Modern Pastry

Monday, July 8, 2013

Valrhona Class

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a hands on Valrhona Chocolate class here in downtown Miami. The class was held at the Miami Dade Culinary School. It was a two day class taught by Chef Sarah Kosikowski (Valrhona's Eastern US Pastry Chef) I had the pleasure of working with a small group of very talented Pastry Chefs from around Miami and surrounding areas. We were broken down into teams of two and three and worked from a very nice recipe book that the team at Valrhona put together for us. Chef Sarah is very precise and extremely talented. She worked side by side with each team to put together some fantastic desserts and some very interesting recipes. We all had the chance to work with a few of Valrhona's newer products including: Dulcey (32% white chocolate, with notes of nuttiness and buttery shortbread), Opalys (33% white chocolate, with notes of fresh milk and vanilla) Caramelia Milk Chocolate Crunchy Pearls (Toasted puffed cereal coated in 36% caramelia milk chocolate), Absolu Cristal (Neutral Glaze that can be used in either hot or cold applications). I had an incredible time learning from Chef Sarah, and networking with Miami's top Pastry Chefs. I have included a few pictures of the buffet that we all worked on, as well as some of the plated desserts. I want to extend my thanks to both Chef Sarah and her colleague Jennifer Troia (Regional Sales Manager of the Southeast) for hosting such an informative and successful class.