Looks can be deceiving

That's an onion tart. Or une Pissaladiere- which we learned today at 8:30am from Chef Thillet. Anthony and I decided to practice tonight to get ready for practical. I have it tomorrow at 12:30 and Anthony has it at 3:30.

I'd be willing to put 10 euros that at least 5 of you would be willing to eat that tart. I sure would- but when we tasted it...it wasn't all we'd hoped for. We talked about it (for longer than necessary) and decided the following:

1. We overcooked the onions
2. We didn't season the onions properly
3. We didn't salt the tomatoes (as we were instructed to)
4. We should have rolled out the dough thinner
5. We should have used the yeast we were supposed to (my store didn't have compressed yeast)
6. We should have oiled the crust after it came out of the oven

Merde.

Ok let's look on the bright side. It was practice- I used to say in college that a bad warmup meant a great game- I hope that rings true tomorrow! I at least now know the technique and can season properly tomorrow, I just am very frustrated. It looks so good! I want to really knock the cover off the ball tomorrow, and I feel deflated.

In other news, I'm still in Paris- so I've got that going for me! I had a great lunch with some classmates in Chatelet today. We went to this awesome Italian place (thanks to Lara!) and had some really interesting conversation. We all come from such different places- and I love so much learning about different places and cultures. Noor is only 18 and prays towards Mecca 5 times per day. There are 55,000 churches where Bruna comes from. Despite being 1/2 Arab, Lara isn't allowed to enter Saudi without written consent. It's all just so interesting to me and I want to learn so much more.

So I suppose that though my tart wasn't delicious- I have other things to look forward to! I just wish it didn't bother me SO SO SO much that it wasn't good. I suppose I know that I'm doing the right thing by being here if I'm obsessing over an onion tart. Wish me lots of luck tomorrow, I really am jonesing for a 'tres bien'!

A bientot!