Cake Parade

The students of my PBK 170 Cake Assembly finished their 6 week course on cake assembly with a Cake Parade final practical. They were each asked to produce 3 cakes, 2 of their choice, and 1 a black box. Chef John Montanile helped out with the set up and Llyod Kirsch and Marshall Shafkowitz welconed guests.

The pictures don't do justice but the cakes were beautiful.

Update: CHIC Garden

The season is coming to an end but we are still harvesting green zebras, sunsweets, supersweets, cherry, chocolate cherry, arkansas traveller, white eggplants, lots of hot peppers. The basils are still plentiful, the rosemary, oregano, thyme, lemon grass, chives, garlic chives, are all so healthy. The broccoli raab has reseeded and so has the arugula. The perennial garden is in colorful bloom, the celadine poppies have come back and the echinacea is going to seed, which makes the finches quite merry.

lessons learned from our first year will hopefully make for a better next year.

2009 Adobofest

This is the second year I have been invited to be a judge in the annual celebration of the Philippine National dish, the adobo. This year is special because the sponsor of the fest, the Filipino American Network is teaming up with Gawad Kalinga, a Habitat for Humanity style group to raise money for the poor in the Philippines. Attendance to the show has multiplied exponentially and it is great to see the interest in promoting traditional Filipino food and culture and see the young kids just totally embrace their heritage.

This year also, I was so proud to sit on the judges table with two former students, Ron Bilaro,now a well known TV personality through out Filipino communities worldwide and Paolo Nicolasin Escobar who finished his externship and will continue on as a lead cook in Valencia Spain. It gives me great pride and joy to see students succeed.

CEC and The Ronald McDonald House Charities

CHIC sponsored a movie and dinner event to support the activities of the Ronald McDonald House. In conjunction with the release of the Julie and Julia movie (Julia Child of course, one of the most popular Le Cordon Bleu graduates), Chef Marshall, Chef Corrado, myself, several students prepared a dinner similar to Julia Child's final Practical at the famed French school. Chef John created the dessert, Lloyd Kirsch was Dining Room Manager and Karinne Slyman, Head Captain. The dinner raised quite a sum of money that was donated to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana.

To honor the check handing, we made a cake made to look like the real one, complete with Chef Marshall's forged signature. The cake was then delivered to a Ronald McDonal House in the area for the kids and staff to enjoy