Working Party of the Senses

One of the highlights of this program was that I got the opportunity to work with my sous chef for her Party of the Senses. The party is held on select nights during the festival and the cheapest ticket is $145 with the more expensive seats quickly selling out well in advance. I would never afford to be able to get in as a guest so to experience it as a Cast Member was really cool!

We did some prep work in our home kitchen before the party started, just getting the materials and stuff together. We had to make sure our jackets and stuff were clean and then we headed to the PEO kitchen to start getting everything together!

Most of the work for the party is done backstage and it was really cool to see how it was put together. If you were to go past the doors from party to backstage you would see a really long hallway with small fold up tables and refrigerators lining either side. Each chef and their team were assigned a table where you could plate your dishes. For example, my chef's dessert was plated out back and we would put the finished plates on trays and take them out to the party. My chef's dessert was a Banana Cake with Coconut Mousse with Milk Chocolate Caramel Ganache and a Cojit Sauce. It was DELICIOUS

 Backstage we would put the chocolate and macaroon on top of the cake and we sauced on stage

 Guests had it as the best dessert of the night!

We got to go into the room early so we could see the presentation of the chefs. Seeing all the decorations and the atmosphere was really cool! and it hadn't even started!

 Looks like a chef party!

 My sous chef is the first girl from the right

 Chef Keegan Freaking Gerhard of Food Network Challenge was there! Majorly fangirled

 Chefs of the night

Don't break anything!

 Party of the Senses 2013

My sous-chef had her own table for the night. She would stand outside of it to tell the guests about it and we would stand behind it saucing the dishes and making sure the table was full. She also made a chocolate centerpiece for it. It was cool to go from seeing my chef with paper templates trying to build it to seeing the finished piece on display!

Very official!

My chef's chocolate showpiece

Colored sugar

The table, pre desserts of course!

Me and my sous-chef

The whole gang!

I had a really great time working the party. I was missing plating desserts since that was one of my shifts at the Polynesian so it was a nice change. This was in the middle of the festival so it was nice to work with a mousse that wasn't pistachio or top something that wasn't hazelnut cheesecake. We rotated between plating out back and saucing up front and while I was up front I go to see some of the performers from La Nouba, the specially made Cirque Du Solei show in Downtown Disney. The whole atmosphere was just really awesome. Seeing guests come up to our table to take a dessert and then coming back a few minutes later to tell my chef how delicious it was was really neat.

When the party was nearing an end, we were allowed to take our nametags off and eat around the party. I'm a really picky eater so I wasn't loading up plates of stuff (except for the Kerrygold cheese, give it here!) but I definitely hit up all the desserts! What really was the kicker, I got to meet Chef Keegan Gerhard! He was the MC for Food Network Challenge back in the day. When I first started getting into baking, I would watch Food Network as soon as I came home from school and pretty much go all night. FNC was one of my favorites so to see someone go from my tv screen to right in front of me was really cool! He was busy of course but I mentioned to him how I had been a fan of his for a while and that it was a pleasure to finally meet him. He was so nice and humble and really appreciated me being a fan and noted that I was meeting him as a baker for Epcot which was pretty cool! He was a really great guy to meet, and his dessert was delicious!

 Contemporary's chocolate showpiece

 Dessert from the Contemporary

 Chef Keegan Gerhard busy at work!

 Chef Keegan Gerhard's crumble dessert

Strawberry Dessert

What Have I Been Up To?

Hey everyone!

Running all of these blogs has been a lot more than I thought, I've even totally neglected my school blog (sorry JWU!) but everything has been so busy and by the time I get home I just want to watch TV and go to bed.

Work wise has pretty much been the same but I will elaborate on some of the things I got to do in following posts. We do the same desserts everyday so there's really nothing new. I've realized how NOT to act in a kitchen and as a person based on some of the people I work with. People need to realize baking in the industry and baking at home is totally different. You aren't Suzy Homemaker baking 2 dozen cupcakes in your AC and taking a break while they bake. It's coming into a hot kitchen, walking around, working, lifting heavy things, and all that jazz. It's hard work and if you're not ready for that, why are you here?

And I've really gotten a taste on egos in the food industry. Fortunately for me at the Polynesian I never ran into issues and my job back home is perfect. But here, I've definitely learned how to leave your problems at the clock in counter but that's how it should always be, you should be able to come in and work with everyone whether you personally like them or not. It has been an experience for sure!

But overall? I'm still loving what I do. I love coming to work, I love the people I work with and what I get to do. It's been great!

I'm Alive! oh...and Food & Wine!

Running all of these blogs at the same time is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Especially lately since I'm working from 2-10:30 and by the time I get home all I want to do is eat and go to bed. I will keep posting those dining reviews periodically (I mean heck, the vacation is long over!) but I just wanted to kind of fill you guys in on a few things, mostly about Food & Wine!

A few weeks ago I switched from morning production to Food & Wine training. We had to get more training to learn all about the festival, the menus, alcohol policies, and all that jazz. It was actually kind of fun though. We got to take a different tour of Epcot, we did different memory tests on our recipes, played a spice game and really got into the start of the festival. We also got our new hats which was exciting!

 You can buy our hats in the festival marketplaces this year!

Packets of all the dishes for Food & Wine that we had to study

Then eventually, Food and Wine started and it was time to bake for it! It has been fun and definitely a learning experience. We've already run into a night where we ended up staying til midnight and dealing with busy nights. I was placed at our PEO bakery to make lava cakes and we pump out thousands of those a day. I think 1 tram made us nearly 1,300 cups or so. There are so many different components to each dish but they are all great fun and delicious too! Here's a look at some of the things we are doing for the Desserts & Champagne, Ireland, and Scotland Marketplaces so far:

 The Dessert Trio available at the Desserts & Champagne Marketplace

 Banoffee Tart: Chocolate Tart Shell, Bananas, Toffee Sauce, Whiskey Cream, Chocolate Curls and Shortbread Crumbles at the Scotland Marketplace

 Look at all the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes!

 Hazelnut Cheesecake with Frangelico Sauce

 Chocolate Orange Cupcake with Cream Cheese Butercream (I put Hidden Mickeys on some of my cupcakes so keep an eye open!)

 Pistachio Mousse with Morello Cherries

 Chocolate Pudding Cake with Bailey's Ganache from the Ireland Marketplace

Cut Open

I really do enjoy baking for the festival and the crew that I do it with for the most part. While on this program I have learned how mature I am compared to some and what it's like to bite your tongue just to work with someone. A few weeks ago shortly after my mom and brother left my depression hit a wall and I found myself having a mental breakdown fully dressed in my costume in an empty tub. You have rough days in Disney and everyone you work with isn't a Princess or well mannered Prince, that's how it is everywhere. But I've grown and learned from it all, it's never a total 100% negative thing. I can already tell that at the end of the festival I will look back on it and be proud. When you go to our marketplace most of us making these desserts are interns. There's us and our 2 chefs, we are students cranking out these desserts and that's cool. It's an experience I will already cherish, and this is just working, I haven't even gone to eating around the world as a guest yet!

Update!

Oh goodness it's been a while! I always start blogs thinking that I will never fall into that phase where I go weeks without posting...and that's exactly what I did. Whoops! I've just been passing out after work and spending all my time off in the parks and scoping things out that I often forget to even post about it. I've officially been here a month already and that's a bit scary! I just filled you in on my trip to Be Our Guest a few weeks ago in my last post, but what else has been going on?

Because there's so much to catch up and it's picture heavy, click read more!

Baking for the World

So today is already my Friday, our lingo here in WDW for your last day of work before your days off. I'm sorry I didn't post as much during the week while things were still fresh but I often found myself passed out on my bed or watching Glee (yes, that is how I'm dealing with it. Oh how my heart broke) and figured I would just do a summary post. I'm currently righting this sick, joy. I never got my Spring allergies so I guess I had to get sick at some point. So on my day off I have to take a trip to the pharmacy, yeay!

But these past 3 days I have officially been in the Epcot production bakery. It's alright, I do miss my beloved Polynesian but once I get more used to it I think I'll be ok. I just hate being new, I hate asking questions and I hate being unsure of things. It's also weird because I'm the only CP there making me the newest and the youngest. Like for instance, today I piped a lot of mousse onto these brownies and my first few weren't too great, I'm the kind of person where I may not do it right the first time but that's how I learn, from my mistakes. Eventually they came out good but I will always dwell on the fact that I made a bad one versus a good one.

There's a lot to do in the bakery, we bake for 7 pavilions, 2 restaurants and probably other things I don't even remember. It's different than the Polynesian because they had shifts and each shift had designated duties so you always knew what was on your agenda when you walked in the door. My job back home is also a production bakery but I feel like I was on a looser leash there, I got to mix and bake and get experience with every aspect but since I'm new here, I'm not quite doing that yet. I've turned on an itty bitty mixer to make royal icing, something anyone can do, when I'm used to digging into an 80 quart mixing bowl of cheesecake or mousses. I know it won't be like this forever, eventually I'll get confident in what I'm doing and know my way around more, I just hate the beginning.

But everyone is really really nice. There's actually a woman who reminds me of someone I work with back home, it's almost like their twins, and she's been helping me a lot. There's another girl who has been really friendly to me from the beginning when she volunteered to take me on tour and then I met another man today who really has the material it takes to be a trainer. He tells me everything I need to do and always ends with asking if I have any questions and then he will come around and tell me if I'm doing good or not. It's a good learning environment and I do like that.

I can't really share backstage photos so none of the following are mine but here are some of the things that come out of our bakery. We don't plate them in full, there's usually a pastry chef at each location that takes what we give them and often adds the garnishes or sauce and any extras they have. Again, none of these photos are mine but I will leave a hyperlink underneath so you can go to the original source! And this isn't everything, just things I've actually remembered the name to or actually have a picture of!

Sticky Toffee Pudding from the UK Pavilion's Rose and Crown Pub (I've actually had this on vacation and it's delicious!) What we make: The Sticky Toffee Cake

 credit:disneyfoodblog

Perry Sugar Cookie

credit: eatingwdw 

The Chocolate Wave from the Coral Reef. What we make: the chocolate cake (scooped 450 of those today!)

Credit: disneyfoodblog 

Coconut Mango Chiffon Cake from the Coral Reef. What we make: the cake, coconut mousse, mango mousse, and cookie on top

credit: disboards

Baileys and Jack Daniel's Mousse from the Coral Reef. What we make: the mousse and cookie

credit: eatingwdw

Maple Creme Brulee from Le Cellier (it was being mixed and cooked today and it smells like breakfast! We make: the whole thing!

credit: disneyfoodblog

S'mores Brownie from the Liberty Inn. We make: it all! 

credit: disneyfoodblog

Jaffa Tarts from the Rose and Crown Pub. We make: the tarts

credit: hisfrugalservant  

Key Lime Tart from Sunshine Seasons

credit: disneyfoodblog 

There's more that we do as well this is just what I know for sure. Hopefully with all these desserts the bakery will pick up. I have arrived during an abnormally slow period and although I'm glad I'm not running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I do wish there was less idle time or waiting for something to do. But my 3 days are up and it's 2 days off. I just came back from a night out with friend, we got some food and drinks at Paradiso 37 in DTD and watched Despicable Me 2, which was adorable! Crashing and hopefully waking up a bit better in the morning (or afternoon) would be nice!