My tortured pastry soul

There are two reasons why I am a tortured pastry soul today:

1. It's passover, which means no leaved products, no wheat etc etc etc. Pain does not even begin to describe the special kind of torture this is for a pastry chef. Not just any pastry chef, but one who gets to work at 3:45 in the morning to be greeted with the heady aroma of freshly baked bread. I spend all day surrounded by cakes, pastries, fantastic artisan breads and all manner of scrumptious, delicious, delectable leavened products. These are the longest eight days of my carb-addicted life.

2. I lived my worst pastry nightmare today when the kitchen I was working in was totally devoid of sugar, eggs and butter. My entire patisserie existance was, for those hours, declared null and void. The good news was, I was working in a pastry section which did not rely on those things as heavily as other sections...but still, I felt the collective pain. A life devoid of butter, sugar and eggs are what pastry nightmares are made of.