"I heard that SU YiN...." *Chef James's evil grin*

"Oh Chef James... What now?! Did I mess up again?"

He looks at me funny with a stern glare...
I detest it; ...I pout;
he snickers and giggles with a cheeky finger pointed at me.
DANg it! He got me again!
*tsk tsk* Shame on me! *laughs*

I can't decide at times if he's my knowledgeable, wise and credible chef; or a boy with sleeves full of pranks! He seems to be pretty slick at keeping his playful mannerisms in the bag... but my lenses do pick up hints of all that hidden cheekiness. You can't hide from my camera Chef James! ;) I love learning from James but getting away with mischief in class just gets difficult with him around! He always has me at the corner of his eye..and he knows what I'm up to!.. He hears EVERYTHING! It's dang embarrassing sometimes when we say silly things and forget that he's around. It's been more than a couple of months now; and I can safely say I've learnt his personality as well as he has adapted to mine. It's funny how I know now what he's about to say to me next; or how I can tell what hes thinking from the expression on his face; haha I'm so glad it isn't a guessing game for me anymore, he just loves to pull faces and 'looks' to make me nervous! it's almost like an annoying older brother who keeps you on your toes..just because he CAN!
Having had accomplished lots from his time spent working at Tru in Chicago and with Ron Ben Isreal in New York; this young and bashful James has made a strong impression on the American pastry industry. Lookout for this handsome Chef instructor of mine on the food network challenges this April; it's going to be great! I can't wait to watch the episodes. Chef James Rosselle is going to be the next big thing in cake superstardom guys!
The new schedule for professional classes from the Notter School was released a couple weeks ago. I dived in for the opportunity to take extra 2 day weekend lessons from Chef James on his expertise: Sugar Flowers.The first day was about shaping our pastes; molding petals, leaves and getting acquainted to shapes and looks of different flowers. He showed us many new tips and filled us in on a couple of his secrets to realistic flowers. You can tell he's done at least a million petals as you watch him skillfully bend, flip and twirl tiny sheets of paste into duplicates of natures work.Most cake decorators have different working styles and its real interesting to learn from each of them. Despite having done similar flowers before with almost the exact type of sugarpaste; there always seems to be a good tip to pick up from every different class I take.
Now that I've learnt from others; I can't wait to develop a style to suit my favorite flowers and techniques in days to come.
On the second day of class; we picked up our dried petals and swept away carefully with our tiny brushes; lined with petal dust and luster shimmers to bring our bold colours to life. It was amazing how tiny dabs of dust created great depth and shadows in each petal. The class was a MESS! petal dust everywhere! *laughs* There wasn't a clean uniform in sight! Chef James was probably the only with nothing on his clean and crisp white jacket. Every table or chair that I laid my fingers on had coloured dust on it.
The worst bit was actually having my hands wet trying to clean my fingers; The dust would absorb the moisture and intensify into dark flowy droplets of colour! There was dust all over my arms and face!
Imagine having pink and green eyeshadow all over your cheeks and forehead! The more I cleaned; the more it smeared... a couple of attempts later, I decided; "you know what!? *#&$ it... I've got a peacock's behind on my face! ...and that's how I like it!" *laughs*

Chef James also taught us to steam our flowers and leaves to give them a light shiny sheen. I personally prefer airbrushing my flower petals... just because I'm a fan of speed and small amounts of body covered colourful mess! hehe.We made our parrot tulips, french tulips, peonies, lisianthus and pretty dark green filler leaves to create a beautiful posy each. I had heaps of fun; broke a tulip and a couple of peony petals along the way; but it was still an amazing experience.
Knowing that they wouldn't and shouldn't smell like real flowers; I still gave my finished bouquet a whiff anyway! I thought they were gorgeous. ;)
It was a wonderful weekend of therapeutic petal dusting; petal breaking frustrations and downright dirty fingers. James class was heaps of fun! Can you tell from the happy faces?
*NOTE: and before all the silly ideas begin to form... the answer is NO... I do not have a crush on Chef James! Haha I do not want to need to explain myself anymore guys. He's my instructor; he is the Chef and I am the student; so...it makes it weird to be oogling. Everyone else is very welcomed to oogle as much as they like. ;)
I respect his talent and professionalism thats why I have nice things to say about him... not because I have my mind elsewhere.
he looks awfully good in pictures too... thats why I have many published photographs of him.
I'm glad that's now said.
**-signing out- the second time ;)