Day From Hell

Yesterday was a long one, a really long one.

We had Marche Du Paris at 8:30 with Chef Poupard (my favorite!) where we walked around an open air market and looked at everything. Then we walked back to school and had a little party with all the stuff Chef got for us- We had all sorts of amazing cheeses, pates, bread, cookies, a cheesecake that looked burned on top but was light and fluffy, sausage, charcuterie. It was a feast! It was fascinating to see all of what a market has to offer. We did have to fight some little old ladies who weren't too thrilled with a group of oogling students in their way. Here are some pictures from the market (no pictures of the horse meat place, I couldn't do it!)







Then we had practical- we learned crab bisque on Monday (Poupard!) and were doing that, starting puff pastry and making croutons with clarified butter. We had Poupard again, and I was so excited. He's the type that you really WANT to do well for and impress- not like someone else I know...We started by making the dough for our puff pastry to let is rest in the fridge.

We murdered live crabs in a big pot with VERY hot oil in it (less painful for them). After adding mirepoix aromatic garnish, we took a rolling pin wrapped in film and beat them completely senseless. We crushed them into teeny tiny pieces. Added tomato paste and tomatoes for color and acidity and added a liter of water and a liter of fish stock. Then we just let it cook for 30 minutes.

While the soup was bubbling away, we rolled out our puff pastry dough and did 4 turns. We also cut bread into croutons. Chef said mine were too big (he actually called them sandwiches" but they were the same size- which is key. We fried them in clarified butter and put them aside while we worked on our soup some more.

Finishing the soup, puff pastry and croutons- Chef tasted the soup- he said my consistency was perfect (we thickened it with rice flour) but needed a touch more salt. Overall, good. FEW!

Then we went right to demo where we were learning more soups. We learned French Onion (easy) Fish Soup Marseillaise Style (gross) and we learned to clarify stock into consomme and make cheese straws to go with them.

Right after demo (no food) we went to practical...guess who we had...COTTES. I nearly fell over. The first thing he said to me was "no crying today S'il vous please" that's what he says to be 'funny'. It sucked again with him- I was super behind and he yelled at me a lot again. I'm not sure why he picks on me so much. We had to brunoise vegetables to put in the consomme and he kept telling me mine were too big. I FINALLY got it right, my stock clarified and my cheese straws were 'bien' (a coup for a pastry chef instructor). I threw out my consomme and gave the dishwasher all of my puff pastry. It was 9:15pm and I was exhausted. Frustrated and mad Bruna and I went to have dinner (and dessert- we earned it) and I came home to Skype with Dad. I was in bed at midnight and didn't think I'd wake up this morning I was so tired.

Alas, here I am and I'm pleased to report that Anthony and I are going to Avignon this weekend! I was supposed to go to Spain to see the Weber's but I wasn't able to find flights :( We're going very early on Friday am and returning Saturday evening. It should be really fun! Any and all suggestions welcome!

A Bientot!