Hell's Kitchen is a real place on earth...and is probably at many places in fact!

Hello all,




I know it has been a while since I have posted. Life as a pastry student is quite a busy one. I am not sure my life will ever be the same again and that's OK! I have completed two courses since you last heard from me. The second course I completed was breakfast pastries. You know people really take these yummy foods for granted . You have no idea how much labor, and care goes into these amazing treats. Danish, Puff Pastry, Croissants, you name it we made it. The next time you eat a cheese danish or scone really take a minute to savor it because your chef worked their but off to make it just right. Our final for this class was to produce two products. I made a braided danish with cheese and fruit filling as well as a sticky bun danish cake which was a favorite by far! It was so gooey and yummy! All in all I was not a big fan of this course. There were a few things I liked out of it but overall I felt the endless babysitting, turning and folding of danish, croissant and puff dough days on end was really annoying. I may learn to fall in love with it wherever I end up in the future but for now I still love desserts!









The course after that was Petit Fours. Petit Fours include small cakes, tarts, mousses and cookies. Basically any small dessert you can eat in one to two bites. I LOVED THIS CLASS... What is funny about this is that almost everyone hated this class. These items take many steps to be completed, but the end result is ohhhhh so good and very fancy looking. The pecan pie tarts, the frozen gelee's and mousses, and the cookies were to die for. I hope I will get to make more of these in the future. In each course we make 30 to 40 different items but only one time. So it will certainly take more practice to get them just right. These recipes we are learning are real quality!








Learning the skills and material is great. However, we are also learning how to work in a typical kitchen environment. Here comes the dark side to my story. Hells Kitchen is in fact a real place on Earth and I am pretty sure you can find it in many places. Try stuffing 13 adults into a small kitchen for 7 hours a day for 6 months. P.S. I AM STILL LEARNING TO WORK WITH ADULTS, I spent the last 10 years of my life with children allllll day. Although, adults can sometimes be like children it is quite an adjustment for me. Now we have people of all ages, all walks of life, all levels of tolerance-this being the key point. Not to mention our Chef who has worked in high paced kitchens his whole life and has to often remind himself we are students. Some days Chef would work us to the bone as if we were "at work". Fast and furious, quick and exact, spotless but cluttered. If you missed any information in the 5 minute demonstration you were done. Thankfully we have teammates to help keep each other afloat. But if you or your teammate are having a bad day, feeling sick, not well rested, or simply have your mind somewhere else but at school you were looking at having a Hell's kitchen day. Unlike other jobs I have had you can't just muddle through the day you have to produce perfectly no matter what your circumstances are. We have had a handful of days like this, rough and tough, and wearing you down. I would walk away from class thinking "man I can't wait to get my paycheck from today" and then realizing "oh yeah dummy it's not work it's school, I AM PAYING THEM. " hahahaha But despite how painful the day was or how worked up we all could get over Chef or over each other it is worth the few days experience of seeing what a real fast paced kitchen is like. Not sure I am ready for that quite yet but we will see.


I have not doubt that I am learning from some elite chefs. I see the skill set they bring to the table is much higher and more modern from those of other schools. So I am thankful, however you do go in to class each day wondering is today going to be a Hell's Kitchen day or a Notter School learning day. Either way it's a learning experience and we have each other to help us get through! Teamwork is the truest form of Humanity. If you aren't there for each other, then you aren't even there for yourself. Take that food for thought until next time!







Here is most of our "team"! "The Notter Naughties-lol"













So my next course is Classical Cakes and Tarts, I can't wait to see what adventures will come next.



Bon appetit!- Layla

"Don't zink too much"

I have had quite a few of you ask for another article in the last two weeks. I apologize for my lapse of time in between postings. Life has been so very busy. Between school and three part time jobs there is very little time to sit down and reflect all of my thoughts and feelings on where this new journey is taking me. It has all been good!

Since my last posting I have found new loves. I didn't care too much for breads. We started baking artisan breads and they just didn't do anything for me. No real creativity involved I guess. We spent three very long days on breads and got interrupted in our studies. We got to spend two days on chocolate and two days on sugar with our head Chef. I was secretly cheering inside when I got this news. I thought good lord I can't take another day of making 6 different types of breads daily. So as much as I love learning from Chef Jim (hes' fabulous) I was thankful to get the learn from Chef Notter (this big guy) so early into our program.

Chef Notter is a multiple time world champion in chocolate and sugar sculptures. He has achieved every award you can get in this industry. So yes, we were all wigging out! He taught us on day one how to temper chocolate, its history, how to make it, how to sculpt it. I literally got into my car and cried out of excitement on the way home. Day two of chocolate I came home with a chocolate sculpture center piece of a chocolate guitar with roses. The whole time I was making this piece, I kept thinking, "this is really happening, I am really doing this, I just cant believe I am doing this." Chocolate equals yummy... as well as sheer happiness. I couldn't imagine that only in my second week I MADE A CHOCOLATE SCULPTURE!

Then came two days of sugar making, sugar pulling, sugar blowing. We worked with a hot box and burned our poor thumbs all day and I couldn't have been happier. Like a pig in mud I was very pleased to burn those prints right of my fingers. The smell, the warmth, the possibilities of what can be done with pure melted sugar is endless. So in week three I made A SUGAR SCULPTURE PEOPLE! I have pulled and hand blown a sugar piece of very delicate and petite little swans. Again, tears in the car all the way home that day. I just can't believe I am doing this. When the day was done no one wanted to leave. We kept hanging out. I couldn't figure out why. We just spent 7 straight hours of working our hands in heat and sweating it out... why did we all not want to leave???

It dawned on me the next day. Although we were not eating the product, we had all become addicted to it. To it's smell and to the feelings it bring to us as we work with this new art and craft. At the end of every day we all set our finished pieces out in a line and Chef Notter comes by to anonymously critique our work. Needless to say I was so frigging happy I didn't care what he had to say about my piece. Well for the chocolate sculpture he said exactly in his Swiss accent "zis piece is vereee nissszzz but it's too heavy and too deep for me, let's keep it a little more zimple next time ok?". I laughed out loud. This is because he was so right on. Art reflects who you are... and yes I tend to be very deep in thought, too deep actually. It is impossible for me to be simple. Well when we were working on our sugar pieces I was struggling with one technique and he came around as he always does to assist as I made a piece and he said "how are you doing how do you feel about zis one" I said well it's OK. I can do better. He said "why do you say zis, zis is verryyy nice, you zink too much, don't zink too much" and he walked away. ;o) This has become my new mantra- "don't zink too much". My next attempt of his approval on my sugar piece was decent, however I did "zink" too much again. ;o) He is a fantastic person!

We went back to breads this week and I absolutely fell in love. The ingredients, the mixing, the science of it all and the best part is the tasting. Pizza, focaccia, ciabatta, sourdoughs, ryes, you name it we make it! How I love it all. To take a risk and find a passion has been the greatest journey I have done so far in my life. So for all you friends and family out there, when life seems tough, hard going, unlucky, or lost do as Chef Notter says "Don't zink too much"!

I hope to get to you every two weeks if I can. I spend about 3 to 4 hours every night on homework for school after I get home from work. I thank you all for your support and excitement. It really is the best time in my life!

Week 1 done: Chef Layla now in the MIX!

So it is official! Week one is done. I am now a Pastry School student at the coolest school I have ever attended by far. The Notter Pastry School of Arts is professional, creative, state of the art, high end and down right fun!

Waking up at 5:30 every day and starting class at 7 am was something that I was very nervous of doing. I have to drive a good 35 to 40 min down to the Fl. Mall on OBT. Not the prettiest drive but well worth it! I am in class from 7:00-2:30 every day. And our classes are in a kitchen that is 65 degrees. It's FREEZING to little old me. I have the most comfortable kitchen shoes, the chefs coat, the hat and all the other little items that make up a CHEF's get up. I look professional but feel so weird in these clothes. They will grow on me I'm sure. In week one we learned about baking sciences and nutrition and sanitation laws. I took a ton of notes and have spent about 4 hours retyping them already not to mention taking photos to document all of the cool baking "experiments" we have done.

We have made biscuits with varying ingredients to see why certain chemicals do what they do, we made cookies, brownies, ganache, and various breads already. I have also learned so many good and BAD things about how people store foods, how many bacterias it takes to make you deathly ill and then some even more gross stuff the public should never know about food production.(McDonald's have a sign on their fries machine that states their fries contain chemicals that may cause cancer)!!!!! Let's just say EAT NATURAL foods people! The people that I have learned from already are world renowned pastry artists and I can't believe on day one we started learning from one the greatest chocolatiers the country has ever seen.

I have a great class mixed of different ages, backgrounds and from all over the country. We work in groups of two for now but will be working in teams. I think this is by far the funnest and best form of education I have received yet. It is so wonderful too to have people around me all day that are just sooo into baking and pastry as much as I am. They get that excitement in their eyes and can talk about it all day. When I talk about it with friends and family they say "that's cool". I know everyone cares. But they don't have that same level of love and passion for it as i do. I no longer feel like a fish out of water because I have met other pastry nerds like me. ;o)

I am looking forward to the next two weeks. It is our first real baking course of "breads" I think. We will learn three new breads a day, take notes, take pictures and then have a production test on making a certain type of bread as well as keep a notebook on the breads.

I am so thankful I took the risk. I made the right choice and can not be happier about what is ahead for me. Thanks to everyone who has been supportive and patient with me. You will reap the benefits when I bring alllll of the yummy things I have made in class home every day!

It is so important to live your dream.... it makes this journey of life so much more fun and worth while! Stay in touch everyone! Hugs.. Chef Layla

WHAT AM I DOING?

You know, I have come to realize that some things in life are best left to chance and risk. You really cant ever have it all planned and things surely never do stay the same. When you are young you must be asked a million times what do you want to be when you grow up? Hell if I ever REALLY knew that answer. In fact, here came college and I still didn't know.

So I picked one. I became a teacher because, well I spent half of my life playing and teaching my little brother. It sounded fun, Kindergarten kids playing, learning letters and counting, recess and summers off with job stability. PFFFT Boy was I wrong. I really tried. I did very well in college and learned so much about life and myself. I did what most do, get the degree, get the job and hope that was it for me. I don't think now, looking back I was ever REALLY happy teaching. I had some great years with great kids and amazing friends to teach with by my side. But it was never enough. I hated fighting the system, watching kids suffer and endlessly giving of myself only to be told, this is the way it is. I tried different grades, different schools, different co-teachers. I worried I would spend my whole life teaching, hating it, being sick all the time and stressed and that I would end up like the other veteran teachers who just plowed through until retirement and a lot of them are miserable! NOT ME! I took a risk. A big one. I QUIT!

Most people think I am crazy... and I do too! I quit at the worst time to quit. My finances took a HUGE hit to say the least, part-time job stability is bleak at best. But it has been worth it. One and a half years out of the JAIL that I called school and I feel FREE! Happier than ever, healthier than ever, more grown up than ever. So now what? I feel happy but yet empty as to who I want to be next and how I want to provide for my Husband and maybe a future family. I am taking the plunge. I am going to turn my hobby into my career. I didn't have the luxury like my husband, he knew since he was 6 that he loved airplane and would fly. I can say, well I have known since I was 30 that I love cakes and I want to be a pastry chef. Better late than NEVER!

It is a new found love to say the least. Two years of baking and decorating for friends and family has really brought some new things about me that I didn't know. I am an artist.. WHAT?! In kindergarten I was always harassed for bad art drawing and terrible handwriting. Well these traits are still the same. But I have a vision and I can create it. There in lines "LIFE".

So I did some research and found that one of the world most renowned and greatest ever Pastry Chef's Ewald Notter has his very own school right here in Orlando. It's like it was meant for me! ;o) World famous chefs from all over come to teach here. I went down there took and tour, filled out the application and dropped a 100 bucks just like that for the app fee. My Husband about killed me with his eyes when I did that. He knew I was serious. This is what I wanted. This what my hearts passion. Then came the annoying, nagging, antagonistic logic brain. "What are you thinking? This will cost a ton ? How will you pull this off? What about your bills?" Sorry logic! My heart wins this one! We only live once. WHY NOT?! Everything else will work itself out. It has to!

I waited two weeks to find out if I was accepted. I harassed the Notter School multiple times. That's how I knew I really wanted it. I got accepted! I will learn from the best of the best. In 6 months I will be a European Certified Pastry Chef. I will have amazing opportunities to learn from, work next to and be graced with the skills of so many talented and world renowned pastry chefs. We are talking FOOD network stars here people! Ask me one year ago who I was and what I wanted out of life and I would say to you: "no clue".

Ask me today! Well that's a whole new answer. I am dreaming big. Bigger than I ever would have before. I hope to be famous TV star or competitor like my instructors, I hope to maybe be an instructor one day, I hope to have my own pastry studio, or to work for a 5 star resort.... I hope for any or all of it! I must say though I do feel quit silly in the chef's uniform. I am sure none could ever picture me in one either! But I will grown into it I know. So here it is people.

The new and improved recipe for Layla. Still sweet but refined.. and hopefully 5 stars! Be on the look out for my story. I am going to post as often as I can about my adventures through Pastry School. I hope you will find comfort in my story and some inspiration as well. I want to thank Su, Delectable Su for this idea. I have followed her and her journey through school and now her owning her own shop. She has inspired me to share my story as well as prepared me for what is coming my way. AND IT ALL SOUNDS DELICIOUS!

Bon Apetit,
Layla