On Christmas Eve, for the first time in my life, I stepped into the ITE College West for a fabulous Christmas Eve High Tea event organized by my brother's, Leon's, Pastry & Baking class - PJ5114. His class hosted this event and spent like a week just to get the menu set, to get the pastries baked and finally, to present their masterpieces to us, family members - how sweet right~~
My father and I arrived at the campus in the afternoon and found ourselves up to Level 4 of one of the many sleek looking buildings of the school. I tell you~ I had never imagined an ITE college to look any better than any other universities or polytechnics! College West's architectural design blew my mind off because it was so gorgeous! If you have a chance, do visit it one day! I believe Ang Mo Kio is building a similarly inspiring college just opposite the old school too~
We were ushered by Leon and his friendly classmates - all excited and beaming at the arrival of us, VIPs. :D They brought us to their demonstration room which is like a classroom just that instead of the classic table and whiteboard in front of the class, they had an oven and a kitchen table! Really cool!
Along the way, we saw this really huge Western kitchen! It's as though you've just walked into a MasterChef kitchen because I had never seen anything like this before! The students really did a fabulous job keeping the area so literally sparkling clean! Doesn't this kitchen make you feel like you want to cook in there?
Another shot of the same kitchen. All the equipment look top notch, no? They have things like the pasta making machine too! I want one but I don't know where to get one!! But again, I don't think I can afford it because they look really expensive~
That was the Western kitchen which had nothing much to do with my brother's course because his is into pastries and baking as opposed to meats and other stuff. This is his heaven - a pastry kitchen equipped with professional mixers, fridges under their metal benches, ovens, commercial giant mixers, etc. Whatever you need to build a cake, they have it there! So extremely cool, no? :D Maybe one day, I shall go there to study... Hee hee~ But I think I'm overage...
Presenting to you my brother on the right of this shot with a spoon and fork in his hands. After walking around the campus on a "tour", we were brought into the metallic kitchen you see above and welcomed by the vibrant spread across a bench. What a contrast! All these colorful goodies are made in this kitchen which seems intimidating and unwelcoming but it's these little chefs that commands the kitchen to bring the human side out of it.
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOD?! Well here they are~! The spread was awesome! Whatever kind of pastries you can think of, they did it and probably even better! These little finger thingies sprinkled with pistachios are obviously not banana cakes. I forgot what they are called but I know it starts with a "F". All these food are created FROM SCRATCH by the students. Aren't they amazing?!
This is probably the tastiest 5-star grade classic baked cheesecake I had ever ate in my entire life! Although the cheese is dense, the flavor is not overpowering like the ones you get outside. The flavors are well balanced so that you do not get sick and tired of eating the cake after your first few bites. It sure doesn't looked baked because the color is sickly beautiful but it is! And do you want to meet the chef who created this masterpiece?
TA DA! My brother may not be good at Math but he's damn good at making a perfectly calculated and balanced cheesecake that everyone had to go for seconds. In fact, at the end of the whole event where there were some left, his classmates were fighting for his cake. Well~ At least he managed to bring one home for me to enjoy. Are y'all jealous? :D
More delicious sweets - in pictures. This is their Christmas reinterpretation of the classic strawberry shortcake in the form of the Christmas log cake. Really creative no? The students and their head chef really went all out in terms of creativity, bringing old classics and giving them a Christmas twist to everything to make sure that we are feasting on top quality desserts.
Eclairs anyone? Instead of the typical chocolate ones, they made different flavors like vanilla and strawberry. The color, however, is not as flattering even though the eclairs taste fantastic. This eclair looks like it's stuffed with fish cake instead of vanilla cream though - you know the ones they have at yong tao fu stores? Well at least the other eclairs look nicer.
Bet this strawberry mousse cake makes those people who are allergic to strawberry hate their allergies even more because the smooth mousse is really amazing! These students may be pastry chefs but they are artists as well in terms of arrangement of their toppings and compositions. Nowadays, people eat with their eyes and if they do not possess the eye for aesthetics, no one will give two hoots to their creations, yes?
One of the "WOW" dishes for the day - a Black Forest reinterpretation! Leon told me that when they were going through their menu, they realized that there were way too make cakes so they decided to recreate some of the classics into little pieces of art like the one you see here. In a small saucer, you get really nice cream with a huge cherry topped with bits of cake, silky chocolate mousse and a blueberry. You can literally finish this thing in one mouth but you will definitely go for seconds because it's so good!
For the first time in my life, I finally had those highly acclaimed macaroons! They are really soft on the outside and creamy on the inside. I've heard that macaroons are one of the hardest things to make because they are so delicate. Picking them up with your fingers can create dents on the hamburger buns if you exert too much strength. The student who made these is really skillful in the sense that all the macaroons are replicas of each other and their buns look so smooth and flawless. Fantastic job~
At first, you might think this is another eclair but when you put it into your mouth, this innocent looking thing exclaims that it's a donut coated with chocolate and sprinkled with rainbow sparkles. Another reinterpretation of another classic which I thought was a genius idea because of the surprise element in taste. Looks are sooooo deceiving! Who said a donut has to have a hole in it?
This is definitely one of my favorites of the entire day - fruit tarts! Instead of putting these fresh fruits into the tart molds, they topped them onto these bite size biscuits. I'm truly amazed at their creativity because they really brought pastry art to a whole new level with their non-stop innovations and creative ideas. This tart has a story behind why it was made so though... My brother told me that they were out of tart molds so they created biscuit instead. But~ When you put the whole thing into your mouth, it tastes exactly like a fruit tart! That's the magic in these little monster~
Got to love these cupcakes because they have my favorite maraschino cherries on these freshly made cream! Of course they do not use these cream out of a can~ They made them all! These cakes are really yummy and at the base of each cake, you get a little surprise as well, depending on which flavor you are having. The chocolate version has a chunk of melted chocolate at the base and it was al-so-sinful!
Throughout the whole thing, the students had to make sure that all the guests have something to eat and they have to constantly top up the buffet table. Here's Leon and his chef discussing something. His chef, from what I heard, is actually a pastry master at Marina Bay Sands and is quite acclaimed. It's good to know that these chefs are taking their time to impart their skills to others who are as passionate as he is. See those chocolate tarts on the tray? They are the loves as well!!
Had to take this photo of Leon with his best friend in class - the mixer. Each student is equipped with their own bench and gosh it's not like the secondary school's pathetic home econs where you had to share an entire work space. Due to the nature of their assignments, pastry chefs need a huge surface area to work on - the dough needs space, the equipment needs space, they need space! I really want to see how the class works during a normal school day though~ They should totally invite us to witness one day~
Got to give these aspiring chefs a huge round of applause and a huge
THANK YOU for their marvelous job creating my favorite part of an entire meal - the desserts! This is Leon's class and probably future working colleagues if they continue to pursue their passion in cooking. Now, are you amazed at what they teach at school nowadays? Not only do you gain knowledge, you get sweet treats every other day! Best course to be in ever!!
Hope y'all are feeling hungry and extremely jealous of what I got to eat that day. I had to say that the creations that they made were so inspiring, I couldn't stop taking photos of them. As a photographer, you need subjects that inspire and they really inspired me - the students and their creations. Maybe I shall study food photography even more because they are so fun to photograph~
Shall end here! Certainly hope that I will get another opportunity to witness more creations from these people because I have to say, I had a really sweet Christmas Eve this year thanks to them. :)
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