Culinary Arts & Systems with Erin

[ Music ]
>> Erin Brown: I love to do something with my life
that means something to other people,
something that will affect someone.
I think food definitely does that.
Food is comfort.
Hi, I am Erin Brown, and I'm a Penn College student.
I'm in Culinary Arts and Systems,
and Baking and Pastry Arts.
>> No, they're not cubature
because they don't have the cocoa butter --
>> Erin Brown: Yeah.

>> Erin Brown: I love Baking and Pastry Arts.
My mom taught me a lot when I was younger, and I just wanted
to follow through with that.
So I hope I can have my own business with cakes and pastries
when I get older, be in business for myself.
Definitely Chocolate Works is my favorite class this semester.
I love going in and creating and -- I don't know.
I just love chocolate.
It's a different medium to work with.
[ Music ]
We start out with small projects so we learn the basics
of chocolate and then we move on to a bigger chocolate piece.
And that way we can use all the skills
that we learned previously for this one chocolate final.
It actually is a chocolate house [laughing].
And you can either eat it or save it
for decoration [laughing].
Basically, four walls and a roof and build a house.
And then, from there, we're going to get creative
and add decorations to it and everything.
And then they can be sold
at an auction later on in the semester.
>> This is your final project for the class.
We've already covered the fundamentals of melting,
tempering, getting the chocolate out on the table,
getting pieces cut accurately and efficiently.
So you need to take all that now and get ready for the food show,
Friday, December the 8th.
>> Erin Brown: We can pick any kind of building.
Some people are doing hospitals, libraries, schools,
and I'm doing my dad's sign shop.
I wanted to have a Brownie's Sign Shop
in a chocolate village.
Before I started on my chocolate house,
I actually put it all together, my cardboard pieces.
That way I knew what it would look like
and to make sure my pieces would all fit together.
And then what we did was take the cardboard apart,
lay it flat down on the chocolate, cut out each piece.
Then I'm going to put all my pieces together
on one sheet tray.
And then, when I have all of them completed,
then I'll start building.
I'm using milk chocolate, dark, and white.
So much drama with this chocolate house [laughing]!
A piece breaks.
Dun, dun, dun.
>> Well, what we want to do is we want
to scrape off the excess chocolate --
>> Erin Brown: Okay.
>> -- anything that you used to mend it before.
And then take the tip of your knife
and just gently score it back and forth,
a little bit deeper than that --
>> Erin Brown: Okay.
>> -- almost like a stitching mark.
So when we apply the chocolate,
it's going to get down in the seams.
[ Music ]
>> Erin Brown: And thank goodness I'm doing brick
over top so it'll kind of cover up the rough edges too.
This class is definitely going to help me later
on because not a lot of people
in the field actually take a Chocolate Works class.
A lot of people don't know how to work with chocolate,
so I think that actually puts me ahead of the game.
I'm attaching the garage door onto my actual wall,
so I made it look like it was garage slats.
And then the last one at the very top is going to be angled
so it looks like it's actually in the process
of going up into the ceiling.
With some white chocolate,
I'm going to pipe a bead along the line here
and then cold spray it really fast.
And I might have to find, like, a piece of foil to set it
up so it stays while it hardens.
I'm just going to let it sit for a really long time,
probably until next week.
That way it actually gets to harden.
>> Anything we can do flat, we should continue to do flat,
like putting on windows and piping and different things
on the structure before we stand it up.
>> Erin Brown: Basically, now I'm just marking
where my lines are going to be for my siding.
And then, when I move on to my next one, I have to make sure
that my lines match up.
I just have to fill up my parchment bag
with dark cubature or dark coating, and then I'm going
to do my line straight across.
[ Background noise ]
Whew! There we go.
One wall down [laughing].
This is one of my side pieces.
This is the side that's going to be on the very front.
Then this is my back garage door.
And along with this piece here, this is the office.
We have these two walls that go along with that one.
Then I have my doors and my roof pieces.
Then over here is the back door.
So basically what you want
to do is pipe chocolate along the inside of every corner.
And then I'm going to take the cold spray and freeze it
and then hopefully it will stay.
Chocolate is what you build everything with,
and chocolate is your glue too.
I don't know how I should get that to line up.
Do you think I should cut it?
>> Yeah.
>> Erin Brown: We're just cutting off the bottom
and then it will lean towards the other side
and then it'll go flush with the side.
Much better.
I constantly visualize the result.
I have to keep in mind what my end result is.
That way, I know what I'm working on.
Especially the individual pieces,
because they're just so different.
I have to keep in mind which part goes
where in the final product so it looks right.
There we go.
There's all my walls.
I feel like I'm here for a reason.
You know, I'm putting my time and money into this school;
and I want to get everything that I can out of it,
because this is my time.
This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
I might have to take some time out of labs
to get all the little details done
and all my decorations and everything.
[ Background noise ]
This is actually a night that I was here for another lab.
So, afterwards, I decided to stay and work
on my chocolate house.
And I did about four trees out of white chocolate
and then I colored it green and then I just need to glue them
to my actual house using chocolate.
Now I think I'm just going to do royal icing on the roof
to make it look like snow.
And, basically, royal icing is an icing that gets really hard
and will stay like that once it dries.
I'm going to cover up my trees a little bit so it looks
like snow fell on them too.
Right now I'm just going to color some royal icing.
I'm going to start with green.
My family always puts the multicolored lights
on our house 'cuz we think they look older and more nostalgic.
So, of course, that's what I'm going to use on my house too.
I'm going to have three other colors,
so I want to leave room for those.
I'm just going to eye it.
I'm going to leave about an inch in between.
Really, I only have 'till next week to work on it.
So I'm going to have to work really fast
and use my time wisely.
Basically, I have to finish up the lights on my house.
I want to put a ladder on this side, and then I wanted
to put signs on the inside.
And, of course, I need my own sign that says Brownie's Signs.
This is the part that I've been longing for is
to do all the decorations and all the little itsy bitsy things
that make the house what it is.
I like 'em.
I think the lights look really cool [laughing].
Labor intensive, but neat.
Chef Charles got me some fettuccine pasta,
and we're going to use this for our ladder.
And we're going to dip it in chocolate, let it harden,
snip off the end, dip it again
so you can't see the pasta, and then stand it up.
I wanted a ladder from the very start.
Considering I wanted a sign shop, I didn't know what really
to do with it to make it unique.
So I decided a ladder would be something
that a sign shop should have.
Next, I'm going to take the icing I already colored,
since I saved it; I'm going to use it to make my lights
that will hang down and onto the ladder
so it looks like somebody stopped mid putting up the lights.
There we go.
Hey, cool.
Basically, all I have left to do is make signs for on the inside.
My dad always does Pepsi Cola signs.
We always eat at OIP [laughing].
And my great grandmother used to have a diner.
They're just little signs to go inside,
so they're not too detailed.
They're just, you know, little things that you can see inside
and make my house really interactive.
I have to finish my sign that will say Brownie's Signs hanging
down and just do some little tidbits.
We're also going to take the blow torch with the hot knife
and whittle out two holes in my walls
and then stick the straws in, freeze dry it,
and then attach my sign.
[ Music ]
>> Brownie's finally has a sign.
>> Erin Brown: Finally.
>> Finally.
That's great.
>> Erin Brown: Thanks, Chef.
>> Very nice.
>> Erin Brown: This is an overwhelming feeling.
Like, I have so much homework to do tonight, but this, like,
took a whole bunch of weight off my shoulders that this is done.
[ Music ]
>> We have about 200 high school students coming in;
people in the community; the college community,
of course; family, friends.
So it's really going to be an exciting day.
It's pretty quiet in here now, a little bit empty.
But it's really going to come to life.
At nine o'clock we have industry chefs come in
and do the judging, and they'll actually judge all the pieces
in here for about 45 minutes.
And at ten o'clock, the show will open to the public.
And the food show will go on for three hours, from ten to one.
And then, at one o'clock, the silent auction,
which will be going on for the chocolate house will close.
And it's pretty funny because people are here right at --
right at one, you know, one minute of one,
putting on their last-minute bid.
[ Music ]
>> Erin Brown: Second place.
>> Is that yours?
>> Erin Brown: Yeah, that's mine.
>> Erin Brown: Thanks.
Actually, I wasn't really looking forward to placing;
so I'm more than thrilled that I got second place.
I'm really proud of it.
It took all that time; and now that you're just standing here,
it's like, I did that.
Like, it's hard to imagine that you actually put all that work
into it and all those hours added up.
But, like, wow, I'm here and it's done
and it's in front of me.
I can't wait to put this in my portfolio tonight.
My dad took a million pictures [laughing].
So I can't wait.
This is definitely going to be a nice addition.
My dad was actually the last bid.
He bid fifty dollars, so he might get it.
I don't know.
I might be taking it home tonight.
I got an A on my chocolate house, which is awesome.
Second place and an A. You can't beat it.
It's a great day.
I knew it would be a good education.
But once I got here, every day I say, wow.
And I'm really fortunate to be here.
And now I know if I can do a chocolate house,
I can do anything.
It all ties in together, and I can't wait
to use my skills out in the industry.