Professional Learning Network
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Lucy Waverman
Lucy Waverman is an acclaimed food columnist, journalist, and cookbook author. She and her daughter have both been featured in the cooking/baking section of the Globe and Mail. Some of her books include: The Flavour Principle, A Year in Lucy's Kitchen, and Home for Dinner.
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Her cookbooks, have always been lying around my house, so I thought it would be a good idea to send her an email, and ask some questions. I asked her if she had ever made puff pastry, and if she had, if she had any suggestions for what I should make with it. As well, when I sent the email, I was having a problem with my puff pastry. The butter was leaking out of the sides of the pastry in the oven. So I asked her if she had any suggestions to fix it. Unfortunately, she didn't get back to me.
Jennifer Greenberg
Jennifer Greenberg is currently a realtor in my neighborhood. However, she used to be a pastry chef. I'm connected to her because her son and I went to the same preschool, and were quite good friends. In fact, because of their family, I almost converted to Judaism. Not that it matters. Anyway, I sent her basically the same questions that I sent Lucy Waverman. She was the only person who actually responded! In response, she sent me a recipe for French puff pastry, that I actually used. As well, she sent me a bunch of different questions. Some of which were "What is your technique?", "Could you send me a picture of your pastry?", and "Have your rolling pin skills improved?". Overall, a pretty good connection.
Paul Hollywood
Paul Hollywood is a celebrity chef, and famous host of the British television series, The Great British Baking Show. He's known for his piercing blue eyes, and his cold demeanor. As a last ditch effort, I sent him a DM on Instagram. Since I had found rough puff pastry much easier than I had anticipated, I had wondered if there was anything of the same vein. So I asked him if there were any baking techniques that are rumoured to be very difficult, but are actually very interesting. He did not get back to me at this point in time, but I do hope that he will at some point.
Mr. Kilmartin
Mr. Kilmartin is a teacher who teaches in the culinary arts classes. I had him as my teacher during the online fourth quadmester last year, and really enjoyed his class. So I sent him an email asking if he had any indicators for me to look for when I want to know if my pastry is finished cooking. In response, he told me to look for the exterior of the pastry. He wrote that if you can see that all of the butter has evaporated, and the exterior is golden brown and crispy, then the pastry is most likely finished. I also asked him if he had used any recently, and he told me that he had made sausage rolls using puff pastry, over the winter holidays.
Carolyn Leach
The person who helped me the most during this project was my Mom, Carolyn Leach. Her level of baking skill is what forces me to try to put forth the best pastry that I possibly can. She's been baking since she was in grade 9, so I believe that her experience was crucial in being able to help me as much as she did. Throughout the whole project, she provided advice, taste tested every product, and answered any question that I asked. Such things as: Has this defrosted enough? or is the thickness of this even? or do you think that this is done baking? She always provided me with the help that I needed, and made baking over the course of this project just that much smoother.