Answer 1

"What is the most important skill to have to become a successful pastry chef?"


1. One must develop great stamina in order to become a successful pastry chef.


2. Evidences:

•  Pastry chefs starts working at around 3 or 4 in the morning and their work could last for a whole day. They are also always on their feet. The kitchen would not have seats or benches for chefs or anyone to sit on. "Pastry Chef | Read a Pastry Chef Job Description." All Culinary Schools - Culinary Art Schools | Get Information on Culinary Schools, Restaurant Management Schools and Careers. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://www.allculinaryschools.com/culinary-careers/guide/baking-pastry/pastry-chef-job?lob=culinary>.
• Developing your stamina also means staying fit. Exercising doesn't only build up stamina but it also keeps a chef healthy. A healthy chef will have less sick days, less stress, and can cut down all the weight from the buttery pastries. Minasian, Sarah. "Chefs Learn That Staying Fit Is Key to Stamina | Nation's Restaurant News | Find Articles." Find Articles | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. 13 Sept. 1999. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_37_33/ai_55821108/>.
• Stamina doesn't only go with having to stand around all day. It is a pain to be on your feet for several hours but it is exhausting when you are making pastries that require strenuous methods like kneading. If you are whipping cream, and your electricity outlet busts out, you're going to have to whip it fast for who knows how long. Based on personal experience.

3. I found the evidences on blurbs and articles from the internet. Also, experience is my most important resource.

Service Learning

I am taking a basic baking class and a safety and sanitation class for my service learning. My hours for my baking class sums up to have about 100 hours. We've bake all sorts of desserts in class. I'm almost done with the photo slide that i will be posting up. We've had a substitute since December so our dishes have been random and not plated. I couldn't take pictures of them also but I logged them in. For my Safety and Sanitation class, I have about 70 hours in that class. It's a class that will get a SafeServ certificate. We just took the test yesterday and I hope I get really good results since it's a piece of cake. We learned the rules and regulations to be in the food industry. My classes will end the same time first semester ends. I'm planning to do more service learning, probably take a cake decorating class around my area.

The contact for my hours will be the office of my school:

Culinary Arts Institute (CAI)
201 W. Orangethorpe Ave., Fullerton CA 92832 
714-502-5970

Third Interview Questions

Unfortunately, Chef Samantha, my baking teacher is on maternal leave. But our substitute chef is really nice to agree for an interview. I will be interviewing Chef Mario, who studied in New York at a French culinary school.
1. What do you believe is the most important thing your French mentors taught you?
2. What skill would you recommend a novice chef to improve on the most?
3. What is/are the hardest part of your training to becoming a patissier?
4. As you were working at the hotels, what were the heavy demands on your skills?
5. Tell me about the time you were in under serious pressure in your job.
6. How do you execute your own creative vision?
7. In what cases did you have to use your business skills?
8. In what kind of desserts do you have to completely master in- chocolate, french pastries, frozen desserts, etc.?
9. When did you ever take charge of the kitchen when the head chef isn't there? What happened?
10. How is being a pastry chef rewarding?

Self Reflection

(1) How do you think you are doing so far in your senior project and why?  AE, P, AP, CR, or NC
I think a P is a reasonable grade for the things I've done so far. I've not been as good on my research checks but my interviews, blogs, service learning and independent component, I've been on track on.

(2) What one thing do you think you have done well on and why?
My best component I'm working on is my service learning and the independent component. I've attended all my classes without being late. I also take pictures of what I do in class. I'm going to put a slideshow widget on the side and do a summary blog of what i did for the semester.

(3) What is one thing you would like to improve on and why? 
I really need to research more and take better notes on it. That's the only thing I need to work on and it's really not that hard. I need to be more consistent with it. 

Science Fair Proposal

1. If a Pâte à Choux is made with a high-protein flour, then it will rise 10% higher than if other types of flour are used.

2. Variables:

• Dependent: the % of rise
• Independent: the type of flour
• Control: all other ingredients & recipe procedure

3. Since my senior project is becoming a Pastry Chef, it's important for a pastry chef to know how the science in baking works. This particular dish has three of the most used ingredients in baking. This experiment will help me learn more about how I can manipulate these ingredients to creating other pastries.

4. I will be buying my own ingredients. For the flour, I will use 6 types flour. I will follow a recipe and document the the procedure. I will make different batches of the dough so I can compare them and see which ones rose the highest when baked. I can measure the volume of the cream puff by putting a small blob of dough in a cupcake tin. Then I will research why the volume of each types of dough are different. The equipments I will use are:

• Science Journal
• Camera
• Flour: Bread (unbleached all purpose flour), whole wheat flour, pastry flour, all-purpose flour , cake flour, and rice flour
• Eggs
• Butter
• Milk
• Sugar
• KitchenAid Mixer
• Measuring Cups/Spoons
• Oven
• The Recipe 

5. This project falls in the category of Chemistry

What I've Learned So Far

1. My topic is something you can learn and perfect on your own at home. It's usually self-explanatory because you're always following the directions on a recipe or from your instructor. Most of my research said that presentation par to taste is what catches the eyes of you customers that makes them want to buy your products. Being more creative and having your creations to standout from others' is what helps me the most in my ROP class.

2. This is a picture of the pastries we've done in class. The mango cream puff (top left) and the strawberry napoleon (bottom right) are the ones I plated myself. This was a bit challenging for me especially the cream puff. All of my classmates used chocolate in their plating. Then I remembered what Sebastien from the King of Pastry, a documentary, said "When the judges will have too much chocolate, you'd want to go with fruits because it's refreshing." I thought mine looked really plain because I didn't use chocolate at all. But my creativity still got me to the top 5 winners for presentation. The blueberry danish pastry (bottom left) and white chocolate chip cookie with pecans (top right) were made with my first team. It was absolutely fun and we got an A and our cookie won the bake-off.

3. I've learned the most out of is from the documentary, King of Pastry, it showed the challenges a pastry chef goes through, and their gorgeous dishes. It showed me how they interpret their inspirations into their dishes. Like what I said from before being different from the others and having your creativity stand out is what I applied on the mango cream puff. Not using chocolate on my dish got me into the top 5.

Independent Component 1 Plan Approval

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.

I can use my ROP class for my independent component. The class I'm taking now is Basic Baking which teaches the basic knowledge and procedures to making desserts and breads. The class had given me first hand experiences, not just on baking and making desserts, but how to run a kitchen. I'm also taking a Safety and Sanitation class to go further into the knowledge of being safe in the kitchen and for the people we will be serving. I plan on taking Cake Decorations next semester if they will offer the course.

(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.

My Basic Baking class is giving me about 150 hours. I started from the third week of September and will finish late January. The class is on Wednesdays and Fridays from 4:00pm to 9:00pm. As you can tell, a class is 5 hours long but the time really goes by easily because you're always busy in the kitchen.

(3) How does your independent study component relate to your EQ?  

My The class I'm taking now, which is my Independent Component, is one of the pre requisite for Professional  Baking class. The others are Cake Decorations, Chocolate, and Frozen Desserts. I'm not going to be able to attend all of the classes but these are all steps to gaining the skills and knowledge required for a pastry chef. In these ROP classes, I get to actually experience how to make desserts and your peers and your instructors gives you techniques how to do it.