Week 14: Charcuterie and Garde Manger | Baking Bread

This week, we had our FINAL prep day!

Here is our plan from prep day. We had more details depending on who had which item and what they planned on doing. Sadly we couldn't do the cutting because the berries would go bad!

It was one of the craziest days yet, which Chef had warned us about. Although desserts seem sweet, they're actually evil (dessert puns). My biggest aha! moment today was that even if you're making a dessert filling, you CANNOT cut up berries or fresh produce a few days ahead of time!

Pic 1: Brett carefully measures out ingredients for event day. Although we couldn't do everything today, we tried to prep as much as possible! This was part of our kit prep.
Pic 2: The sad berries that we cut up. Luckily, we were able to give these to another group who needed them so as not to waste! We learned our lesson.

You can only do this with sauces or things where you're not keeping some of the berries whole. We learned our lesson though, and the rest of prep day went relatively smoothly! Lots of other groups seemed to be doing well too, however we did notice that today was the day of the most mistakes. Yikes!

 Pic 1: The other groups calmly panicking about the event. These guys did a great job with crepes. They couldn't prep much, but they got all ingredients together!
Pic 2: The beautiful creme brulee! This is one of my favorite desserts. They got them all ready and refrigerated today so that they can heat them the day of!

Our second day was THE SWEET ENDINGS EVENT! It was as crazy as ever, with just a hint of panic. Since we couldn't prepare anything but the crust on prep day, we had a MULTITUDE of items to get done today.

 Pic 1: Our summer table and decorations! We tried to incorporate the beach theme throughout. This was cute and brought people to our table!
Pic 2: Brett is sporting one of our summer outfits. We still tried to be appropriate for the kitchen, but wanted to give a fun vibe. What is ironic is that is was snowing the day before.

We managed to finish it all though, and we got pretty good feedback on our pies!

 Pic 1: Our restaurant was called "Life of Pie" (puns!). We used a refrigerated tin to keep the pies cold the whole time. People loved the strawberries hidden in the sign and table!
Pic 2: Our drink was a hit! We made a homemade blueberry simple syrup. Then we added ice, a blueberry, sparkling water, and a slice of kiwi!

The aha! moment happened when looking at other tables. For the desserts, one table even had an ice cream stand; this idea of a welcoming atmosphere truly drew people to their table and even made me want to come over!

This group had a cute idea with creating little swans! They were not too difficult to put together, and the guests loved them! The group got best presentation.

This week, I couldn't help but think about our weeks cutting vegetables. When we cut up our veggies for stock, it was okay to wait a few days in between using them. Fruit is completely different, however. It will go bad after being cut EXTREMELY QUICKLY, so you have to be careful and plan ahead!