As I mentioned on Twitter, I was lucky enough to work during the Flavor Summit, a conference hosted by CIA Greystone and Food Arts Magazine. According to the CIA, the Flavor Summit brings together food service experts to “discuss and taste their way through a stimulating, critical set of flavor and related kitchen and dining management issues.”
I was incredibly excited to see what goes on behind the scenes in preparing for a conference, and this experience did not disappoint!
Here are some photos of the different products that the baking and pastry group made on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Turnovers with pistachio, cardamom, and rosewater filling.
Chinese doughnuts.
Zeppole.
Making the zeppole was my favorite part of the weekend! The moment I tasted a zeppole I realized that they are deep fried balls of perfection. From the powdered sugar topping, to the crunchy exterior, to the creamy dough inside, the zeppole were flawless. The dough has all of the usual players- flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, milk- but is distinguished with the addition of ricotta cheese. I used the excuse of “performing quality control” and popped a few in my mouth over the course of the day.
Working during the Flavor Summit was a definite win-win for me as I got paid and gained valuable experience in the bakeshop. I’m looking forward to working more conferences in the future!
The week was capped off with a trip to Mumm Napa with a few friends from school. We had a nice time catching up and chatting outside our typical kitchen environment. We were a bit too late to catch a tour of the winery, but that just calls for another trip in the future!
Sparkling wine tasting at Mumm Napa.
Sparkling wines in the patio tasting salon.
[...] All four of us went with the “Life is a Bed of Rosé” tasting, which was a fun change from the classic tasting I had last time I visited. [...]