The art of baking is being one of the most fascinating areas in the Culinary Journey.  I have always wonderful how the wonderful breads and cakes are made.  Coz many times the items we consume are so wonderful that they just melt into your mouth.  And many of them just let your mouth just water.  Other times you just stand startled wonderful how it ended up being so tasty.  Whatever reason you might have, baking for sure is an ART and for that you will need to consider each of the creations as piece of art.  And the person making it becomes an Artist.

I got an opportunity to meet a Chef Rahul Kumar who is in Courtyard Marriott who gave some Baking Basic lesson to few Bloggers.  I was quite delighted to hear the moment I got an opportunity.  This event happened at the MOMO Café Kitchen that is there in the Courtyard / Fairfield Marriott Kitchen @ Bellandur.  There were some wonderful items that I have consumed in the past but this time around I got an opportunity to make them myself.  Let me share some of my experience.

I just shared a little insight into the planed Bakers Basic event.  I need to share the location which is critical coz the items we prepared will end up being auctioned here.  Well, I am just kidding but yes it is important to know the place so you can go and try it for yourself rather than getting to just reach and enjoy the items with your eyes.

If you are coming from the Maratahalli side, you will need to take the flyover which crosses the Cisco office to the left and then take the next flyover.  Immediately after taking flyover take a U-turn in the service lane and drive another 50 mts to see Courtyard Fairfield Marriott to the right.

Momo Café is the dining restaurant that has the Bakery and the Coffee shop where all the Bakery items are displayed and also can be purchased.

There are many items that we can learn to prepare as part of the Bakers Basic session.  But then the Chef decided to teach us few items which we consume quite regularly but always wonderful how they are made.

I am not sure if they are basic coz I feel they look quite advanced.  But then these are items that are the favourite among many foodies.

Next I will start to share the experience of making the items.

This is a bread that first had few years back when I travelled to US.  The bread has a unique taste which is the reason why it is popular.  And many times we see that these breads are there in the buffets.  It was nice to actually make the dish by ourselves.

In terms of the process, we were required to follow the process of trying to mix the down and bring it to the right amount of softness devoid of stickiness.  And also add Rosemary which is the main item that adds the flavour to Focaccia. And then there are items like Olive and yeast which are critical during the preparation.  Once all the mixing is done, the dough is cut and then olive added to it.  Then it’s time for baking with rocksalt on top which causes the dough to poof.  It’s time finally to taste the wonderful bread.

I personally loved the bread the way it came out coz it tasted so yummy.  I am hoping to try it myself and also take some from the hotel in future.

Among the pastries, this for sure happens to the popular ones but then it’s easier eaten and actually prepared.  Well, in this session, we got a chance to actually make the live cheese cake.  I must say that it felt great making it.

It requires mixing some cheese, cream, milk to make a smooth mixture.  There is some egg yolk that is added.  Then there is also addition of white yolk to the cheese mixture.  It might already seem to be a difficult proposition to make and might be overwhelming.  But then there are very few steps left in which adding biscuit crumbs and pouring cheese mixture for baking are the only main steps.  Then it’s time to enjoy the cheese cake with berries.

The taste of the cheese cake came out to be wonderful.  The best part was actually seeing and preparing the dish by ourselves.

The desert looks simple but has its own fair share of complexity.  It involves addition of cream and egg yolk for making a fluffy mix.  There is a process of folding the whipped cream and pure coffee expresso. There are many more complex steps that the Chef explained and we just followed it.

Final step involved keeping the mixture in the fridge and then adding cocoa power.

This was one of the most challenging deserts to prepare but the final outcome of the dish was simply awesome.  I loved and was quite proud of my preparation.

Crossant
Apart from the preparation we all got to taste some of the freshly made Crossant and I must say that it was one of the best crossant I have had in ages.  The dough was so well baked and seemed to be so fresh.  Infact, the taste was so good that we got a few to our seat so we could have it during our lunhc.

After the Chef Baking classes, we were also treated some wonderful lunch at the Momo Café.  The lunch included the food from Mediterranean, Indian, Chinese.  To add top, it all up we all got a flavour of the various Ice Teas that were made which had flavours of Pineapple, Lime, Ginger, Rose and other flavours.

Apart from the food and the drinks, we also tasted some of the deserts that we made.

It was a wonderful experience getting a chance to attend the Chef’s Basic event @Courtyard Fairfield Marriott @Bellandur.  I wold be very much interested in trying some of the items back home.  And yes, if I get a chance to attend any other Advanced courses in baking, I would try it out as it sure is fun learning to bake and not just eat what is baked.

I would like to thank the Courtyard Fairfield management and Chef Rahul Kumar for teaching some novices on baking.  If I were to rate the learning experience, I would give it a 4.0/5, with a hope that I will learn many trick of Baking in future.

With Nivedith, Rohit Chopra, Craolyn, Naveen Suresh, Chef Rahul