More chocolates! Pretty amazing ones too :-)

We had Chef Jean-Marie Auboine in this week - you can find out more about him at these two web pages:

- http://www.greatchefs.com/great-chefs/jean-marie-auboine/
- http://www.jmauboine.blogspot.com/

Let's just say that he is, in this field, EXTREMELY well known, and very very accomplished.

So, he spent this week, from Monday to Saturday, with all of us pastry/chocolate-newbies at the Academy of Pastry Arts. We also had several outsiders, some of whom are also chefs (local, as well as from Singapore and Australia), attending. The first three days of the week was focused on doing chocolate sculptures, and the next three days of the week we focused on making close to 30 different types of chocolate ganaches, pate de fruit, and caramels, and, on top of that, marshmallow and nougat! And once the ganaches and caramels were ready they were cut into squares, and then put through a 'chocolate enrobing' machine, which basically covered the ganaches and caramels in a nicely tempered layer of chocolate. Then each chocolate was decorated, arranged for display, and displayed!!! A very busy and industrious week.

It would take too long to try and describe everything we did, so instead I am going to show you pictures of all the completed items.

Let's start with the sculptures/showpieces first:

- An elegant lady!

- Flowers!

- A rather large and scary scorpion!

- I'm sure you've seen this sculpture in wood, stone, etc, many times. Now you are seeing it in pure 100% CHOCOLATE!!

- I think this is the Egyptian god (or is it goddess? or just a cat?), BAST

- And here we have Anubis!

- A robot mickey? I know this type of toy has a specific name, but I cannot remember what it is at all! Sorry.....

- This looks like the Venus de Milo, in chocolate, but WITH both her arms!

- This is my favourite - a musician!

- A pair of frogs, perched on a ...???

And, now that you've seen the sculptures, let's get to the EDIBLE STUFF.... SOME of the ganaches we made these last three days, are.... vanilla, lemon, earl grey, hazelnut praline, almond praline, coriander praline (my favourite flavour!), honey saffron, mojito, coffee caramel, coffee... and for the pate de fruits we made banana rum, lemon, kalamansi, cassis, and raspberry... and, of course, not forgetting the nougat (chocolate, as well as original, flavour), and last, but not least, the marshmallow - vanilla and strawberry flavours.

Below is a series of 7 pictures which shows the display we set up at the end of today. Note that this is not ALL the stuff we made. Just all those we had space to display :-)... and, of course, the marshmallows, the nougat, and some of the pate de fruit are there too... enjoy, and try not to drool over your keyboards :-D.

Drooling yet?

Till next time, have a great day, every day!