“Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.” – Simone Weil

Imagine what real life would be like without imagination? Without people expanding their minds, seeing past the stars, the concept of creativity would not exist. This can be applied to any creative medium. Imagine a world without poetry, music, photography, or food… not a pretty place. When people embrace imagination, people create, and when people create the world benefits.

My latest project in culinary school was to design a chocolate showpiece. Instead of following the trend of using American elements to compose our showpiece, my partner and I decided to side with the French. We used very organic looking shapes to represent our 101 Dalmatians (our project’s theme was Disney movies) concept. What I like most about our piece is its simplicity. Every piece present is clean, eye catching, and not too busy. While complexity is not necessarily a bad thing, there’s just something special about a simple and effective design.

It was truly a pleasure to witness my entire class use their imagination to create chocolate showpieces representing their favorite childhood movies.

Believe it or not, but my pastry program is almost over. Months of sweet, delectable knowledge is stored in my head and can be brought to life with my hands. With that being said, I have been dipping my fingers in chocolate for the past month.

In the beginning, I could not stand tempering (the process of melting and raising the temperature) chocolate. It was time consuming, messy, and well… boring. Although I understood the importance of the tempering process, my classes dragged. That all changed once I tasted the finished candies. There’s something special about eating chocolate that is shiny (and that contains sea salt).

That does not mean out of temper chocolate is not delicious (and cool looking)!

I am currently working on a showpiece with my partner, Danielle, and needless to say it has been a challenge. You never know what is going to break until it does. Our theme is 101 Dalmatians and I must admit I love the direction we are taking it in. We are combining the organic flowiness (not a real word) of French showpieces opposed to the blocky (also not a real word) American style. I am a big fan of symbolism, so this should be a fun ride.

To see more pictures of my chocolate adventure, follow me on Twitter and Tumblr.

Two weeks ago, I was walking up and down the aisles of the International Restaurant & Food Show pondering what it must be like to be a restaurant owner. Although I am only a culinary student, the dream of opening a small shop with my best friends is always in the back of my mind. While the exhibitors pitched their products in the background, I was deaf to what they were saying and was focused on the bigger picture; dedicating my time, sharpening my skills, and achieving my goal.

I heard from a number of chefs that when they started their careers the workload was brutal. While I can not say I am looking forward to the extremely long hours and even less sleep, I know it comes with the territory and I am prepared. Sometimes I have my doubts and I gradually grow worrisome, but then I see things like this…

The thought of a team of pastry chefs (normal people like you and I) planning and executing every detail of this piece is nothing short of amazing. Art and pastry go hand in hand, but it is sculptures like this that really set me back. It inspires me, it challenges me to do better; I must try my best. Again, I am merely a student, but I strive to be someone of influence.