Sofitel Chicago Water Tower

Well, I landed my first real job in the pastry world. I've been hired to work in the pastry kitchen at the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower hotel. Click here to check out the hotel. http://www.sofitel.com/sofitel/fichehotel/gb/sof/2993/fiche_hotel.shtml
The hotel is located in the Rush/Division area of Chicago, just off Michigan Avenue. For those of you who are not familiar with the Sofitel brand, they are a French-owned company with a modern, upscale feel. We went there for Mothers' Day brunch and had a great meal.

Being a French hotel, we do a lot of things that I've learned at the French Pastry School over the last 6 months. I started last Friday, working from right after school until about 6:00. Then I went in for a full day on Saturday, from 8:00 - 4:30. I made creme brulee, several mini pastries including chocolate tarts, fruti tarts, etc.

I also made about 500 or more peanut butter cookies. To put this into perspective, imagine a recipe that calls for 16 lbs of flour!!! And 8 lbs of sugar and 8 lbs of brown sugar! The total yield of the recipe was 54 lbs! Crazy.

Oh, one other thing you might find interesting. One of the ovens at the hotel could be considered a walk-in oven, assuming you had heat-proof shoes. :-) Literally, this oven is about the size of a small bathroom, and you wheel 2 large carts in to bake bread, etc. A little arm comes down from the ceiling, lifts the carts, and slowly spins them for even browning during cooking. It's crazy.

Well, I can tell that I haven't posted for a long time by the fact that this post is rambling all over the place. So, I'm going to put y'all out of your misery and end it here. But I'll leave it up to you, do you want to hear more about the Sofitel and what I've done, including my one f-up? Or do you want to hear about how I nailed the interview to land the job, including a response to "What makes you lose your temper?" that indicated that the only person who can cause me to lose my temper is my wife?

The next post is up to you, loyal readers. Choose your own adventure...