The guys at Summit flew me out there this past weekend to teach a few of their guests a bit of baking. My flight left at 8a on Friday and I arrived around 2p. At arrival I was greeted with HUGS! That's right not hand shakes, hugs, as a native New Yorker, this was kind of scary. I was then told to leave all my bags in a room and I'd be back for them later, uhhh my laptop, all my recipes, whattt?!! I have major trust issues.
First we all went to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset, IT, WAS, BEAUTIFUL! Afterwards I was driven to the Lake House where the kitchen and chefs were. I walked into prep for approximately 200 guests that evening, all entrepreneurs. So it was a bit of madness and I did not want to get in the way. If not for my bubble I would have recognized some of the chefs, Marcel Vigneron (Top Chef, Next Iron Chef), Haru Kishi and a few others. I got to slice a bit of fennel and cut up some fruit with them, but that was about it.
Oh! and I was giving my class right after dinner, I didn't even know. It wasn't a formal class, anyone who wanted to join in was able to. The chefs were using the kitchen to prep for the next day so I had some tables on the side to work with. My biggest concern, the mountain! I've never baked at high altitude before.
I made my best seller, Buttermilk Pie. We made crusts from scratch, rolled them out, filled them and then came the challenging part, how would we bake them all with only one oven which had one rack. We prepared approximately 30 pies. I couldn't determine if the temperature was correct but with the altitude it didn't matter. I would have to bake at 400 degrees and up at 6000ft. The first pie did not brown and it was in there for well over an hour. For those of you that do not bake, this should've been done in 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
So I had to learn to bake again for the next two days. I made Buttermilk Pie, Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, Butter Gooies, Apple Bars, Irish Potato Candy, and Tres Leches. The rest of my trip was spent traveling for 17 hours and no part of it was fun so we'll just skip through that.
To sum it it up, I learned how to bake all over again, taught a few people how to make my pies, including the chefs. Networked with a bunch of fellow entrepreneurs who gave me new perspective for the shop and my future. I've already started implementing a few things since my return. Let's see if these new changes at Ivy Bakery will get me to where I need to be.
