The French Poppy Bakeshop

'So why 'The French Poppy Bakeshop'?'

2009-01-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I'm so delighted that this site has reached so many of my friends and family! The two things people keep asking me are, 'Why is your blog called The French Poppy Bakeshop? Where did you come up with that?' Well, there are actually a couple of reasons for the name and where I came up with it. I guess I'll explain here! Once I graduate in December, I plan on moving back to Corinth, where eventually I want to open a bakery called...you guessed it....The French Poppy Bakeshop! Until I'm able to afford opening my own place, however, I hope to do wedding cakes, birthday cakes, (any special occasion cake really!), cater small parties (bridesmaids' luncheons, baby showers, etc), out of my home. So if anyone has a special occasion coming up.....:) First things first, I'm a total francophile....I love all things French, hence why I'm going to the French Culinary Institute! I love the culture, the history, the music, and especially the language (I took 24 hours of French in college and a year in high school). But anyway, the name came from an experience I had last summer. I spent a month last summer with a chef and his wife, Eric and Madeleine Vedel, in Arles, France. Arles is a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l town in the Provencal region in the south of France. While staying there, I had the privilege to roam about the outer-lying areas, including a visit to a local beekeeper, potter, winemaker, and olive oil mill. The scenery in this part of France is absolutely breathtaking, but my absolute favorite part was the vast fields of vibrant red poppies. Poppies went on and on for miles and miles as far as the eye could see! One night while I was helping Chef Eric prepare dinner, I asked him what the French word for 'poppy' was, and he got very excited and ran out of the room! I was totally confused, but then he put on a record and explained that the song was about poppies. It was called 'Les Coquelicots.' That word is pronounced 'coke-lee-koh.' Say it! You'll probably fall in love with it the way I did!! So at that time, I decided if I ever opened a bakery, I would call it Coquelicot Patisserie. Well, when I told my family this, they looked at me with baffled expressions and couldn't, no matter how hard I tried to help them, pronounce it right three times in a row. So I decided I would translate it.....and that's how I came up with The French Poppy Bakeshop!!!

Pate a choux (pronounced pat ah shoo)'

2008-09-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

The second unit we covered in Level I was Pate a choux, which is French for 'cabbage pastry.' Gross, I know, but it doesn't actually have any cabbage in it, it's the French people's way of being tongue-in-cheek. The pastry puffs up really big in the oven and looks like little cabbages. This type of pastry includes eclairs, profiteroles, cygnes, croquembouches, and other fun little cream puff pastries. A croquembouche is the traditional French wedding cake, and though quite painful to make (READ LOTS of caramel burns!) they are really lovely and elegant. I was able to go easy on the tarts, but pate a choux is when I lost most of my self-control! The fillings in these little puffs of dough are rich and delicious, and pretty much limitless. We filled them with Bavarians, flavored pastry creams, mousselines, you name it! The thing I really love about this school is how thorough it is in our training. We really start from the most basic skills and techniques like making and rolling out a perfect tart dough and totally master them before we move on more difficult and complex tasks like a 6-tiered wedding cake with hand-crafted sugar paste flowers cascading down it. Every topic imaginable in the pastry world is covered here and taught by the best of the best. I'm truly in a utopia of sugar, butter and deliciousness. You get the point!

Tarts

2008-09-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

I promised pictures, so the next few entries are going to consist of a lot of slide shows. The album below is from Level I, section I, where we made various types of tarts. I don't think I can pick a favorite, because they were all really delicious! I'm glad that I can walk to and from school everyday...otherwise, I would probably not be able to fit through my door right now! But, hey, I have to try everything, right? Just to see how it tastes...

The Journey Begins

2008-09-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

So here I am on my first day of school at FCI. Adorable, huh? Yeah, all the girls wear earrings everyday, just so that we're distinguishable from the boys. Ha ha! Pastry school has exceeded every expectation I could imagine. I was nervous, anxious, and excited upon moving to New York, but now I love it! I have a teensy little studio in Greenwich Village, about a mile from school, so I can easily walk to and from class everyday. My four doormen LOVE me, because I have kept them well-fed since day one of school!

The Classic Pastry Arts program is divided into three levels, and in each level, we learn SO MUCH it is almost overwhelming! Right now I'm in the middle of Level II, and everyday poses a new and wonderful challenge. I'll post pictures later, but in Level I, I mastered tarts of all kinds, pate a choux (cream puff dough), puff pastry, artisanal and breakfast breads (i.e., croissants, danishes, scones, ciabatta, focaccia, yeast rolls, baguettes, etc.), and simple, classic French and American cakes, among various types of cake fillings and icings (French, Italian, and German buttercreams, mousses, Bavarians, mousselines, etc.). Since starting Level II, we've sharpened our cake-making skills, and I've advanced to making my own marzipan and fondant for covering cakes and making artful decorations to adorn these cakes. We just started tempering chocolate, so I'm looking very forward to destroying my chef jackets and making all sorts of chocolate showpieces. I'm anxious for Level III, because we will be blowing sugar and making sugar showpieces, as well as creating sugar paste flowers under the training of world-reknowned pastry chef, (THE) Ron Ben-Israel. I'll post later on all the incredibly talented and world-famous chefs I have had the pleasure and privilege of training under. Some of them you might recognize from The Food Network. More posts and pictures to come.

The purpose of this website (under the pressure of my dear sister) is to allow those who are interested to see and share in my experience and journey in pastry school and New York City. Hope you enjoy!