Ukrainian Wedding Bread -Korovia

As part of a group project, each team was assigned a different type of bread from various countries. 
Korovai is a traditional in weddings where it symbolizes different things. The two birds on top represent the couple. The braided wreath around it symbolizes purity and love. The bread does not have to be in any particular style. It can be modified to fit each of the couples' stories. It has a beautiful meaning behind it as well as a great taste!-Heather 

Dead Dough

It's a beautiful thing when art and food are combined. In my Advanced Techniques class, our amazing chef introduced a type of art, made of bread! She called it Dead Dough because it does not contain any yeast. This helps it to be more malleable, sort of like play dough! I have a background in art, so when I heard about our latest project, I couldn't wait to start. 

First we decided what our design was going to be. I chose to do an ocean scene with a pirate ship that had been destroyed by an octopus. Others chose scenes from movies such as Alice in Wonderland or Up. We began working dough that did have yeast and wove it basket style to make the plaque that the design would eventually go on. Then the fun part! All of the tiny details were created by using different basic kitchen tools, such as a strainer for a grassy texture. My favorite part was marbling the dough to create an aged wood look. This was one of my favorite projects! -Heather 

Night classes, online classes

With the winter quarter I have finished all my paralegal classes, which were only offered during nights. For my remaining classes I am going completely online, which will save me money on gas and the stress of driving in rush hour traffic. I also don't have to go to class after work anymore and can work from home. I am very excited. There are so many great things about online classes and I feel like I am having so much more time because I save the time I normally spend driving to class. I will miss my classmates, though. If you haven't tried online classes I encourage you to give it a try and see of you like it.

Claudia (February #2)

Valentine's Day at Sullivan

The Sullivan students had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day during the winter quarter. Miss Kim did a great job as always coming up with a photo booth and decorating ideas. The café was turned into "Project Love".

Claudia (February #1)

Chef Shadow

I can remember the first time I got to work in Sullivan's kitchens just as a sophomore in high school. It was so cool to be able to skip regular school and spend the day as a culinary student instead. It was the day I knew for sure that this was what I wanted to do with my life. As a student ambassador, I got the chance to be the chef that a student in high school could shadow. It was great to be able to help inspire someone and help them along on their culinary journey. 

The menu we worked with featured various Hispanic dishes such as empanadas, Patatas bravas, and pork roulades. I feel that all of the young students had a great time, just as I did when I was in their position. -Heather 

Baguettes!

As a part of my Advanced Techniques class, we are learning how to make various types of breads. One we have been practicing with is the classic baguette. We learned what it takes to make a preferment and how long of a process each of the preferments take. It was very interesting to taste the difference in each of the baguettes we made.  At first, the baguettes were very oddly shaped and our scoring was off, but now we are getting the hang of it! And not to mention how much fun it is to work with so much dough! -Heather

Cookie Decorating Competition

I have now started my Advanced Techniques class as a part of my Baking and Pastry Arts Degree. It has been such a blast to learn new ways of doing things. Recently, we were given the chance to unleash our creative sides in a cookie decorating competition. Each group had the class period to present one dozen cookies with a royal icing design. My group decided to go with a superhero theme. The time went by a lot faster than we had expected! Luckily, we were able to present 12 cookies. We did not win, but it was a great experience! It was awesome to see all of the different themes! -Heather