This week we covered short pastry. We made leek, asparagus and blue cheese tart (yum), chicken and mushroom pie (delicious) and lamb pasties (ok). There was lots of prep, so it ended up being a rather long day. But making the pastries wasn’t so much the challenge as trying to bake them in the ovens at college. The ovens can be a bit temperamental, and they don’t always work as they should. After half an hour of baking, my pies still would not cook, and it took two oven changes, and a further 20 minutes before I achieved a result.

Chicken & mushroom pie

Leek, asparagus & blue cheese tart

But this was a far better outcome than the fate that beset poor G. His pies cooked alright. In fact they cooked so much that they turned out burnt to a crisp. And this was only after a mere ten minutes in his oven! G is a pretty laid back kind of fella, but on this occasion, you could tell he was none too pleased. Never trust that oven dial I say. And to think I almost set up at his work station rather than the one I ended up using…

As readers will know, we are not suppose to take food home for it goes to the cafeteria for sale or to feed the porters, etc. But this week, Chef let us buy our goodies to take home for the bargain basement price of £1 each. It might seem a little perverse to have to pay for the food you make at cookery school, but considering I bought a similar chicken and mushroom pie from Selfridges food hall recently for about £8, I considered this quite good value.

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