Coming Soon: A report on my week at Chocolate Boot Camp

[Mike Nolan]

I'm in Chicago attending Chocolate Boot Camp at the Chocolate Academy this week. This is a 4 day class that is an introduction to working with chocolate--how to temper it, how to fill molds and make shaped pieces, dipping chocolates, making ganaches and bon bons, and probably a dozen other things.

I'm taking plenty of notes and a number of photos, and I'll have several reports on it after I get home. Right now I'm too tired after our second full day in class to write much.

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[Italiancook]

I'll look forward to reading your reports, Mike. I hope you are able to achieve good rest once you're home.

[cwcdesign]

Sounds like fun, Mike. Look forward to your reports as wellz

[Mike Nolan]

It was an interesting 4 days, and I'm completely worn out. I'm going to drive out to visit my brother in NW Illinois tomorrow and will get home on Saturday, so the first report will probably not be until next week. I took a lot of pictures, most of which show details of specific techniques, but I have some good pictures of the various goodies we helped make and some of the pieces our instructor made while we watched or worked on other tasks.

The Chocolate Academy lab is incredible; they have a machine that cuts things like cake and chocolate with high pressure water. It costs over $100,000, but a large production bakery can probably make it back in cost savings (faster cutting and less waste) in a couple of years. We didn't get to use it, but we saw it in action several times by the other chefs on staff.

[BevM]

I'm looking forward to your report on the chocolate boot camp. I thoroughly enjoy all your blog posts. Chocolate isn't one of my favorites but there are some interesting things made with it. I need to learn to make something other than brownies!!!

[BakerAunt]

I'm trying to be patient as I look forward to this blog on chocolate--and it sounds like some neat bakery stuff as well.

[Mike Nolan]

There won't be much about baking, this was a class about making chocolate candies, not baking with chocolate. I do have a few pictures of some of the fancy desserts we had at lunch that I'll post in part 3. I'm also going to talk a bit about spending a week eating in Chicago. (It's never been much of a 'fancy restaurant' town but it's well-know for 'good food'.)

I think nearly everyone who works at the Chocolate Academy has attended cooking school, most had a pretty solid work history in food service, too. So there's probably more cooking talent there than in several high-caliber restaurants combined. Since their primary mission is to develop recipes and convince restaurants, bakeries and chocolatiers to use their products, being able to speak to a chef on a professional level is highly desirable.

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