Chef Herbst Comes To Visit: Profiteroles & Black Forest Cake!

Again this semester Chef Walter Herbst is spending almost a week with us in the Monarch Park Kitchens. Thank you, Chef Herbst!

Learning to make Choux Paste is ... unsettling. It has to be done precisely, and the half-way point of making it renders a MOST un-appetising mess rolling around in a pot. Eeeuch! Who wants THAT stuff?

Well, add a few eggs, fill a piping bag and ... PRESTO! SHAZAM! Something magical can happen ... all you need next is heat.

Turns out EVERYBODY wants 'that stuff'.

Chef Herbst demonstrated (perfectly, of course) how to make choux paste.

Then the students tried ... almost a first-time home-run for every group! Congratulations, students. You didn't lose your nerve, and the final results were simply delicious, visually decadent and smelled grand!

Here is Leshaunda showing how it is done.

Everyone needed to practice with a piping bag, and although final results varied slightly, every group, every student, did a wonderful job. And some student tried making swans!

Our biggest problem was with the Chantilly Cream ... everyone argued about how much should be put into each profiterole ... and a little nutella was added (just for medicinal purposes, as one student earnestly assured me ... medicinal purposes ONLY, Chef!)

Thank you for everything, Chef Herbst. Now students are saying that they can do this at home! See what you've started?

For tomorrow ... we begin Black Forest Cake!