Yes, it’s Wednesday and I was given the task of being Chef de Partie—Desserts.

The job of a Chef de Partie is to manage a section of the menu and to have subsidiary cooks working under me. Today, I had the great help of Chuckles Charlie and my old pal Nervous Nate, so I can’t claim that the work was all mine, especially since Mon Chef demonstrated the plating he wanted, so I can’t get too many Brownie Points for Creativity either although I’ll give myself some small pat on the back for management skills.

Nevertheless I did handle the more technically difficult parts of the pieces, especially the Tuiles, which are the Almond Wafers used in this first dessert:

This miss-named piece is called Mille Feuilles, Strawberry Mousse and Almond Biscuit.

What it actually is, is a construction of Almond Tuiles, Strawberries and Cream Mousse with Strawberry Slices, Dusted with Icing Sugar and Served with a Quenelle of Whipped Cream, a Mint Leaf and a Toffee Spiral. The important thing here is that the Mousse should be very firm and cold to get it to sit properly.

Next up …

Frozen Hazelnut Praline Soufflé Served with a Quenelle of Whipped Cream, a Mint Leaf and Spun Toffee.

The praline is made by dry roasting hazelnuts, pouring hot toffee on them, letting the toffee mixture set hard and then blitzing the toffee and hazelnut mix in a food processor. The cold soufflée is made by making a sabayon of either Frangelico or hazelnut syrup and then gently folding in the praline as well as a soft cold meringue and whipped cream. The result is an almost lighter-than-air hazelnut cold souflée mousse.

I contributed little to the next piece, aside from supporting Nervous Nate a little by helping him with his Mise en Place and cleaning up after him because he, like Mon Chef, is a rather messy cook. Also, entirely my fault, I waited a little too long before I photographed this before it started to melt.

Chocolate Mocha Tart with Swirls of Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate Ganache.

Next week we’ll be repeating theses dishes with some variations in order to refine the recipes, since, frankly, we discovered that the recipes that we get aren’t always entirely reliable, which really upsets us and Mon Chef, who then has to give us his own recipes from his vast repertoire.