They make it all seem so easy on TV

I have been an avid viewer of the Food Network since we moved to Washington, DC and subscribed to cable. For over a year I have followed some of the most popular, and not so popular, shows both during the daytime and in the evening. From Rachel Ray’s 30-minute meals, a show and a host who compete for my “Least Favorite” category with Emeril Lagasse and his various shows, to Alton Brown and Paula Dean, both of whom are among my "Most Favorite," I am hooked to channel 54 on our TV set, the preset channel for Food Network. I do not even need to click away looking for shows to watch when in front of the TV, I simply speed to 54 and there I am in front of a cook whisking something or the other in the bowl and making recommendations to do this and not do that in order to ensure the success of this and all other future recipes.

Watching these people "perform" cooking techniques in front of a camera, sometimes in real time, I was brought to believe that I am certainly capable of emulating the professional grasps of utensils and the nonchalant mixing of ingredients. I sincerely believed I was capable of the creating the perfect icing on a cake and the perfect food presentation on a serving plate until yesterday when I started Part Two of my training.

With the tossing of the first, then the second, éclair into the garbage, and the unhappy facial expressions of my trainer, I came to understand that the term "piece of cake" actually refers to eating rather than making the cake. I could never have thought that the simple act of icing a caramel cream puff or dusting tiramisu with cocoa was really not simple at all.

It was fun, though, trying my hand at the different tasks it takes to put out a caramel cream puff and a fruit tart on the display tray. I learned patience while assembling more than 20 individual fruit tarts one fruit piece at a time and attention to the minute details while creating the lemon tarts and then the crème brûlée, some of which I torched away!

After hours of laboring in the pastry kitchen I proudly marched out with a sample of the products I assembled. Ah, yes! While I was not as successful in putting the final touches, I did well in creating the fillings for most of the pastries that day which was the easiest part; throw in a pound of pastry cream, add egg yolks, heavy cream and turn the industrial mixer on for 10 minutes and voila! the base for many of the tarts yet to emerge from underneath my still inexperienced hands!

Despite all the challenges, though, I must admit I have not had that much fun in the kitchen in a long time. That fun, though, faded in comparison to the fun I am to have in the sauté and sandwich stations. But that is part of another story. Stay tuned!

La Patisserie