Day 28 Update

Monique Burr- the biggest event to date

April has been a crazy whirlwind of a month. Layla's birthday was followed by Easter, followed by a wedding cake, and finally, the culmination of it all, the Monique Burr event. Monique Burr is an organization that advocates for abandoned and abused children. Every year, Roy's heads up an event called A Night in the Village. The parking lot is transformed into a "village" with lights, fences, trees, tables, a stage, etc and the businesses in our plaza open their doors for special treats and shopping with all the ticket and sales proceeds going to the Monique Burr Foundation. In the past, there has been approximately five hundred attendees. This is the biggest event I have prepared for to date. The stress level at work has been through the roof this last month. Event after event, combined with management vacations and conferences left us all on edge and the usual back of the house spirit was definitely a little more tense. I've been feeling the pressure. We began preparing for the event a couple of months ago. We determined the dishes and I created a detailed timeline to make sure everything was prepared in time. It all went off without a hitch. I didn't feel much stress as far as the actual dishes were concerned. My stress was definitely more of a social thing. Roy Yamaguchi himself attends this event, as well as many of the Executive Chefs of the Roy's on the East Coast. Back of the house is not very big, and having an extra five Chefs plus food to serve 500 people only makes the space that much smaller. I'm used to having the back of the house/pastry area mostly to myself, and many (influential) people were in my personal space. I did my best to grin and bear it, but I definitely needed a couple of Ativan to make it through.

The day of the event, I was prepping and Roy Yamaguchi walks around the corner. I have gloves on my hands since I am preparing ready to eat food. I have to make a split second decision. Do I shake his hand wearing a glove, or do I take off the glove and shake his hand with a sweaty, just-ungloved-so-kind-of-powdery hand. I opted for the ungloved handshake and as he walked away after a quick head nod and "nice to meet you", quickly face palmed myself. I just shook Roy Yamaguchi's hand...and my hand was gross and sweaty and powdery. I quickly shook it off and realized that he has definitely been in this business long enough to understand, and was thankful I was wearing the glove to begin with. My favorite dish of the night was my Kaffir Lime Curd Tarts with a Ginger Meringue and my Signature Sugar Cookie base. The idea for this was my own, and I love how they turned out.

We also had Cannolis stuffed with a Haupia (traditional coconut pudding) cannoli filling. Some had a brunoise of pineapple folded in, and some had chocolate shavings folded it.

Natane was in charge of the Ice Cream for the Teeny Tiny Ice Cream Cones. She made pistachio and nutella ice creams, and a blueberry sorbet. She spent most of the night in the freezer scooping ice cream. THAT is dedication.

Our final dessert was a Yuzu Pound Cake with Mirin Macerated Strawberries and a Basil Whipped Cream. It was a new take on Strawberry Shortcake and went over very well.

Overall, the event couldn't have gone any smoother. I learned quite a bit and am proud of the success of the event. I'm extremely glad that it is over for the year, however. Now that I have done one of these events, I have a better idea going into the next one what to expect.

19 days into my 90 Day Challenge

Today is day 19 of my 90 Day Challenge. My brother is getting married in October and I found this amazing dress that I fell in love with and would be perfect for the occasion.

Marc said to go ahead and order it. I did, and ordered a size 10. It was the only size they had left. It came on day two of the challenge and I couldn't zip it. Not a single inch. I was disappointed, but hopeful because it gave me a more tangible goal than a number on a scale which can be deceiving. I tried it on a few times in the last 19 days and today...well... TODAY:

I'm so friggin' excited!! It wasn't very easy to zip, but if it didn't zip AT ALL 19 days ago, I know in a few more days it will zip right up without a struggle. I'm already down a pants size, too, and the scale showed a 5 lb loss on Tuesday. We will see what it says in two days on THIS Tuesday.

I've always been skeptical of this kind of product because I get REALLY crabby when my blood sugar gets low, I feel deprived of food, and/or am hungry. I haven't felt ANY of that with this!! It's been so amazing! These shakes taste SOOOOOO good (my favorite is the butterfinger- literally tastes like a butterfinger) and, being a pastry chef, it doesn't deprive me of "dessert" because it's like I'm drinking dessert two meals a day!

If you want more information, go watch this six minute video. It tells you way more about it than I ever could.

Wedding Cake

Last Wednesday, I was informed that I had a wedding cake to create for the 14th. The person they were communicating with was in Germany, and the only information I was getting was through the person who plans the parties for our restaurant. I secured some basic information, but it boiled down to them just trusting me to come up with something. They wanted a round, two tier with no separation, vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant. Their colors are blues, but we didn't have a sample of WHICH blues. They are getting married on the beach, then coming the short distance to Roy's for their reception. I had a photo of the bride's bouquet.

I browsed online and in cake magazines. This is someone's wedding cake. I wanted it to be special and perfect for their big day. I found a cake that I gathered inspiration from, drew up a sketch, and went from there. The hardest part was that I had to rely on others to secure the cake base and flowers. It's hard to let that kind of responsibility go to others when the end result has your name on it. It all worked out, though!

I had so much FUN doing this cake. It went smoothly, I had good quality fondant to work with which makes things so much easier, and I had space to work. I can't wait until the next one!

Chocolate Painting

Marc and I ADORE TacoLu- a local eatery in Jax Beach that seriously has the best tacos around!!! My favorite is the avocado taco, I think. We go there fairly regularly, so when I heard that the owner, Don, was in with his family to celebrate his birthday at Roy's, I knew something special needed to be done. The signature artwork around TacoLu is the day of the dead skull. I saw a piece of artwork hanging there that I really loved, so I snapped a pic of it on my phone the last time we were there.

I pulled it up and did a loose interpretation of it on his birthday plate in chocolate. I wasn't able to get any pictures, but he did and posted them all on Facebook!

I was so glad he did! This is just one more reason I love my job and makes it get more amazing every day!