From Chef, to Actor!

Well friday we put together a charlotte russe (aka a "jelly roll"" which is supposed to be this sponge cake with rasberry jelly rolled in it, sliced, and then lined on a bottom of a bowl and then filled with bavarian cream and then frozen. Since i promised you i am not a baker, of course my sponge cake was overdone so it didnt roll nicely so my charlotte (hee hee, charlotte, if your reading this, know i thought about you when our instructor told us, "ok, so today were are going work on your charlotte!") is a bit deformed. Then we took that left over devils food cake and cut out litte circles to make a "band of chocolate" which is a peice of the devils food layered with chocolate mousse three times. we froze those too because on monday, we'll learn how to creat a chocolate "band" to wrap them. They are a small dessert or what we call in culinary school "plated dessert". This upcoming week will be all about plated dessert. A plated dessert is like a dish, it need to have five components (texture, cruch, flavor, creaminess, and chocolate) and be well balanced. Its neat because this is part of the class that does not involve a recipe, we make the sauces ourselves. Most start the same, some boil fruit with a little simple syrup, blended in a blend with an added acid like citrus of vinegar. Some chefs are ballsy and add salt, but our chef instructor told us you should be VERY experienced if you want to add salt because if you add to much, theres no taking back and you have to make a whole new batch. After the sauce is blended, you strain (cause the "crunch" factor should come from raspberry seeds), and then heat or cool it until it thickens up to a nice consistency. I am so excited because i cant wait to finally use my creativity and really wow someones taste buds. I am think maybe doing a ginger organe sauce of maybe fig and honey? Usually there are 2 sauces on a plate that should balance each other (like sweet and tart). See the difference between this baking class and the other one. Anyhow, besides that, sunday morning is my UCLA theater audition and I am nervous as hell. I've been so focused on cooking that i am afraif i am out of shape for my other passion for the stage. they are very cut throught there, not a lot of spots. I am doing a contemporary monologue and a classical one. I like the contemporary one, its from the vagina monologues, lots of cussing, totally me. the other i am nervous about, its chekov and i never liked russian theater all that much when i studied it in college. Anyhow, i got a haircut today (so i look at least a little like my head shot) so hopefully my confidence will be up and i'll be able to put my apron down and be an actor, well at least for tomorrow...