Wish List

Working as a pastry chef is different than baking at home. Most people don't realize that being a pastry chef is hard work. It is a very physical job where you're on your feet for 8 to 10 hours a day, you are constantly lifting heavy bags of flour or big bowls of dough and the heat in the kitchen can be hotter than Hades on some days.

However, there are advantages. Most professional kitchens are just that - professional. Your equipment is at your fingertips, ingredients are organized and in bins just where you need them, tables can be scraped and wiped down with ease and you have large ovens that fit all of your trays and give a nice, steady heat especially if you are lucky enough to have a convection oven. Essentially, the kitchen works with you.

Which brings me to today. I am at home baking bread, something I know how to do. I used to make at least a dozen loaves a day when I worked at the restaurant, no problem. And still, most of my baking is done at work not in my own home kitchen. My problem today was with my oven, an ordinary electric oven that heats from the top and bottom. Unfortunately for me it heats more from the top than the bottom so my bread was baked on the top but not on the bottom.

So my wish for today is that somehow, someday I will get a convection oven. I already have my eye on a steam assisted convection oven from KitchenAid. Perhaps Santa will think I've been a good pastry chef and send one my way next Christmas....then again, my birthday is coming up - perhaps he'll show up early.