still have them today. Once in a while I will still make something. But only if I plan on eating most of it (which is not so much anymore) since most people I know these days are afraid of the calories!

After leaving Le Dome, I worked for a time at the main bakery of the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City (Los Angeles), and then did a short stint in Santa Monica as Pastry Chef at a small French Vegetarian restaurant now defunct (their moto was, "Where the elite meatless meet to eat.")

Originally Posted by Theseus

Anything added to the brownie's? Perhaps something of an herbal nature?

I'm sure something like cinnamon, espresso coffee, vanilla, allspice, clove, almond extract...I could go on and on...

Originally Posted by Theseus

Anything added to the brownie's? Perhaps something of an herbal nature?

No, nothing added. And, based on my understanding, that wouldn't work with boxed brownies anyway. I seem to recall hearing something about butter...

Anyway, I made a batch two nights ago. Ate half that night and half the next day. That should hold off future cravings for a little bit.

Been a little rushed latley but had some free time last weekend to do some baking... Here are the results of my efforts:



Raspberry cheesecake (massive shame it split but still tasted ace)



I call this my messy cake. Lasted about 30 mins between me and 3 others

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

No, nothing added. And, based on my understanding, that wouldn't work with boxed brownies anyway. I seem to recall hearing something about butter...

Boxed Brownie Mixes must have been manufactured very differently back in the late 60’s and the 70’s!!

‘Optional’ herbal additives worked great!! Hell as I remember they were ‘killer’!!

When I was a young buck out running around smoking the herb the adults all told me that it was going to do something to my memory - - but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was supposed to do!!

i have an unfair advantage at this because i do this for a living. one recent christmas season we were told that there might not be any red berries available to make fruit tarts so i walked around the produce dept thinking, and this is what i came up with. the pear on top is poached in a vanilla syrup.

Very nice! Love poached pears. I've attached a couple of images of competition pieces where pear was the ingredient. Pears poached in port with passion fruit and raspberry mousses. The second image with the chocolate mousse cake had a pear gelato and poached cherries along side.

plated desserts was my least favorite course in pastry school, and i had martha crawford for an instructor, Queen of the plated dessert. i'd rather make a yummy coffee cake than freak out trying to make something out of a bo friberg book. hippen paste....ewwwww.

Instructors and processes can be tough but at the end of the day it's what you love doing the best that counts the most. These are fun pieces but one of my favorite, simple desserts is pecan pie!

Are you still in the business or did you come to your senses and get a 9 to 5 job?