making you happy makes me happy

Lately, I've been thinking a LOT about what I want to do after I graduate... more fine dining restaurants, a bakery, or a management position? I really have NO Idea!!! It's a little bit stressful trying to decide because part of me really fears making the "wrong decision" that, as my dad wholeheartedly believes in, will screw up my future forever.

So anyway...these past two days was our "menu project" final exam in which we presented 2 original plated desserts to the chef. The two desserts that he chose off of my "yin-yang, cooling&warming" 11-item menu for my makebelieve restaurant was

1. a 'cooling' cabonated cucumber soup with mint-infused watermelon, watermelon sorbet, and a mint meringue; and

2. a 'warming' spice cheesecake with a gingersnap cookie crust and brown sugar-candied walnuts, served with longans in kuromitsu syrup and a hot cup of black ginger tea.

(I also plated up some mango panna cotta with coconut milk as an amuse bouche and some green tea macaroons as petit fours b/c I had the time to spare and to earn some extra bonus points...hehehe).

SO after my chefs tasted my desserts and graded me, some classmates rushed over to my table to try my desserts. Upon eating my cheesecake, one of my classmates made one of those wide-eyed "OMG" faces and was like "Nancy, this is SO good. This is probably ... no, this IS the best cake I've ever had in my life." [takes a few more bites]. "OMG. Eating this makes me all happy inside!"

I don't think I've felt that warm&fuzzy inside either in a long, long time. I've forgotten how much joy it brings me to watch someone eat something I produce and respond with nothing less than speechlnessness or wide smiles. THIS is why I bake, and THIS is why I absolutely love feeding people. I love love love seeing people get really excited and really happy about eating good food. Her compliment to me totally made my week, hahaha... So yeah, whatever I end up doing after graduating, I really hope that part of it involves me making people feel all happy inside by feeding them bomb food.

PS -- here's what I made. :)