It was a lovely day yesterday. The sun was shining and the birds sang. I woke early to be sure to arrive at the ParkerFest at 6:30am for set up. This would be our second weekend at ParkerFest as Independent Chocolatiers with Dove Chocolate Discoveries. Lestra and I are the chocolate ladies at ParkerFest which is an outdoor famer's market being held here in Parker, Colorado.
On this beautiful Sunday morning my stomach was a bit twisted and my brain slightly left of center. I was in a funk of some kind. Couldn't shake it. Oh, that's right, I had my first ever Chef Demonstration that morning. I had signed up to do a demo back in March when ParkerFest was initiating this new festival. What an opportunity to share my chocolate passion with the world! I began to dream of what I was going to do for my demo. What recipe could I "WOW" the world with? What creation could I come up with that would leave lasting impression on all who attended?
The Entertainment Guide was the key. I poured over the pages and selected my favorite, "Mini Mint Mousse Teardrops" from the Spring/Summer 2009 Guide. It was a perfect choice. The teardrops scream the season with the beautiful green transfer sheet layed over white chocolate along with a luscious mint chocolate mousse filling. I chose to top it with a raspberry just to add a splash of color.
I spent March and April dreaming of my presentation. I rehearsed over and over in my mind what I would do and how I would engage the audience. It was perfect. I would have a gentleman assist me. That would be a great hook. He would be a large "manly" man who represented every man that feared the kitchen. He would be a perfect person to whip the heavy whipping cream while I demonstrated how to smooth the tempered white chocolate over the transfer sheet. All the while I would banter with the audience on the joys of having a man in the kitchen helping their wives prepare the ultimate meal. I would take the dark chocolate and add it to the mousse and my main man would continue to mix. I would explain the the differences in chocolates and where chocolate was grown as he finished mixing. The chocolate would be mixed into the cream and he would put it into the pastry bag. I would then carefully guide him through the use of a pastry bag and he would make his first ever, beautiful Mini Mint Mousse Teardrop. It was a presentation that every chef would be proud of. I knew that I could have even impressed our company's president Betty Palm. After all, she was in the audience in this dream.
REALITY CHECK ~~ Here is what really happened.........
It was a lovely day yesterday. The sun was shining and the birds sang. I woke early to be sure to arrive at ParkerFest at 6:30am for set up. On this beautiful Sunday morning my stomach was a bit twisted and my brain slightly left of center. Sunday was the day of my very first chef demonstration. I had prepared several things in advance so I could "magically" pull them out of my cooler like on the TV shows. My teardrops were a bit crooked and too big, but I wasn't worried. I'm not a trained chef and I thought that my less than perfect teardrops might appeal to "regular" people. I had them packed carefully in a plastic container and on ice packs just to be on the safe side. I didn't want them to melt. I had made a butterfly and leaf just like Chef Mark had at conference back in February. They were beautiful!
I met Lestra at the festival and we set up the new tent she had bought in the previous week (now there's another story that dreams are made of). It was beautiful! Then it hit me...I had forgotten the whipping cream!! "OMG" does not explain what I felt in the pit of my stomach! Thank goodness for Lestra. She had some heavy whipping cream at home and her husband, Joe, was on his way back to the festival. He would bring what they had. Problem solved.
Andrea (the show organizer) came by to check to see if I was ready for the demo. My mouth said yes, but the rest of me was screaming to run home. She stated quite matter of factly that I may not have a microphone because they couldn't find it. "Not to worry," I said. "I have a pretty loud voice." Soon after my sister called to wish me luck, although she didn't know I was doing a chef demo. When it came time to set up I had to hang up and that is when she wished me luck. I took her luck and put it in my pocket.
My set up went smoothly. The local coffee shop let me use their microwave to melt the chocolate for the mousse. I knew there wouldn't be electricity to run the tempering machine so I was going to "fake it" by just melting white chocolate. Andrea had found the microphone and I was wired to the main system. I felt so professional! My friends had come and so did my family. My daughter Kyra, had stepped up and announced, "I want to help. Can I?" Oh, how could I say no? Besides, I had just looked at my audience and there wasn't a single man in it! Well, there was, but he was full of piercings and tattoos. So, my daughter was now my assistant and my manly man hook was out the window. My brain raced to try and come up with the words to use to grab the audience. None came to me so I just began by explaining that you start by adding a quarter cup heavy whipping cream to a bowl, along with the....
WHAM! It hit me. I had forgotten the mousse mix!! It was at the tent. Not realizing the microphone was on, I announced to my daughter (and the entire audience) that I left it behind and asked her to run and get it. I turned and smiled and tried to make a joke. By now I had no idea what I was saying so I couldn't tell you what the joke was even if my chocolatier career depended on it. Kyra was gone and back in a flash (she was fast!). I proceeded to explain how you add the mousse mix to the whipping cream. I turned to Kyra to cut the top of the mousse packet off and POOF, the packet exploded in her face! "MOM!" she yells at me. "NO!" my brain screams at me. I calmly apologize and explain, "Well, there's enough left to still use." So, we continued on with the demo.
The next step was to cut the transfer sheet and spread the chocolate onto the transfer sheet. I was able to do this and my hands were not even shaking. Even though I was using melted chocolate, the transfer sheet stood up quite well and everyone said, "OOOOOh! That's beautiful." I was in the home stretch! I pulled out the teardrops that I had made earlier in the week and stripped them of their plastic and stood them proudly on a plate. The next step was to show how you can freehand with chocolate and write or draw with it. My plastic bag that I used didn't break as I carefully wrote the word , MOM. I reached in my trusty cooler to pull out the word, TOM. With the M broken I made it into a Tom and we moved on totally forgetting that I had a beautiful butterfly and leaf to demonstrate.
The importance of plating was next and I showed how easy it is to just put a bit of chocolate in the center of the plate and draw a star. It actually came out looking more like the last exploding nebula in the galaxy of Zork, but it was OK; at least it looked like a galaxy. Right as my galaxy exploded I saw out of the corner of my eye that I had set the teardrops in the sun and they were melting!
Just like the Wicked Witch of the West melted into a puddle of green witch goo, my teardrops were melting into puddles of chocolaty goo. I silently said a prayer that the mousse was done.... Yes. it was. I quickly plopped the mousse into the pastry bag and piped it into the melting teardrop and hoped beyond hopes that the teardrop wouldn't split wide open.
As the mousse went in without a single crack my mind had suddenly melted into a puddle of chocolate goo too. I had no thoughts left in my brain and I had no idea what to say next! It was as blank as a sheet of paper. So, I kept piping mousse. I frantically piped mousse! The seconds ticked as I tried in vein to think of just one word! Finally, out of the depths of my melted brain I was able to croak out an invitation to the audience to come up and try the mousee. They politely came to the stage (actually just a table under a tent) and were amazed in the creaminess and full flavor of the mousse.
The crowd of 10 cleared and the demo was over. I felt a huge relief lift from my body. As I looked over the melting teardrops on the table and the chocolately bowl where the mousse was mixed, I only had one thought. Thank goodness that Betty Palm was safely in New Jersey!
On this beautiful Sunday morning my stomach was a bit twisted and my brain slightly left of center. I was in a funk of some kind. Couldn't shake it. Oh, that's right, I had my first ever Chef Demonstration that morning. I had signed up to do a demo back in March when ParkerFest was initiating this new festival. What an opportunity to share my chocolate passion with the world! I began to dream of what I was going to do for my demo. What recipe could I "WOW" the world with? What creation could I come up with that would leave lasting impression on all who attended?
The Entertainment Guide was the key. I poured over the pages and selected my favorite, "Mini Mint Mousse Teardrops" from the Spring/Summer 2009 Guide. It was a perfect choice. The teardrops scream the season with the beautiful green transfer sheet layed over white chocolate along with a luscious mint chocolate mousse filling. I chose to top it with a raspberry just to add a splash of color.
I spent March and April dreaming of my presentation. I rehearsed over and over in my mind what I would do and how I would engage the audience. It was perfect. I would have a gentleman assist me. That would be a great hook. He would be a large "manly" man who represented every man that feared the kitchen. He would be a perfect person to whip the heavy whipping cream while I demonstrated how to smooth the tempered white chocolate over the transfer sheet. All the while I would banter with the audience on the joys of having a man in the kitchen helping their wives prepare the ultimate meal. I would take the dark chocolate and add it to the mousse and my main man would continue to mix. I would explain the the differences in chocolates and where chocolate was grown as he finished mixing. The chocolate would be mixed into the cream and he would put it into the pastry bag. I would then carefully guide him through the use of a pastry bag and he would make his first ever, beautiful Mini Mint Mousse Teardrop. It was a presentation that every chef would be proud of. I knew that I could have even impressed our company's president Betty Palm. After all, she was in the audience in this dream.
REALITY CHECK ~~ Here is what really happened.........
It was a lovely day yesterday. The sun was shining and the birds sang. I woke early to be sure to arrive at ParkerFest at 6:30am for set up. On this beautiful Sunday morning my stomach was a bit twisted and my brain slightly left of center. Sunday was the day of my very first chef demonstration. I had prepared several things in advance so I could "magically" pull them out of my cooler like on the TV shows. My teardrops were a bit crooked and too big, but I wasn't worried. I'm not a trained chef and I thought that my less than perfect teardrops might appeal to "regular" people. I had them packed carefully in a plastic container and on ice packs just to be on the safe side. I didn't want them to melt. I had made a butterfly and leaf just like Chef Mark had at conference back in February. They were beautiful!
I met Lestra at the festival and we set up the new tent she had bought in the previous week (now there's another story that dreams are made of). It was beautiful! Then it hit me...I had forgotten the whipping cream!! "OMG" does not explain what I felt in the pit of my stomach! Thank goodness for Lestra. She had some heavy whipping cream at home and her husband, Joe, was on his way back to the festival. He would bring what they had. Problem solved.
Andrea (the show organizer) came by to check to see if I was ready for the demo. My mouth said yes, but the rest of me was screaming to run home. She stated quite matter of factly that I may not have a microphone because they couldn't find it. "Not to worry," I said. "I have a pretty loud voice." Soon after my sister called to wish me luck, although she didn't know I was doing a chef demo. When it came time to set up I had to hang up and that is when she wished me luck. I took her luck and put it in my pocket.
My set up went smoothly. The local coffee shop let me use their microwave to melt the chocolate for the mousse. I knew there wouldn't be electricity to run the tempering machine so I was going to "fake it" by just melting white chocolate. Andrea had found the microphone and I was wired to the main system. I felt so professional! My friends had come and so did my family. My daughter Kyra, had stepped up and announced, "I want to help. Can I?" Oh, how could I say no? Besides, I had just looked at my audience and there wasn't a single man in it! Well, there was, but he was full of piercings and tattoos. So, my daughter was now my assistant and my manly man hook was out the window. My brain raced to try and come up with the words to use to grab the audience. None came to me so I just began by explaining that you start by adding a quarter cup heavy whipping cream to a bowl, along with the....
WHAM! It hit me. I had forgotten the mousse mix!! It was at the tent. Not realizing the microphone was on, I announced to my daughter (and the entire audience) that I left it behind and asked her to run and get it. I turned and smiled and tried to make a joke. By now I had no idea what I was saying so I couldn't tell you what the joke was even if my chocolatier career depended on it. Kyra was gone and back in a flash (she was fast!). I proceeded to explain how you add the mousse mix to the whipping cream. I turned to Kyra to cut the top of the mousse packet off and POOF, the packet exploded in her face! "MOM!" she yells at me. "NO!" my brain screams at me. I calmly apologize and explain, "Well, there's enough left to still use." So, we continued on with the demo.
The next step was to cut the transfer sheet and spread the chocolate onto the transfer sheet. I was able to do this and my hands were not even shaking. Even though I was using melted chocolate, the transfer sheet stood up quite well and everyone said, "OOOOOh! That's beautiful." I was in the home stretch! I pulled out the teardrops that I had made earlier in the week and stripped them of their plastic and stood them proudly on a plate. The next step was to show how you can freehand with chocolate and write or draw with it. My plastic bag that I used didn't break as I carefully wrote the word , MOM. I reached in my trusty cooler to pull out the word, TOM. With the M broken I made it into a Tom and we moved on totally forgetting that I had a beautiful butterfly and leaf to demonstrate.
The importance of plating was next and I showed how easy it is to just put a bit of chocolate in the center of the plate and draw a star. It actually came out looking more like the last exploding nebula in the galaxy of Zork, but it was OK; at least it looked like a galaxy. Right as my galaxy exploded I saw out of the corner of my eye that I had set the teardrops in the sun and they were melting!
Just like the Wicked Witch of the West melted into a puddle of green witch goo, my teardrops were melting into puddles of chocolaty goo. I silently said a prayer that the mousse was done.... Yes. it was. I quickly plopped the mousse into the pastry bag and piped it into the melting teardrop and hoped beyond hopes that the teardrop wouldn't split wide open.
As the mousse went in without a single crack my mind had suddenly melted into a puddle of chocolate goo too. I had no thoughts left in my brain and I had no idea what to say next! It was as blank as a sheet of paper. So, I kept piping mousse. I frantically piped mousse! The seconds ticked as I tried in vein to think of just one word! Finally, out of the depths of my melted brain I was able to croak out an invitation to the audience to come up and try the mousee. They politely came to the stage (actually just a table under a tent) and were amazed in the creaminess and full flavor of the mousse.
The crowd of 10 cleared and the demo was over. I felt a huge relief lift from my body. As I looked over the melting teardrops on the table and the chocolately bowl where the mousse was mixed, I only had one thought. Thank goodness that Betty Palm was safely in New Jersey!
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