Le Cordon Bleu Et Moi

life after le cordon bleu

2010-09-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Graduation happened, goodbyes happened, tears happened, flights happened...a month to the day after my graduation from Le Cordon Bleu and I'm still pining away for my days in Paris. It's amazing to be back in San Francisco- I love my car, my apartment and my friends, but boy do I miss Paris. Watching the latest episodes of Gossip Girl make me dream of the days I would walk around Paris without a care in the world. I'm left with memories, and a constantly evolving scrapbook (thanks Mom and Dad!). I think about you all the time; how much faster Anthony would have done this in the kitchen, how he would walk wherever he needs to go, how much I miss looking up in the kitchen and seeing Lara, how E'Lane would have helped me pick out my outfit, my makeup, my everything, how Gill would have been able to know what I was REALLY thinking and have said "I've been there", how Lauren would have reacted to the same episode of the show, and how much I wish we had watched it in her bed together, how Noor would have approved of my outfit, or told me to put on heels, how Dimitri would have laughed in my face and told me how ridiculous I'm acting.

We've all gone our separate ways- my worst nightmare has happened. While I know we're all moving towards our eventual goals- it's hard to imagine it happening without each other. I've worked 2 great weeks at Spruce in SF, gone on an amazing boat cruise on the bay and spent an unreal night up in Napa. Spruce is incredible. I walked in completely clueless- not knowing how to 'really' sharpen my knives, not knowing how to properly communicate in a professional kitchen (KNIFE IN THE SINK, BEHIND SHARP!!) and I've learned how to navigate, communicate and operate in a professional setting. Everyone has been so nice, laid back and helpful. I've had very long days, but I'm happy to re-fill the flour tanks in order to earn the respect of the Chefs. For some strange reason, on my first day- I was chosen by the Chef/Owner to work an event for 500 Bank of America VIPs at Fort Mason. While it was a long day, and I wanted to cry- I must have done something right- as he asked me to do another event with him. Same premise, same menu, and same idea, I was on the 32nd floor of a Hotel in San Francisco serving Oracle VIPs their braised shortribs. Chef Mark is unlike any Chef I've ever met- he's a true San Franciscan- super laid back, calm and pleasant to be around. He is an inspiration- a true talent with the bedside manner and attitude of any old guy. He's asked me to work with him for 3 straight days in October on an event for 750 people...again, I must be doing SOMETHING right. People know my name, they ask me how my day has been...all completely foreign to me, and yet they all have taught me something very helpful in the kitchen. I spend a lot of my time organizing the walk-in. It's become my personal project and I've done well with it. I go in with my large Patagonia fleece on and a roll of blue tape and a sharpie ready to label and mark everything up. No one told me to wear a coat, or said it was allowed-but the Chef walk in and say "wow, no one else has done something like that before- that's a good idea!" I organize all the cleaning products, and make sure all the dry goods are organized. I never thought that I would care that the tart cherries go, but when someone moves them, I notice! I'm excited by what else I'm going to learn and what else I'm going to see.

I can't believe it's been a month since we were all having dinner together after graduation...and where we all are now. Can't we go back to Paris and meet at Bar du Central at noon tomorrow? I'm dying for a chicken burger

:(

I did it.

2010-08-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

I don't have the words right now to properly express the way I feel right now. How proud I am of myself, or how heavy my heart feels today. The picture will have to do for now

The End is Near

2010-08-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

I often use this blog as a means to express my excitement, my ups, my downs, triumphs and successes…this time I’m using it to express my sincere sadness and anxiety about this experience ending.

I decided to come to Paris on a whim, to do something for ME. Explore something that I truly love and see where it led me for 3 months. As my 8th month is coming to a close- I’ve accomplished more than I could have ever imagined. I never thought that I would even be here at this point, let alone completing my last practical, done my exam trial atelier and be sitting at home on a Friday night weeping about it being over.

Since we’ve gotten the list for the final- we’ve had our LAST student dinner, our trip to Rungis market, our last practical, a birthday in Paris and practiced for our final exam of Superior Cuisine (and Pastry). Our dinner at the Park Hyatt was fabulous. The food was not great, the restaurant- while impressive in resume lacked the luster that all of us expected- but we were all there, in our Sunday best with the Chefs. A very late night with Chefs Terrien, Poupard and Deguinet proved to be one of the most memorable in Paris. The same week, we all woke up at 5am to get on a bus and tour the biggest restaurant distribution market in Paris in these hideous overcoats and hair nets. We saw more meat, dairy, vegetables and flowers than we could have imagined. My 27th birthday will be one that I will never forget- spent with my friends at a picnic under the Eiffel Tower (until it started raining and we went to Bar du Central). I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Yesterday was our final exam practice. Talk about overwhelming! I finally picked and committed to my menu and soon realized…I’ve never made a jelly in my life, let alone 2 in 4 hours! I finished in 4 hours and 30 minutes flat. While I need to shave 30 minutes off my time, I accomplished what I set out to accomplish and did it well. Chef Poupard was impressed- I was told not to change anything in my menu, just tweak some seasoning and presentation and I’ll be all set. My menu was (is) as follows:

Vegetarian (cold) verrine: Tomato water jelly with tartare of fresh cantaloupe and chiffonade of basil

Plat: Guinea fowl breast roasted on the bone, tortellini stuffed with guinea fowl leg. Red wine and Port poached fig stuffed with foie gras mousse and fig jelly, haricots verts and paimpol bean salad, rocket pesto and a jus

Now comes the refining process; streamlining processes, honing seasoning skills and plating all 4 verrines, and plates hot and in 4 hours. I certainly have my work cut out for me, but when I think about it- how on earth am I at the place that I created and executed that recipe? In my head, I’m still in basic learning how to butcher animals and not ready to create a menu and make it sophisticated enough and taste good enough to pass Superior Cuisine and be an LCB chef?

The next time I walk into a kitchen at Le Cordon Bleu, will be with 3 others and it will be when we have our final exam. My parents will be here for my graduation, my apartment will be being packed up, my friends will be leaving and I don’t know when I’ll see them again. Every person I have met in Paris has given me an amazing gift- whether it be a shoulder to cry on, a person to laugh with, people to solve all the worlds problems with, but most of all- every person that I have met has given me knowledge that I will take with me everyday for the rest of my life. I am so thankful, I’m thankful for (in no particular order)…

The knowledge of the egg business, Mormon religion, operations management, time management, stress management, hairy pate, losing a passport and dealing with it, getting a French visa, driving the drama bus, traveling in foreign countries, communication, Michael Buble, laughter, taking back American music, dealing with 4 women all the time, the beauty of walking, confidence, long distance love and so much more from Anthony Fassio

The knowledge of good old American cars, Tracy Anderson, The tea trade (that might still be developing), The process of turning lemons into lemonade, Pierre Herme Macaroons, Mojitos sans sucre, avec vodka, staying true to myself, confidence, that every family has its neuroses, laughter, unconditional love and so much more from Lauren Zimmer

The knowledge of being in a kitchen, knowing what someone’s thinking with no words, exaggeration, everything about Dubai, The Middle East, the French Language, knife skills, menu planning, gossip, being completely myself, being goofy, Muslim weddings genuine comfort and so much more from Lara Said

The knowledge of the metric system, driving on the other side of the road (and the car), Ireland, Irish people, Irish humor, laughing for 3 straight hours at absolutely nothing, Shakira’s one good song, staying BUSY BUSY BUSY, Being something to see, he should see you, loving love, wanting love, sticking my head in an oven, powerwalks that I can’t keep up with and so much more from Gillian Breen

The knowledge of spirit runs, everything southern, unconditional love, affection, being the captain of team Carolyn, recognizing who ISN”T on team Carolyn, what to say to boys, what NOT to say to boys, the makeup section of Le Bon Marché, ‘If I’m lyin’ I’m dyin’, soul food, constantly striving for fireworks, embracing change and wanting to make them in myself, a real, quality, living hug and so much more from E’Lane Bobo

The knowledge of the Muslim faith, what it means to be Arab, Saudi Arabia, Saudi people, Saudi culture, abayas, the booty drop, being constantly friendly, seeing the good in people, realizing when I’m better than something, knowing life is too short, opening my eyes to what really goes on in the Middle East, being wise beyond my years, the beauty of lipstick (and liner), how everyone looks better in heels and so much more from Noor Kandiel

I have just 12 days left in Paris, and while I know they will be amazing, the pit that remains in my stomach of the end is a constant reminder of what I’m leaving behind, but also…what I’m taking away from 8 Rue Leon Delhomme.

The List.

2010-08-02T07:03:00.001-07:00

You are in possession of the theme for your superior exam- that's how the list begins. This is it- there is no more mystery, no practicing 10 recipes in case one comes on the final...we have it all. Let's cut to the chase:

Required Ingredients
1 Free Range Guinea Fowl
100g Duck Foie Gras
French Green Beans
New Pearl onions
Paimpol beans
4 Fresh Figs
Rocket Lettus

Optional Ingredients
Pancetta
Chicken breast
1 red bell pepper
Cantaloupe
zucchini
eggplant
tomatoes
mushrooms
parsley, cilantro, basil
Ginger
potatoes
lemon
lime
phyllo pastry
chicken stock
agar agar

We also have all the usual ingredients at our disposal:
Breadcrumbs
flour
salt, sugar
tomato paste
potato starch
pistachios
soy sauce
tabasco
Dijon
satay, tandoori
gelatin
honey
vinegars (except balsamic)
brik pastry
All dairy
Gruyere cheese
wines and alcohols

The Requirements
4 identical vegetarian verrines (shot glasses) that include 2 colors as an amuse bouche
4 identical main dishes plated at the same time
1 simple garnish, 1 composed garnish, 1 vegetable stuffed with either meat or vegetable
A jus or sauce
We also have to write out our recipes in French and draw out our plating in color.

I'm really excited to build my menu, but really apprehensive, as this means my journey is coming to an abrupt end. Again- I would love any and all recipe ideas that might be in your heads. I know how popular guinea fowl is :)

A Bientot!!

Atelier 2

2010-07-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well...it's over. Atelier 2 was on Saturday. Here were the regulations:

You must make an entree and a main dish, respecting the required techniques:
1. Make a fish stock
2. A crust or pastry to enrobe the main dish or the entree
3. 1 vegetable flan and 2 simple garnishes
4. 1 hot sauce
5. I small vegetable brunoise
6. You must present 2 servings of the entree and 2 servings of the main dish.

Here were the REQUIRED ingredients that we had to incorporate:
1 gilt head sea bream fish
1 veal tenderloin
veal sweetbreads+caul fat
1 Brittany artichoke
Large spinach leaves
1 raw beet
Cauliflower
New pearl Onions
White asparagus

Between my first atelier experience and anticipation for the final- I was terrified. I was really concerned with making a good menu and also shaving a good hour off my first atelier time. Our final is 4 hours long- so I was aiming to get closer to that time requirement. I had my menu- and 2 days off before the atelier. So I practiced, researched plating ideas, and tried to come up with something 'more interesting'. I resolved that I could take this 1 of 2 ways; I could make a simple recipe and do it VERY well, or I could go for something really jazzy and contemporary and risk it not turning out.

I practiced my flan idea, I practiced my vinaigrette idea, and I wrote out my recipes in 27 'easy' steps. I was ready. Lara had put Top Chef on a USB for me and I had gotten HOOKED on it the night before. So I went in there thinking I was on Top Chef- and I had to really work fast.

We had Chef Terrien- the Chef of Chefs who was recently back from vacation. He's seemingly old school in style, HATES waste and is pretty intimidating. He announced in the beginning that he wanted our entrees at 11am, and that he wanted 1 round plate and 1 square plate. I remembered how screwed I was last time by not starting everything at once. I quickly threw my beet in water and went to filet my fish. I quickly worked out the filets, then trimmed my veal. Proteins were prepped. I started my fish fumet and went on to make my purple potato scales. I used an apple corer to make all of them uniform in shape, and used my mandolin to make them uniform in thickness. I eggwashed my fish, blanched the scales and put them on my fish. That was done. I then became the blanching queen- blanched asparagus, cauliflower, carrots, artichokes, sweetbreads...you name it, I blanched it. Once that was over I quickly moved on with my entree recipe. Plated at 11am on the nose, I presented these to plates to Terrien:

That is pan fried sea bream with purple potato scales on a bed of rocket lettuce with a beetroot vinaigrette and brunoised beetroot. Terrien really liked it. It was pretty, my fish was cooked, my portion was correct and my vinaigrette was good. He offered some good tips: that I should have put green on top of the fish, or something white, and perhaps could have made a tartare of the leftover fish that I cut (he HATES waste) I was really excited, but I was only halfway there.

I quickly cleaned and continued on my way to the finish line. I make pasta dough, made a basil coulis, 2 flans, a jus, cooked my meat and seared some spinach in the coming 2.5 hours. I plated in exactly 5 hours. With the critique and clean up session removed, I'd say I did the whole thing in 4 hours and 45 minutes. I presented these two plates to Terrien:

He really liked these plates too! Portion was correct, my flans were impeccable, cooking of veal (I thought was overcooked) was good, my ravioli was properly seasoned and it was pretty. He offered some good feedback again: that the pan where I cooked my meat was too hot, and that I needed more sauce. I also put a little bit of basil on top of my ravioli and he didn't like that, but all in all I was really pleased. He offered his congratulations (I think because my face lit up) and I quickly ate both portions of veal (hey- I was hungry and I earned it!) and began my cleanup. Before I cleared one of my plates- Chef Clergue came in to survey what we had done. He also really liked my dishes. He's HUGE on portion size and was pleased with mine, and my flan was 'soft' enough. The tired-ness hit me when I was cleaning up. My feet and back started to hurt and I didn't want to do anything. A quick lunch with Anthony and Lauren and I was napping on my couch before a FABULOUS home cooked meal by E'Lane's mom. It was perfect. Having a Mom around is so comforting, even if it's not your own. It was a great end to a long day. I'm really pleased with my atelier, and exceptionally pleased with the progress from #1 to #2. The improvement is what really I'm proud of. I'm excited to start bainstorming my final exam dishes, don't worry I'll be sure to seek out any ideas and advice from you all!

I'm off to bed- I'm still a zombie even after a 2 hour nap today and a great night's sleep last night. I don't think I accounted for the stress of the anticipation of the upcoming atelier. I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight! That is, of course before my 8:30am demo class tomorrow.

A bientot!

Reflection.

2010-07-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I have these moments where I think about what I'm doing versus what some of my friends are doing. Cate is studying for the bar, Hannah and Jana are in medical school, Beach is back in New Haven in graduate school, Kerry is a lawyer, Talley is an architect, Laura is in business school...and here I am in culinary school...in Paris.

My lcb friends and I joke that a hard day for us is when our sauces won't reduce, or we undersalted or oversalted our mushroom flan- and our friends in the 'real world' are saving lives, and fighting for others' rights. I'm not discounting where I am or what I'm doing, I often just sit back and think about how different our lives are; how similar we can all be in so many ways, yet our passions and interests couldn't be farther from one another.

As I sit here on my couch researching sweetbread recipes, getting ready for lesson 15 of superior cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, I can't help but smile thinking about the different paths we've all taken, and how much farther we have to go. 5 years ago we were all freaked out college graduates hoping to get our first job; now we've all had those first, second, third jobs all eventually getting us to where we are now all over the world.

We had our last student party the other night at Alcazar. As I looked around at all the students letting loose, I wondered where all of us will be in the future, who I will keep in touch with, and who I might never see again. Lara and I were talking today about the first conversation we had- neither of us remember the initial contact that first day, but now we both bemoan the fact that we won't be across the counter from one another everyday cooking, sharing farce, laughing at Chef Cotte's English and griping over who took the sponge from the sink. I can say with confidence that I have grown more in the past 6 months and 13 days than I could have ever imagined. Paralyzing panic for the basic practical exam to dreaming about different flan ideas for my second superior atelier has been the most fulfilling period of my life. I used to consider my 7 leg operations as an accomplishment...that's got nothing on impressing the chefs at school, the anticipation of Chef Clergue putting the toque on my head on August 26th, or Chef Cotte telling me today that he loved my attitude in the kitchen and that he was happy at how far I've come in my time in Paris.

Looking at recipe 15 for tomorrow has brought me back to life- deboned and stuffed squab cooked in a cocotte with pork belly and garlic cloves...YUCK!

Bonne Nuit!

Happy Bastille Day!

2010-07-15T02:11:00.000-07:00

July 14th has usually only meant one thing to me in the past...Cate and Jordan's wedding anniversary. This year, I along with about 100,000 of my closest friends watched the fireworks spectacular over the Seine.

The French know how to celebrate!

The start to the 'lasts'.

2010-07-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight is our last student party as LCB students. This first of many lasts is really hitting me harder than I imagined. I knew this would come to an end, but I'm just not ready yet. To all you faithful readers wherever you are, get ready for a lot more of these sappy posts as more and more lasts start to occur. I'm excited to live it up with the students tonight...I'll post pictures tomorrow (Bastille Day!)

Slainte!

Correction/Retraction

2010-07-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

As my wonderful father pointed out, I made a mistake. Circle the calendar! Having been an athlete my whole life, it's slightly embarrassing to have made the mistake in the title of my last entry. OBVIOUSLY you only need to win 4 out of 7 games to be world champions.

Crow eaten. Sorry Dad, next time I wont screw up when quoting you! Thanks for always being there to tell me those funny quotes during my various meltdowns...the last one having been pretty biblical. Mom- be thankful you didn't answer your cell phone!

A Bientot!

You only need to win 5 out of 7 to be world champions...

2010-07-12T02:13:00.000-07:00

That is a famous Robert Gioia line. He mentions is to me anytime I freak out about a bad day in the kitchen. That can pretty much sum up my first atelier experience. After working through my recipes and finally deciding what to make, I felt like I was ready to walk in, and cook for 6 straight hours. I felt like I had a battle plan, and that I certainly wouldn't need all 6 hours.

Chef Malike- a new Chef was our proctor and we were in the smallest kitchen. My plan had been to completely finish the entree and present them, and then work on my main dishes. I got to working, making my shortbread dough and letting it rest, escaloping my salmon, cleaning my shrimp, making my marinade. I got lost in my garnishes- I blanched and candied lime zest, I sliced very think lime slices, coated them in sugar syrup and left them in an oven on a silpat to dry. I sliced paper thing potato crisps, dunked them in clarified butter, salted them and left them to dry as well. I blanched my peas and made my puree. In the end, a very simple entree took me way too long. Chef Clergue came in to taste all of our dishes. He liked mine, but I put too much salmon on the shortbread, and my marinade cooked my salmon too much. He liked it all in all, my shrimp was cooked well, plated well. My marinade was good, my brunoise of red bell pepper was good...but wasn't out of this world.

A quick and not nearly thorough enough cleaning and I was moving on to the main dish. I made my pastry for my tart, lined the molds and blind baked them, butchered my meat and started my jus, peeled, seeded, and petaled my tomatoes and got them ready to be put in the oven to confit. I used my trusty mandolin and started my eggplant and zucchini roasting in the oven. I made my stuffing, stuffed the legs, steamed them, then browned them, I seasoned and seared the breast meat, sliced, seasoned and cooked my mushrooms and put it all together. Again, Chef gave me some good feedback and some constructive criticism for my dishes. He really liked the plating on my square plate, my jus was very good. My meat cooked very well, tart was good. I survived.

Lara and I were dead last to plate. 2 very speedy people typically in practical were LAST TO PLATE. There was a moment of stress when I was finishing everything up that I wouldn't finish on time. I thought to myself- this is not me in the kitchen, I'm usually not such a wreck. After going over that day about 3 thousand times- I realize now what I did wrong. I should have prepped and began everything at the same time. Butchered all my meat together, started all my sauces at the same time, dried my potatoes, limes, and tomatoes together. I could have been far more efficient. It was certainly not my best work but Chef said my ideas were good, and my food on the whole was good. For the next atelier, we have 5 hours and the one after that 4- which is what we have for our final exam. I need to really think about how to be much more efficient and work on several things at once. I've already begun researching and have a couple of ideas. Here are the required ingredients:
1 sea bream
1 veal tenderloin
veal sweetbreads
caul fat
1 brittany artichoke
Large spinach leaves
1 raw beet
1/2 cauliflower
1/2 bunch spring onions
6 white asparagus

anyone have any ideas?? I need to blow this one out of the park! I'll leave you with a few photos from my 1st atelier.

4th of July

2010-07-05T02:47:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! I was really bummed not to be sitting on the beach in Rosehill with Mom, Dad, Lauren, Allison, Lily, Ej, and the hounds. I kept calling them and hearing 'beach noises' and getting really sad. Lily apparently has become quite the fetch expert with her equally pint sized pal- Harper! Luckily- because my friends are amazing...we managed to have some American fun this weekend! Saturday night in yoga pants, flip flops and a t-shirt- I went over to Gill's for a little dinner. A yummy salad followed by E'Lane's amazing Cherry Pie (pic above) made me feel very American. After dinner we stopped by a bar on the way home to have a budweiser. It felt great! No one here cares about the 4th and I really didn't care much about it until I wasn't in the States (or Canada). I suppose I'll feel the same way on July 14 when the world here goes insane and celebrates Bastille Day.

Superior cuisine is still going very well- though with the recent heat wave in Paris has made the conditions of the kitchen next to unbearable. I walk out of there absolutely dripping as if I just played a lacrosse game. I love the way I feel when I leave, though walking downstairs to the hellish lockerroom quickly sours my mood. We've made some cool dishes- steamed pigeon wrapped in cabbage (stuffed of course), Red mullet fish with potato scales with an orange beurre blanc, and tonight we're making lamb shank slowly cooked in spices. The menus are getting better, and I feel like I'm still doing better than I did in intermediate. Here are some pictures of my latest creations (including the lamb in brick pastry that I overcooked):

I'm off to work on my atelier recipe. I'm really scared for Thursday but feel like my recipe is coming together nicely. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Slainte!

2010-06-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

I went to Ireland this past weekend to attend the wedding of Sarah Mitchell and Anthony Duddy. It was precisely what the doctor ordered. After making Pan fried sea bream, squid stuffed with langoustine risotto and cilantro (I got a tres bien from Clergue!), I journeyed on the RER to Charles de Gaulle. I met my driver at the Belfast Airport and in 2.5 hours, I was among more friendly faces than I could have ever hoped for. My parents and sister Lauren first and foremost, the Mitchells, the Sullivans, the Braens, the Bryans, the Gatewoods, the Constantines, the Kahns, the Jewetts all of them very close family friends and all of them offering up hugs (and Guinness!) I have never made an entrance like I did that night, and really realized how absolutely wonderful all those people are. I was in heaven. A club sandwich to go- and an irish coffee with my parents and the Sullivan's at the local pub, and I was out like a light.

The wedding was gorgeous, the weather was beautiful, everyone was so happy and it was a great time. I was very sad to have to leave on Sunday. After getting home at 2am (flight delays were annoying, but more time with Mom and Dad was fabulous!), I went to class yesterday. We learned about squab breast wrapped in cabbage, legs stuffed, tartlets with wild mushrooms. Chef Clergue was great in the kitchen again and I was excited to get down and dirty with some dirty birds. I was extra excited to learn about squab because our first atelier is squab, so I was anxious to know how it can be done, and most importantly, how it's to be cooked. We had Thivet for practical today and I got a parfait. We quickly and quietly worked and I think he was happy with our group. I'm off tomorrow and need to get packing because I'm moving! I found a new apartment right in the same area where I live now and it's perfect. While I'm really sad to leave the paradise on Rue Casimir Perier, I'm excited about what this new place will bring me!

Also- if anyone has any brilliant thoughts on what I might want to do with squab for my atelier...bring them on!

A Bientot!

So that's what perfect looks like!?

2010-06-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

Before I get to perfection, I have to say that the beginning to superior has been so much easier for me than all of intermediate. Aside from the first practical, I've felt in control the whole time. I know what I have to do and I just bang it out. I'm not as unsure as I was before, and it's so refreshing! I've done a bar en croute, I've done a quail-in-pastry thing that I'd rather not get into. I've done a Lobster Chartreuse, I've done rack of lamb and haven't had a problem! I've hate Cotte, Lesourd, Strill, Terrien and have felt like I really have a handle on this cooking thing.

We walked into demo this morning and saw Terrien setting up. We've have every other Chef for demo, but not him. He's a superior Chef but there have been loads of rumors going around that he's retiring, or reasons that he hasn't done a demo. As the Chef of Chefs, he gets a lot of flack. We're all scared of him and were intimidated when we saw him in DRC setting up...

...Then he started. I have never seen anything like it. I love Clergue to death (more on him later) and thought his demos were the be all, end all. Then I watched Terrien. Faces fell, no one spoke, we were all completely in awe of this 64 year old man and how he moves in the kitchen. Butchering a rack of lamb like it was nothing, making a 'real' jus, slicing, chopping, and just general knife skills were like music. Quick, deliberate and truly amazing. THIS IS WHAT IT"S LIKE TO BE PERFECT. I speak for all of us when I saw we walked out of there inspired. I wanted to be just like him- confident, deliberate and all-knowing. I can't decide what is more impressive- his absolute skill or confidence. He KNOWS he's the best- and while he's considered old school, no one can deny his skill. He's had about 40+ years in a kitchen and here he is teaching US about how to butcher lamb.

Thunderous applause met the end of his demonstration. It's amazing how inspiring the Chefs are and how much I want to emulate them when I'm finished. I'm assistant this week with Anthony so I bypassed the shitty Carrefour sandwich to get ahead on my duties. I was so excited to see Chef Clergue walk in the kitchen to proctor our practical. I was fine until my jus wasn't the correct color. It was too light. We were making lamb filet wrapped in brick pastry with a tian garnish and a jus. Jus are my thing- I always do well on that so when it was too light I was concerned. Clergue taught me this great trick and it worked, my tian garnish was a thing of beauty, my tomatoes were confit perfectly, and I had wrapped my filet absolutely impeccably....then I over cooked it. "C'est Dommage" Chef Clergue said to me. HIM of all people I wanted to impress and I blew it. What a bummer. I was depressed all through his demo and while my love for him as a chef hasn't diminished-as I know he's doing it to make me better, it's like disappointing your parents. You almost wish they'd just be MAD instead of disappointed at you. Here's hoping I can step it up and make him proud. Nothing would make me happier than hearing "parfait" from him.

I'm off to Ireland this weekend to see many friendly faces at Sarah Mitchell's wedding. I can't wait to escape the kitchen and not have to worry about stock, jus, butchering or presentation.

I leave you with some pictures of my creations... and the term "slainte" which means cheers/live well in Irish!

A bientot!

That's why they call it Superior...

2010-06-15T11:16:00.001-07:00

Well...vacation is over.

E'Lane, Lauren, Gillian and I had the most amazing trip to Lake Como, Italy ever. We read books, talked, solved all the world's problems over wine and cheese on our deck and just had a ball. The FOOD WAS INCREDIBLE. I ate caprese with every single meal and filled myself to capacity with pasta. I love the French, but Italians have the food in my book. I also LOVE Italian wine- we had a Brunello our last night there that would have knocked any wine buff's socks off.

Yesterday started Superior cuisine. Feeling rested and confident, I went to my first demo with Chef Clergue. I haven't pinpointed every reason that I love him, but here are a few:

He's like lightning in the kitchen, every move has a purpose and there is never a moment that he isn't doing something. It's almost as if he dances around the kitchen. He's super easy to follow, and really really engaging. He asks us questions, and asks us to ask questions. Another reason I love him is because he talks about wine pairing. He'll ask us what flavors are in each of the dishes and then will have us talk through which wine would go well with the various dishes. He isn't married to French wine and often tells us about wines from different places that would compliment the dish.

...Ok enough gushing about Clergue. He made John Dory filets with red spices (tandoori and satay) and black rice with exotic fruit.

Walking into practical was intimidating. We were in the small kitchen where I hadn't been since my basic final. I took my place and felt lost. I was amazed at how 'out of shape' I was since leaving intermediate. I managed along ok, but got yelled at by Lesourd when I started a vinaigrette with oil first. I KNOW you ALWAYS start with the acid, and as soon as I poured the oil in, I knew it was a mistake but he was watching me, so I was busted. All in all, I wasn't thrilled with my performance, but it was fine.

We had Lesourd in demo today and he made a great lamb dish that I was super excited to make. We had Terrien, the other Superior Chef for practical, and he's very old school traditional. He likes his meat cooked and his vegetables like mush. I did MUCH better today. It wasn't a complicated recipe, but we were very bust the whole time. I was completely focused and felt really good when I was done. My jus was too runny, but tasted parfait- my cuisson was tres bien, my purple potato chip was great as were my haricots verts wrapped in bacon. I'm happy.

Superior is no joke. The Chef's the whole time yell "THIS IS SUPERIOR CUISINE, NOT BASIC CHILDREN" which is intimidating. They expect a lot of us at this point, and I want nothing more that to impress them. I've got a new system where I write down goals for the week. I'm going to research food every day. I need to be inspired for my presentation, as well as my recipes for upcoming ateliers. I need to turn it on now and really kick it into high gear. I've made it this far- I've got to KNOW in my heart that I can do this!

I'll leave you with some pictures from heaven aka Lake Como and I'll write after tomorrow! I'm off to eat my delightful lamb!

A Bientot!

Bring on Superior!

2010-06-06T02:53:00.000-07:00

Well...Intermediate is finished. Never again will I get to see a Thivet or Caals demo. I won't get to hear Thivet yell YEEHAW!!! while tasting one of his dishes. While the end of intermediate relieves me a little, the thought of superior scares me. Intermediate was much like basic- replicating recipes and learning more complicated garnishes and techniques. Superior is going to be really hard- we have to come up with our own recipes. There are guidelines to what we have to make, which ingredients we must use, and ones that we can't; but we have to design our menus. While this scares me, I think it will be the turning point in my culinary education. I'm always so concerned with following the recipes and making sure I do things exactly like the Chef that I'm too much in my own head. If I'm making my own recipes, I think I'll be far more comfortable in the kitchen...at least I hope.

Graduation was bittersweet. Sweet in that it was my first one, bitter in that it marks the 2/3 mark of my journey. It was also sad that Anthony and Gill weren't there with us. Not many people were there as we have 2 weeks off until Superior begins, most are traveling. I had helped our Chefs Caals and Lesourd the day prior to get all the food ready for graduation. It was really fun, but tedious prep work. We were there about 8 hours chopping, blanching, peeling, confit-ing. It gave me insight into what a stage might be like...peeling peas for 8 hours straight! The ceremony itself was fine- the new school director was so nervous and it was about 60000 degrees in the winter garden. We got to celebrate upstairs with all the Chefs and take lots of pictures. Chef Clergue (my favorite) gave me his hat and signed it! I'm keeping that thing forever :) Chef Caals gave Lara his hat, and Lesourd gave Noor his...we all got the hats of our favorite Chefs!

The following day, I went to Zu's superior graduation. Her family wasn't able to make it, so I was her date. It was so cool, and got me SO excited for August! I'm not going to post details because I want you all to be surprised when you see the pictures from my graduation!

The really exciting news is that Gill, E'Lane, Lauren and I are heading to LAKE COMO ITALY!!!!!!! We rented an apartment right on the lake for 5 nights and we're going to relax, unwind and get ready for the challenging summer we have ahead of us. I can't wait, I've never been and it will be so great to have a home base where we can cook, play cards, scrabble, read and just have fun.

We depart on Tuesday morning and return on Sunday before superior starts! Thank you all for sharing this experience with me and for all your words of encouragement. I vow to be better about blogging and taking photos of my plates in superior.

A Bientot!

Iceland, you've really done it this time!

2010-05-14T08:29:00.001-07:00

Beach is stuck in Iceland. That damn volcano has decided to spu ash again, and she's stuck, ALONE in Iceland! The poor thing had to take a bus for 6 hours in Iceland, and is hoping to get to Paris tomorrow. I'm just so darn SICK of this volcano! Sure it was funny the first time Gill said her plane was canceled due to a volcano, but this just isn't funny anymore!

This week has been pretty quiet around LCB. Monday we had demo then practical and made the most delicious meal. We made pan fried steak, turned potatoes cooked in goose fat, a celery flan and madeira sauce, and I have to say...I killed it! We had Chef Thivet who has really grown on me. In demos he seems completely disorganized and not prepped, but manages to finish with plenty of time remaining and is just so happy all the time! I really like him. We had him in practical and I was nervous, I've never gotten more than a "bon travaille" or "bien' from him and because he did the demo, I wanted to knock it out of the park. It was really fun, we got to decorate the top of the flan with blanched strips of leek leaves and carrot and celery root rounds. I thought I would hate that part, but I actually really liked it. I got a 'magnifique' from Chef Thivet and he said my sauce was 'parfait'. I was thrilled!

Here's a picture of the dish after he had tasted it, so it was a little messy.

We had our student soiree on Wednesday night which was SUPER fun at this bar in the 6th. It's so great seeing everyone all dolled up and letting loose together, but I'll tell you what: there are about 25 people that I know! I didn't recognize anyone!

Well I'm off to study and pray that Beach arrives tomorrow morning, I can't imagine what she's doing in Iceland!

A bientot!

Iceland, you've really done it this time!

2010-05-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

I love Paris in the Springtime

2010-05-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'm a bad blogger. I've had about 75 blog drafts done, but haven't pulled the trigger. Many apologies, I know my sisters get upset when I don't update!

Things in Paris are unreal (still). It's hard to imagine what life would be like if I weren't here doing this right now. My friends and I have been talking about what happens when we're done here- like will calling Anthony be my first order of business everyday? Will I ever ride a bike in a line with all my friends again? Will I ache missing being in the kitchens at LCB all day? Sometimes I find myself getting very emotional about when this is all over. These people and this school I've been in have been so amazing that I can't imagine life after LCB. So let's put that out of our minds for now.

Since I was stranded in Paris and couldn't meet Mom in Spain, I somehow managed to live through the weekend and had a great time with her when she passed through Paris. We walked around, had a picnic in the Champ de Mars, had high tea at Mariage Freres, just had fun. I have since recovered from the burns, but not without a bruised ego. Chef Caals, among others have taken to calling me 'main au feu' (hand of fire) and are sure to mention that you shouldn't burn yourself at this point.

After having very low confidence, I'm feeling like I did at the end of basic, like I'm in my groove and doing well. The last 4 practicals I've killed it and am really looking forward to kicking ass the rest of intermediate. I'm so thankful that I've hit my stride again, nothing is worse than low confidence when you're in culinary school!

I leave you with a promise to be better about blogging and a before and after shot of my work today. (warning: sort of graphic picture of a skinned rabbit)

A bientot!

Ouch.

2010-04-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

Remember when I thought I burned myself before? I outdid myself today. I had 4 classes in a row and did the following mid way through the first practical. I'm happy to report that I managed to finish and complete the second practical, but boy does my hand hurt!

Stranded in Paris

2010-04-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

I never thought that being stranded in Paris would be something that annoyed me, however here I am stranded and I'm most certainly annoyed!

I was supposed to head to Spain VERY early this morning to spend the weekend with the Weber's- who are great friends of my parents. My mom also was meeting me in Spain- which was SO exciting. Thanks to Iceland and their stupid volcano, I'm stuck here. No Tapas, No Paella and most importantly, No Mom. :(

Gill is stuck in Ireland, Anthony and Bruna's trip to Lisbon was canceled, Lauren and her mom's trip to Milan is canceled, Lara's boyfriend can't get to Paris- we've all gotten stuck! There is a silver lining however- this weekend is E'Lane's birthday and we can all spend it with her!!! Another silver lining is that Derek and Lizzie who are honeymooning here are most likely stuck and unable to get to St. Tropez. It KIND of reminds me of a snow day in Buffalo. Where Kerry and Cate would be stuck in the city and we'd all get to play. Too bad it's bright and sunny out with no signs of Volcanic Ash!

Maybe I'll go to a pastry demo this afternoon?

A Bientot!

Forget Stella, how Peeps got her groove back!

2010-04-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

I'm BACK!!!!!

After a not so easy beginning to intermediate- I feel like I've gotten in my groove again. Friday- my fish wasn't cooked enough, yesterday my jus was (and I'm quoting the Chef) "fucking perfect!", and today was "c'est magnifique!" according to Chef Caals.

Friday we had Tivet. He says NOTHING during practical- in fact, I think that he's playing tetris on his little palm pilot the whole time. Everything was great except my fish hadn't cooked through properly...oops. I felt like crap after leaving that practical- was I still in basic? Who doesn't cook daurade enough?

Saturday I went to meet Teeter at Cafe de Flore. Teeter (Carolyn Mucci) is a great friend of our family's and her husband Gary is my godfather. They and their 2 kids are in Paris for Spring Break. We had a great day and I went back to see the apt that they had rented in the 6th. GORGEOUS!

They invited me to brunch on Easter Sunday at Laduree, which is a famous restaurant/bakery in Paris. It was so much fun to be with them- especially since I had been so homesick last week. After brunch and in the spirit of Easter...Anthony, E'Lane, Lauren and I decided to cook a lamb. Not just a rack of lamb, or a piece of lamb, but an entire LEG of lamb. It took about 40 minutes just to trim the stinking thing, let alone butterfly it, season it, truss it and roast it! Anthony made a homemade mint jelly and we put a mint crust on it...it was DELISH. E'Lane was the pastry master and made a cake filled with strawberry and raspberry cream with frosting and pralines, Lauren made a delicious, fresh salad and it was just amazing. The perfect cure for being away from home over a holiday.

Monday I got up early and met the Mucci's at St. Germain Des Pres to take the train to CHAMPAGNE!!!!!! A very uneventful trip to Epernay and we were at Moet et Chandon, taking a tour of 750 meters of over 18 miles of their caves. It was so much fun and I learned a TON. I knew essentially nothing about the bubbly, but what I DO know is that the smaller the bubbles, the better the Champagne!

Tuesday we had back to back demo/practical and we made duck with french gnocchi (polenta) with a visiting Chef (the one who said the f word every other word) and I felt like I was really getting back into the swing of things, and not freaking out during practical.

Yesterday we had Caals for demo- where he told us that we needed to do our guinea fowl pie in 2 hours. It was a WHIRLWIND- make dough, roll it out, line mold, make au gratin potatoes, de-bone the guinea fowl- giving chef the leg meat to grind for the stuffing, searing livers and guinea fowl breasts, building the pie and getting it into the oven. It was a sprint. I've never been on autopilot like that before. We were like little robots. After the pie was in the oven, we needed to just reduce our sauce- so we were a little bored, I even helped Chef prepare for today's demo. Lara, Bruna, Anthony and I KILLED it. We were all within the 2 hour limit and well ahead of everyone else in class. He loved it- my first perfect from Caals. I am still on cloud 9!

Tomorrow we have another duck dish practical, then demo and practical until 9:30pm (we're making lobster!!!!!)

A bientot!

French Sounds

2010-04-01T04:53:00.001-07:00

The French are known for many things, but one thing I've now discovered are their unique sounds. The Chefs during demo and practical make the silliest noises that I've only heard since being here. When you're demonstrating how to cut something, they use the word 'tac'. It's commonly used in succession while making several cuts 'tac tac tac'. When removing the wishbone of some sort of bird- you run your knife down either side of the bone and at the end you need to make a sharp movement to make sure the ends are cut- that's a 'CLACK'. Chef Lesourd is the king of the CLACK (pronounced somewhere between clock and clack) There's also the recent discovery of Chef Clergue (who is perfect) who says 'hupp' when lifting something heavy, or just generally moving around the kitchen. I'd think these words were unique to the Chef that says them except that I've heard all of the Chefs at one point or another use one or more of those French sounds. Caals today in our demo kept saying 'hupp' so either they have a conference about it in their locker room or they are very typical French words.

We had our first Caals practical yesterday afternoon. Anthony and I are assistants together which adds another level of stress onto everything. Sprinting up 3 flights of stairs several times within a 2.5 hour period isn't easy or fun when you have a sauce to strain, or a bird roasting in the oven. Our recipe was a roasted chicken cut into 8 pieces that we haven't done before, potato pancakes and an herb salad. I ended up doing well, receiving a tres bien from Caals- but I felt really stressed the whole time. I feel like I did at the beginning of basic- constantly stress, running around the entire time and leaving completely drenched in sweat. I lack the confidence that I gained at the end of basic- where I knew that I knew what I was doing, and that I could fix any mistake. I freak out, I stress and the Chef was watching me the whole time (or so it seemed to me). We had to rip the achilles tendons out of the chickens and like I thought I would, I nearly gagged all over the darn thing. When Chef watched me, I just took the tendons in a hook on the end of a ladle, twisted and YANKED- but on the inside my stomach was completely turned. I know it was dead, and I know it couldn't feel it- but I felt awful doing that to an animal! I'm fine chopping off heads and removing gills for fish (not quite there yet with popping out eyeballs, but getting there) but this was TORTURE! I'm excited to get my confidence back, I'm excited to walk into the kitchen and KNOW what I'm supposed to do at any given time, I'm just not there yet in intermediate. As Allison told me last night "they wouldn't call it intermediate if it were the same as basic", and I need to remember that. I've passed basic, I'm getting better and soon will be a Chef myself, but I just want to feel good about myself in the kitchen again.

We had 8:30 demo and Caals was in good shape today. He was on top of his game and ripped through the recipes. The entree was fantastic, so I came right home and tried to re-create it. I failed at my first attempt at homemade mayo and had to eat crow and walk to franpriz to buy hellman's, but the chicken salad was fantastic. I poached the chicken in veal stock instead of chicken stock and it tasted great, the chiffonade of my greens was beautiful and my julienne of apples were works of art, but I can't get past that my mayonnaise was a failure! Oh well, better luck next time?

I'm really wanting to make lamb this weekend in honor of Easter and want to make a mint crust to go over it...if anyone has any recipes- let me know! We learned rack of lamb with a parsley crust in basic, I bet I can use the same technique with mint, no?

A Bientot!

Red Mullet and a Clergue demo!

2010-03-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

After such a lovely weekend with Perrin, it was hard to motivate back into school mode. We walked around the Marais, went out to a fabulous dinner one night with my friends and relaxed. It was so nice! It was like we were back in SF, but with Pierre Hermé macaroons! (Spring flavors are out...Jasmine is so far my favorite). Nevertheless, I headed off to school for 8:30 practical. We had the jerky Chef again, but I ended up ok. We had to fillet the fish in a different way than usual. We kept the tail on so we could stuff the fish- which was neat to learn, but a little tricky. I managed to do really well with that. We only plate 1 fish, and instead of wasting time and food (I knew I wasn't going to eat it the minute I smelled it) I decided to only do 1 fish. That left very little room or time for error.

In the end, I did well- all 3.5s and 4.0s which is great, but I was a mess. I'm not sure if it was because I was tired, or because I hadn't really thought THROUGH the recipe enough times, but I felt like I was losing my mind the whole time. Lara and I shared a sauce that was good, but had a bit too much lemon juice. I for once got a 'parfait' on my presentation. My onion royale (essentially an onion flan) had too much egg white in it, making it too firm, but my fish was cooked perfectly, I was very clean, and my presentation was perfect. I was happy...but I need to improve. I've got a new game plan in place that will make sure that I'm on my A game everyday.

After practical- I took off my hairnet and completely forgot that we had class pictures. We took the picture and headed up to the 1st floor demo room for our Chef Clergue demo. I'm not sure I can pinpoint what it is about him that I love. He's an unreal Chef- he moves at lightning pace, is super clean and seems to dance through the demo. He doesn't tell stupid stories, he makes mistakes, recovers from them, and just generally is a happy guy. He made the most amazing dishes- all from his adopted home of Burgundy. Intermediate is all about the regions of France and this lesson was about Burgundy. He made escargots with smoked bacon and brunoise vegetables, a free range chicken (with the feet...you know what that means, achilles removal), with potato pancakes and a a fabulous sauce, and the dessert- gingerbread millefeuille with gingerbread ice cream (all homemade of course) with a pear poached in red wine. I went back for another potato pancake and another spoonful of the ice cream.

I'm so excited to make the chicken dish tomorrow, I think I have a good handle on the recipe and the order in which I should do it in practical, and it's delish! I might just have to bring it home to make!

I'm off to read- I feel as though I haven't sat down to read anything that isn't French cuisine in months, and I am excited to start a new book and read the rest of my Vanity Fair!

A Bientot!

Guinea fowl practical, sweetbreads and oysters

2010-03-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

Thursday I had the day off and only had practical at 6:30pm. Being my first practical in intermediate cuisine I was extra nervous. Anthony came over in the morning- we picked apart my report card and then had a glorious walk to Les Halles. We walked there to meet Bruna, her mom, Lara, and Laura for lunch. Laura unfortunately had to drop out of intermediate because of scheduling with her kids. We had lunch outside and the sun felt amazing. In standard culinary school fashion- we all went to the kitchen supply store before lunch...I held off (though I could have bought spatulas and whisks until the cows came home!)

Getting on the Metro- I needed to get in the zone. Like when I was an athlete, I always listen to the same songs before I go into practical- sometimes I think it's superstition, other times I think I just need to get pumped up! We got there SO early and I was pacing like an idiot. Waiting impatiently outside the 2GS, I saw the Chef Clergue was the proctor of a basic practical. WHAT? I so wished that I had him for my sole bercy recipe, and here these little brats are getting the most amazing Chef critiquing their SOLE? He came out periodically and rolled his eyes at some of the students. We eavesdropped listening to the feedback from Chef...lots of dishes were cold, some over salted, some not salty enough. By no means am I an expert, but I felt good thinking about those recipes. I never thought I would say this: but I really thank Chef Cotte for being so hard on me in the beginning. Had I not plated my puff pastry with poached egg and albufera sauce cold, I wouldn't know one of the most important lessons that I've learned here. I also thank Caals for telling me that I had a finger print on my plate when we did the poached chicken with riz au gras and sauce supreme. Plating things EXTREMELY hot and making sure I have a completely clean plate are some of the things that are just instinct to me now. So while I was jealous that the basic students had Clergue, I'm glad that we had who we did...as I learned from them.

We walked in to the big salle and I felt rusty. It had been over a week since I'd been in the kitchen and I hoped that I remembered what I had to do! We had a new Chef- another visitor for the practical. I didn't really like him very much. He's extremely hard to understand and when I said to him 'je ne comprend pas' he yelled "YOU GO TO A FRENCH SCHOOL!" I just said "oui Chef" but was thinking to myself that I can understand every other Chef in school, just not you! I prepped the guinea fowl (luckily it did NOT have it's feet) and got it in the oven, I began working on cannelling my vegetables and slicing them thinly. We had to make 1/2 moons with them, so we used an apple corer to take out the middles...it was actually fun, but cannelling celery is VERY difficult. All in all my dish was good- I got 3.5s and 4.0s across the board but the Chef got to me a little. I was annoyed that the school would have a stranger giving us our grades- he doesn't know me!

Friday we had 8:30 demo with Caals. He was a mess! He was completely all over the place with the recipes and I'll be shocked if Monday morning I get it right. I tried to keep my notes organized, but he was jumping around from entree to plat to dessert and not really making much sense to me (or anyone for that matter). Monday afternoon we have a Chef Clergue demo! I'm so excited...I just love that man and can't wait for his fabulous demo!

A Bientot!

My own little ceremony!

2010-03-25T03:40:00.000-07:00

Having missed the real graduation ceremony to travel to San Francisco, I went in to the academic office to receive my diploma yesterday (and to have my absences excused). I have to admit, I was pretty sad to have received it from Céline in the office rather than hearing my name called and taking pictures with the Chefs. Nevertheless, I went to my first demo class of intermediate (guinea fowl, fish stew, and an apple tart...more on that later) and really looked at my certificate. When i first decided to take this journey, I was hoping to not flunk out and just make it through basic. Now- I'm sad that I didn't graduate from basic with distinction and I'm already plotting how I can improve for intermediate. I never in a million years thought that this is what I'd be doing right now, that I'd be living a dream of mine in Paris and meeting the friends that already have and will continue to change my life.

I have proudly displayed the diploma and our class picture with distinction and prominence in the house- where it should remain to remind me just what I have done. I hope to look at it when I have a bad day and think to myself that I overcame what I thought impossible at the beginning and was able to do well and finally feel like I've accomplished something in a school setting.

Let me rewind a bit here- or as Anthony would say start at my 21st birthday and move forward. Wednesday March 17th and the days preceding were quite stressful. I tried to remain calm and have a sense of humor through it all, but there were times when I was so scared I could barely speak. A group of us practiced at Laura's house one day and I was mute. Constantly thinking about which dishes might be on the final and going through the steps in my head. We had been tipped off that our dishes were going to be brill (a flat fish) and the roast duck, but we couldn't rest on that. I memorized every step in every recipe. When we were there- a sudden calm came over me. People were freaking out and for some reason, I felt ready. Chef Caals was our proctor and knowing that he would give us the grades on organization, our skill (turning 2 artichokes), technique and generally overseeing us in the kitchen made me nervous. He's SUCH a clean freak that I really wanted to blow him away. I thought of the organization and the technique as gimme points. We could control everything about those 2 aspects of our exam, so it was imperative to really knock those out of the park. I chose the brill dish- so I just went right to work.

Pretty soon into the dish, Lara cut her thumb, badly. I didn't think anything of it initially, but when she came back with a glove on her hand that was filling with blood- I knew it was bad. I told her that of all the Chefs at school Caals would freak about the blood, so she went down and had it properly taken care of. She was gone for 30 minutes of our final. At first I thought to myself, keep going Carolyn and get yours done. But when she still wasn't back- I knew she'd be in trouble if I didn't help. I cored her tomatoes, put on a pot of boiling water for her to peel the tomatoes, skimmed her stock, chopped her mushrooms and made her a bouquet garni. She came back and was right on par time wise with me. We both went on to chop out onions and shallots, peel, seed and chop our tomatoes and were in good shape. We talked each other through steps and it felt like it was just she and I in the kitchen. All of a sudden, it was time to plate- and we were SCRAMBLING to finish on time. Both of our sauces weren't reduced enough, and I knew my presentation wasn't going to be great.. but when push came to shove, Lara and I both were finished. While she wasn't pleased with her performance, I knew we both had passed. Caals had told us that we all had received great organization grades- so I knew we were ok. We presented our dishes to the jury of Chefs and went down. Sweaty, tired, and emotionally exhausted- we went to clean out our lockers. I just started crying. Not sure if it was because I was happy, I wished I had done better, or that I was just proud of myself- but I sat on the floor of the locker room surrounded by all my stuff and cried. After pulling myself together, Lauren and I went to have a celebratory lunch. We sat outside in the 6th and had a bottle of wine and a great lunch. I called Dad for him to make the phone tree calls that I had finished and that I knew I had passed. Lara came later to join us and we had a great day. Anthony, Gillian, Bruna, Laura met us later and we celebrated with a bottle of Champagne (or 2).

I'm happy to report that we all passed with flying colors. In fact, our own Lauren was #2 in our class!!!!

Back in Paris after a quick, but fantastic jaunt to San Francisco- and my first demo was a fish stew, guinea fowl, and apple tart. Having gotten to class early Caals had recruited me to help him along with Sara and Lara to remove the digestive tracts of LIVE crayfish. You pinch a section of the tail, twist and pull it out. It's repulsive and they are in fact still alive at this point- pinching and squirming. That was nothing compared to what we have to do to the guinea fowl. Those who know me that ligaments and tendons give me the willies due to the amount of times I've torn them. The guinea fowl come with their feet on, and in order to really lop them off, you need to remove the achilles tendons. So a knife cut on either side of the tendon, then reach an S hook around it, twist and twist and twist and YANK! It 'should' rip. While you do this however, the toes on the feet clench around you. I have to do this tonight, so Dr. Marzo- wherever you are, I'm very sorry to have to do this to the guinea fowl- I know how much it hurts!

I'm in a brand new practical group- thank goodness for Lara, she saved my spot for me!!!! I'll report back after my first practical tonight! I'll leave you with a picture I took out the window last night!

A Bientot!

Back in the saddle again...

2010-03-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

After about a minute in San Francisco which was delightful- I'm back in Paris and ready to take on Intermediate! I have to run to school and talk to the woman in charge about excusing my absences while I was getting my visa.

I'm really sad I missed graduation, but I had a great time being home. When I landed back at SFO- I really felt like home which was so nice to feel after being away for so long! I got my apartment subletted, I got my visa, I went to MB's amazing wedding and saw all my friends!

I'm off to my first intermediate class, wish me luck!

A Bientot!

The end...

2010-03-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

...of Basic cuisine leaves me with a very heavy heart. I was finding myself getting misty when I walked to school for our last demo as a basic student. I never thought coming to Paris would have this profound of an impact on me, but it sure has. I'll never be in the same class as many of these people again, and those who are leaving- I'm sure I won't see again. It's crazy to think that these people that have been such a huge part of my life won't be here come the beginning of intermediate.

Ask anyone in my family- one of my favorite things about holiday season is Susie Schoellkopf's annual Christmas party. Sure, I can count on one hand the people that I know- but there is ALWAYS au gratin potatoes. I could eat those things by the chafing dish- so it was very fitting that it was included in our last demo. They are incredibly delicious- but knowing how healthy they aren't makes me think I might not go back for 4ths at Susie's next gathering.

Chef Lesourd went out with a bang- the end of demo brought a flambé baked Alaska and Champagne. I had chills- we were all clapping as we do at every demo, but it just felt different knowing it was the last one...and of course with the Champagne! He made rack of lamb with parsley crust, the potatoes and the baked Alaska (of course with all freshly made sorbet). It was great. Now all we have to do is pass our test! Thursday- Laura and Anthony came over to practice beef strogonoff. Tonight, I'm cooking for my neighbors. Here's the menu:

* Marinated raw salmon (salmon escalopes marinated in shallot, lemon, lime)

* Roast duck with glazed vegetables (which is one of our exam dishes!)

* Green Salad

* Cheese course

* Profiteroles with ice cream and chocolate sauce (and if I'm really ambitious...chantilly cream)

I had planned on making a chocolate mousse- but they called and asked for profiteroles. I've never made them, but we watched Chef make them...so here's hoping they turn out!

I got up at 7:30 this morning and was at the market by 8 to make sure that I would be able to get everything. Today was the first day that I really felt French. It was really fun to see everything and walk up and down the market with my list. Dinner is going to be served around 8:30 or 9:00 and I'm going to time myself with the duck...it all has to be done under 2.5 hours. Profiteroles...I might have to start those babies now.

Off to commence the cooking- I promise to upload pictures of the final product!

Veal with Fresh Pasta, Practice, Truffle Lecture

2010-03-11T10:36:00.000-08:00

You'll all be thrilled to know that I am over my exam grade. You won't need to hear me gloat anymore! You'll also be pleased to know that I am now the owner of a brand new, shiny 10 year passport. I picked it up yesterday, hopefully that will be the last time I'll need to go to the Embassy. I've also emailed it's secret hiding place location to my father in case of another 'incident'.

8:30 yesterday morning came very early (as usual) and there was a problem on the Metro. I get on the 12 at Solferino as I do everyday. And we stop at Montparnasse. The announcer comes on and blabbers something in French and everyone gets off the train. I start to panic, having not listened to the announcement due to my ipod, I had no clue what was going on. I looked over and spotted Gilbert and Alexx from class. We soon found out that the train was closing and we needed to get to school! We get out and start to walk to school from Montparnasse (which is far). I'm asking directions when all of a sudden a taxi SCREAMS over to us on the side of the road. Someone rolls down the window and yells "GET IN!" it was Dimitri! He had the same problem and had found a cab. Luckily we got to school on time, but many others did not. We had the chatty Cathy new annoying Chef for our breaded veal, fresh pasta and tomato sauce. I burned through practical and finished second. Partially because I didn't want to listen to him tell us how many different meats we could bread the same way. I got a tres bien (and 4's across the board- he kept his paper where we could see him marking our grades). I left school, went to the Embassy, came home and went to meet Anthony and Lauren for some celebratory wine.

This morning, Laura and Anthony came over to practice Beef Strogonoff. It was DELISH and we did very well with it. I didn't overcook my meat thank goodness! The people that live in the apartment next door were coming in and I met them. They seem very nice! I stupidly offered them the leftover Strogonoff being as they had just traveled. I went to this amazing lecture at school on truffles- given by the only Michelin starred Chef from Avignon. It was great- he did a demo and we all got to taste while this other guy talked to us about truffles. How they are harvested (dogs only these days), how long they keep etc. It was really really interesting.

I came home and was changing laundry when the bell rang. I ran over and it was the neighbor inquiring about the food. I hadn't ever thought that she might pop in and get it! I kind of just offered to be nice, not thinking she'd take me up on it! Off went my dinner, but she also asked me to cook a 'romantic' dinner for she and her husband on Sunday night. AND she offered to pay me! I of course got very awkward when money was mentioned and she just kept right on going about how she'll think about the menu etc. This could be my first 'catering' job! Very exciting!!!!! Who knows? Maybe they have some very important friends that might need a meal cooked for them!

In other news, tomorrow is my LAST BASIC PRACTICAL AND DEMO! Could you IMAGINE if I was leaving now? I'd be such a wreck. Word on the street is that we get Champagne in our last demo- which is a good thing that it's after practical! I have to make duck l'orange and Parisienne style gnocchi tomorrow morning at 8:30. I'll let you all know how it goes!

A Bientot!

I'm gloating and I'm ok with it!

2010-03-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after the daurade debaucle, Lauren and I went to meet up with E'Lane who had had the dreaded stomach bug that's going around for 2 days. She didn't care where she went, as long as it wasn't her house! We went to Le Bon Marché and walked around before coming back here to finish off the rest of the Italian Wedding Soup (which I must say was fabulous). Gill came over later and it was just heavenly- 4 girls sitting around chatting...what could be better than that?

I had to go to the Embassy AGAIN this morning to check the status of my passport. The gentleman told me that I wasn't permitted to bring any beverage into the Embassy, that I needed to chug my tea in front of him before entering the building. 3,000 burned taste buds and 15 minutes later, I was out sans passport. I hustled to school- not wanting to miss out on veal escalopes with fresh pasta and tomato sauce. As if the menu wasn't enticing enough, we walked into demo and heard MR. BEAN'S voice!!!!!!! Chef Clergue did our demo today and it was UN REAL. He's a superior cuisine Chef and his demo was so great. We all were so engaged the whole time, he never idled or told stupid stories (AHEM Lesourd) and we all were SO into it. When he finished- the classroom ERUPTED into a powerful applause, complete with hoots and hollers. That certainly hadn't happened before! We tasted the delicious breaded veal, fresh pasta and tomato sauce and chocolate and orange mousse and were all in heaven.

I came up from the locker room and saw this swarm in front of where they post the planning. OUR GRADES FROM THE WRITTEN FINAL WERE UP! Suddenly my heart started beating a mile a minute and I sprinted back down to get my ID card. We needed it to identify our grades. The crowd was similar to that surrounding the Chefs plated dishes at the end of demo. I tried to wait patiently, but I couldn't. I strained my eyes and found my ID number 480971. There were 2 grades- the first one was 100 and the second one was a 92. I couldn't really see too well what it said up at the top so Anthony read it to me. The first grade was the recipe memorization grade...100!!!!!! The second grade was the rest of the test 92!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once the crowd faded- I got a closer look to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. I matched my ID card number to the grades at least 5 times. I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only 2 people had beat me in the entire class. The highest grade was merely 3 points ahead of me, and most impressive was that my grade indicated that I had only gotten 2 questions wrong.

For someone who ALWAYS struggled with schoolwork and never was able to excel on tests- this was a huge coup. I am so excited, so relieved and so happy that all my hard work had paid off. I wanted to scream from the rooftops- I GOT A 92 ON THE WRITTEN FINAL!!!!!!!! I refrained and went to eat with Bruna, Lara, Anthony, Noor, Sara and Bruna's friends from Barcelona- the whole time wanting to run outside and make 2 phone calls- 1 to my parents (they would share with the sisters) and another to Carol Pratt. If anyone in this world can understand my academic struggles- it's her. I made it home and made the first call. Mom was so excited! I've since told Dad, Bird and Boo...and I bet if a stranger on the street asked me about it, I'd tell them too! I'm so excited that I'm not ready to stop talking about it yet...maybe tomorrow, but certainly not today! My email is not working properly or Carol would have an email in her inbox too. Too bad we don't actually get the tests back- or that bad boy would be sent to 36 Rumsey Road to be posted on the refrigerator (I think my acceptance letter to St. Lawrence was just recently retired...I like to relish in any academic accomplishments)!

Off to bed- I'll be breading veal at 8:30am tomorrow!

A Bientot!

ps. I GOT A 100/92 ON MY WRITTEN TEST AT ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS CULINARY SCHOOLS IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Written Exam, Chicken with Tarragon, Fish Terrine and Daurade

2010-03-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the delay (again) I promise I'm going to get better at this blogging thing. Last week was really exhausting- I didn't realize how much so until it was over and I still can't seem to catch up on sleep.

First- was the written test. I had practical that Thursday at 12:30 before the test at 3:30- we were making chicken with tarragon, Italian style veggies and a sauce. I felt like I had a good handle on the recipe, but again- I had spent so much time studying that I was unsure about pretty much everything. We had Chef Terrien and this new Chef who is visiting. He's perfectly nice, but he's an odd duck. He wants to help out, but seems to annoy more than help. He kept telling me how perfect my chicken was, how amazing my sauce was etc. I mean it was good, but Terrien mentioned that the sauce could have used more tarragon. I was so mad, and flustered before my test I had to go sit by myself and not talk to anyone. Then out of nowhere I just burst into tears! I think I had worked myself up so much that I just lost it. I had to have Anthony do the bain-marie dance so I could get my shit together before the test.

Everyone at school had said that the test was no big deal- but the pastry people said their test was really hard, so I really studied (as you all know). I sat in the front row and all my test anxiety came back at once. It took me 20 minutes flat. That's with having checked every answer and every question. I felt very prepared for it and was very happy. I left and thought I was going to collapse. What a relief! Friday we learned about hot fish terrine- which is repulsive. Spinach wrapped pike perch paste with a salmon stick in the middle- also wrapped in spinach baked in a water bath so it's gelatinous. We made it right after and It was disgusting. We also made a beurre blanc sauce which is made from 250g of butter (!!!!!) that's 2 American sticks in a sauce that goes on a plate with hot fish terrine....GROSS. I had Caals and he loved it- I of course didn't touch a bit of it.

I had a fun weekend- went to the Louvre...saw Mona, she says hello to all my blog followers and had some fun times with friends. Saturday night, Anthony, Lauren and I made homemade gnocchi with tomato sauce, prosciutto, spinach and baked it...AMAZING. Yesterday I made Ina's Italian Wedding Soup- I love that stuff. Today we learned about filleting a round fish (one with 2 fillets instead of 4 like Sole). We were making daurade with stewed fennel, and yet ANOTHER butter sauce with Pastis in it (anise flavored liquor). Chef Lesourd said mine was tres bien and I headed down to try and deal with the US Embassy because....

...I'm staying for intermediate!!!!!!!!!! I didn't want to share until I knew for sure, but I'm staying and I can't wait to continue here. I have to go back to SF and get a visa (ugh) go to MB's wedding (YAY!) and deal with getting spring clothes, subletting my apartment again (by the grace of God, I'm allowed to) and just generally dealing with 'stuff'. It's a major pain in the rear, but I'm so excited about it that I can't let it bother me. It's amazing how well things have worked out for me- I feel so lucky to have had such seamless transitions into life in Paris and also Le Cordon Bleu. I can't imagine what's to come and I just get excited every single day to go to class. The friends I've made here have been so incredible too- as you know they are from all over, but it's so nice to be around people who are so passionate about the same things that I am. It's refreshing to just 'get' it. To order food at a restaurant and have everyone pick it apart and appreciate it like I do. I've never felt like I've belonged somewhere like I do here- I think that's why everything has been so great for me...it was what I was meant to do, so things just fell into place!

I've appreciated all of the comments, questions, words of encouragement that you all have given me over the past 3 months. I've loved every single second here (yes, even those I didn't have blanky...just not as much) and I can't wait to continue my adventures. I hope you all continue this journey along with me until June 4th!

A Bientot!

Fried.

2010-03-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Anthony, Lauren, and I studied for longer than I care to discuss yesterday. They arrived around 1 and left at 10pm. Lara and Laura were here for several hour intervals, but the 3 of us were in it for the long haul. Anthony makes an excellent Alex Trebbek, I made up dances for all the sauces, and we found ourselves cheering and high-fiving when one of us got a recipe perfect. The profiteroles recipe got extra oomph from Anthony who sang Chantilly Lace every time we were ready for the Chantilly cream portion of the recipe. The pissaladiere got very roudy when it came time for the finish (24 black nicoise olives, 1 tbsp. capers, 2 cherry tomatoes- seeded, peeled and cut into petals, 1/2 tin of anchovy filets, garlic and thyme)...bottom line- we all lost our minds.

It was by far the most fun I've ever had studying- and I've never felt so prepared for a test in my life. Our LCB student party was last night, and at 10:16pm after deciding that I was too tired to go- I got in the shower and went. I was glad to get out of the house because I know that I would have driven myself batty going over the veal marengo recipe if I hadn't. It was a lot of fun- it's so funny to see people that you see every day in a different outfit. I mean sure, we all look GOOD in our uniforms, but seeing people all gussied up was hilarious. I recognized about 10 people.

I couldn't sleep- I was up thinking about recipes. More specifically- I was up trying to remember which croutons are fried in oil, and which are fried in clarified butter. For the record- crab bisque croutons are in clarified butter, and veal marengo croutons are in oil.

I have practical at 12:30 and then go right into my test at 3:30. Wish me luck!

A bientot!

Study, Study, Study

2010-02-28T03:37:00.001-08:00

Sunday morning in Paris and I swear the wolf is outside trying to blow the house down- I looked on weather.com and it says there are gusts up to 60mph! It is so loud, but it makes it so I don't want to venture outdoors...so I can study more!

Yesterday Anthony and I went to a café in the 7th to study, then I came home and studied. I took a break to have dinner with some friends last night at 404- a FABULOUS Moroccan restaurant in the 3rd. It was wonderful food- most of it was served in traditional tajines and was gorgeous to look at. We went out for drinks after and I came home knowing that I had serious studying to accomplish.

Here I am- memorizing an enormous stack of flashcards:

and putting them in piles- the ones on the left I don't know, the ones in the middle I kinda know, and the ones on the right I really know. I'm happy to say that the pile of ones I really know is growing steadily- but I still have to go through ALL the recipes and memorize all my sauces :(

I'll be here doing more of the same until 9pm when I will be watching Ryan Miller and Team USA go for GOLD against Canada! Do you believe in Miracles???

Beef Strogonoff, Exams and Flashcards

2010-02-27T03:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday really felt like a Monday- after having 2 days off, we were all so confused as to which day it was. When we got to demo at 8:30 we were all a little groggy- we were learning Beef Strogonoff which is a very popular exam dish. I was careful to pay very close attention. Chef Lesourd focused on that dish first as a girl in our class' mother was having surgery that day- so she had to leave early. That was a blessing in disguise because Chef Lesourd tends to take his sweet time during demo. He usually loses me 1/2 way through the third recipe.

We went right up to practical and I was pretty nervous. Chef Caals came in, and I got even more nervous. He rattles me and makes me feel very unsure. True to form, my beef wouldn't brown, so I had to use Lara's burner and I was super far behind. I managed to catch up and was one of the first 5 to plate- but not before my recipe and all my notes slipped down behind the oven never to be seen again. That made thing challenging because I didn't know whether to sautée my veggies in butter or oil among other questions.

My rice pilaf with brunoised vegetables looked pretty darn good and I knew that my sauce was perfect, but I knew I had overcooked my meat a little. Chef Caals said that my rice could have stayed in the oven for 1 more minute (really? 1 minute would have made the difference?) and that my sauce was perfect, but my meat was WAY overcooked. I was so mad at myself for overcooking my meat...that is NOT something I ever do- and I was so frustrated!

I left sweating like I had just played a lacrosse game and Lauren and I walked home in the sunshine. We both showered at our respective houses and she came over later to study- we have our written exam on Thursday and were given the 10 possible practical final dishes.

Our written test is 10% of our grade. We have to memorize 6 recipes and fill in blanks that they make in the recipes. We also need to know all of the terms in the back of our binders so we can do matching, multiple choice and true/false. Lauren and I made a GIANT stack of flashcards each- now comes the memorizing part...SHOOT!

Our practical final is scary and is worth 45% of our grade. We were given a list of 10 dishes that we might have to make. On exam day we pick a token and a number and they give us a dish that corresponds with the token so not everyone in the room has the same dish. We are allowed NO notes in the room, JUST the recipe list. We have 2.5 hours to complete that and a technical skill. We plate 4 portions and then a jury of outside Chefs come in and grade us. The possible dishes are:

Poached Chicken, sauce supreme, and riz au gras- that was my first practical with Caals, it went poorly

Roast Chicken with Jus- I had Phillipe for that one and did really well

Brill Fillets in white wine sauce- I did very well on that one too, though my sauce needed more butter

Traditional Veal Stew- I did very well on that one- I'm pretty sure I had Terrien

Sauteed Veal Chop- Stril, one of my best dishes

Roast Duckling with turnips- Lesourd- also did well, though my jus was too greasy.

Beef Strogonoff

Chicken sauté with tarragon, Italian style vegetables- haven't done that one yet

Hot Fish Terrine with beurre blanc- GROSS! Haven't done that either

Daurade with fennel- haven't gotten to that one either

Our technical skill by the grace of God is turning, cooking and plating 2 artichokes. I'm good at artichokes so I need to practice some more, but I think I should be ok at that one. If it had been mushrooms, I would have been in trouble. I'm going to practice all the dishes at least once and time myself before the test- I'm so scared foe it!

Off to continue memorizing my flashcards...what a FUN Saturday activity!

A Bientot!

Mussels in Brussels!

2010-02-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

First of all- I need to tell you that Anthony Fassio is a saint. James Pierce wherever you are...I'm going to tell you something that you already know- your husband is very very patient and absolutely fabulous!

Getting to Brussels wasn't easy- first the passport, then I get to Gare du Nord and didn't realize that there had been a terrible train crash in Belgium earlier in the week. Lesson learned- watch more CNN and less Olympics. Trains were packed and instead of leaving every hour for Brussels, it was more like every other hour. So I get there, talk to the train people and see that I have to wait 2 hours for the train. I read every English magazine in all of the Relays in the train station. I get ready to get on the train and there's a HUGE line. I wait in line, show the woman my Eurail and she tells me I need to buy a ticket. So I get in another line and wait and this man tells me that there is no more room on the train and I won't be able to go. I finally asked a woman in a conductor hat (in French) about my ticket. So she looks at my ticket and let's me through. Meanwhile- people are screaming and yelling, shoving and pushing and I'm so thankful to be allowed to pass.

I get on the train, but there are no seats- so I sit next to the door on a pull down chair. It took us over 2 hours to get there (it should have been an hour and a half), but when I arrive, there's a smiling Anthony on my track waiting for me! We walk quickly to our hotel and I get settled in my room and we go for dinner. The Grand Place in Brussels is gorgeous. It looks to me like it was created out of dribble sand castles. Luckily the extra time on the train had given me time to read about this city more so I had some ideas for dinner. We went to this place called Le Roy Espagne and had traditional Belgian Stoemp- which is mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables and ours came with sausage too- I mean what could be better? A Stella Artois could make it better, and it did. We enjoyed our meal and left on foot to explore. We walked around- it was a gorgeous night and we had so much fun. After we walked a bit we stopped for a chocolate crepe (we WERE in Belgium!) and a coffee. We sat outside in this Gallery watching people and of course, doing a little laughing. After walking back to the hotel- I barely remember hitting the pillow...I was OUT.

8:30 came pretty early this morning but we had a great breakfast and started walking. We walked to Palais Royale, the Parliament, the US Embassy (we just walked by- but they wouldn't let Anthony take a picture...it was so strange). We walked by these great gardens and saw the former Botanical Garden which is now a music venue (Passion Pit is playing there March 1- the lead singer went to Nichols!!!!!) and went to this giant Cathedral Saint-Marie which was really awesome. I have tons of pictures to load, and promise I will put them up tomorrow :). I have a cold, and wasn't feeling good- and I wasn't being the most gracious patient (insert very obvious comment here). Anthony was such a trooper- I didn't feel well, I didn't look well and I was trying to be a good travel buddy...but I don't think I was. Anthony- I"M SORRY!!!! Not only did I make you ride there alone, but then I was not feeling well :(

We went and had lunch on this cute street and I had moules OF COURSE- mussels in Brussels and we hit the road back to Paris. We got on the train- and again it was overcrowded so there was a brawl in our car for some seats- but alls well that ends well...we made it! It was great- I can't wait to explore more of Europe!

I'm off to bed- I have 8:30 demo and then 12:30 practical tomorrow, it feels like a Sunday to me!

A Bientot!

Passportgate...Part deux

2010-02-24T05:18:00.001-08:00

Well after 3 hours and $100- I am the owner of a NEW US Passport.

Off to meet Anthony in Brussels!

One thing that I'm NOT.

2010-02-24T01:37:00.000-08:00

I am many things. I am messy, at times disorganized...one thing I am NOT is irresponsible. This statement might now have to be changed given the events of this morning. I got up, got packed and showered and ready for Brussels. I had my train ticket, my camera, my book on Europe- all I needed was my passport.

I haven't taken my passport out of my house since BEFORE I left for Avignon over a month ago. There hasn't been anyone in my apartment besides Lauren Zimmer, Anthony and my family. It's GONE. I always kept it on the desk downstairs and I went to get it...nothing. I woke up my parents and Lauren at 3am their time asking them if they remember seeing it or moving it. They all saw it, but never moved it.

I tore all of my belongings apart- every purse, pocket, bag, drawer, tabletop surface...everything. It's not here. Meanwhile, poor Anthony is on the train ALONE to Brussels. Not only am I so upset that my passport is gone- I know that is replaceable; I'm more upset to have left Anthony in a tough spot. I'm off to the Embassy to get a new one- full well knowing that the MINUTE I replace it, it will reappear.

I feel like a giant moron. This is so unlike me and I'm just so disappointed in myself. Where the heck could it be?

:(

The greatest game, a slingbox, and some duck

2010-02-23T05:47:00.000-08:00

After Mom, Dad and Lauren left- I was sad. To be fair- I was really sad and crying. I was happy to get out and do a little cooking and socializing. A bunch of us had a fun dinner complete with a hilarious game of Cluedo (British Clue) and decided to go watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game at a Canadian bar. I'm so glad I went, what a GAME! I only wish Dad and Lauren were there to watch with me- as we LOVE the movie Miracle and it was just that! Ryan Miller was unreal.

A very late end to the game meant that yesterday was resting, laundry and getting ready for the week. My brother EJ sent me the information on his slingbox- which is a device that plugs into a TV at his house in Buffalo and I can watch it anywhere in the world on my laptop. US TV!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to hear English, see CSI Miami and of course, see US coverage of the Olympics. I'm VERY sick of curling so I was thrilled with some ski jumping and skating.

This morning we had the duck practical- nothing says 'good morning' like yanking out duck guts! I was working on my duck (removing neck etc) and I realized that my hands were covered in blood- I said out loud "boy my duck sure is bloody!" and then I noticed that it was my hand that was bleeding! I cut myself and had NO idea. It's fine, but in the WORST spot. It's on my right hand just at the base of my pointer finger...aka exactly where I hold my knife. I went and had it bandaged and continued my work. Roasted duck with glazed baby onions (yawn) and turned and glazed turnips and of course a jus. Everything was tres bien- Chef Lesourd said my meat was cooked well, my onions and turnips were perfect and my jus tasted good, but was a bit too greasy. All in all I was happy!

After school Bruna and I went to W.H. Smith- an English bookstore in Place de Concorde. I didn't realize how long I'd been looking at travel books but Bruna said..."we have to get out of here!" A quick lunch at Angelina and here I am- researching Geneva for Anthony and I to hopefully go tomorrow- I'm excited to see another country!

A bientot!

PS. That photo is from class today- for some reason when I went to make my paper lid to glaze my onions...4 came out! I'm usually lucky to get one to turn out- so strange!

Veal Stew, Steak with Bearnaise, and Veal Chop

2010-02-20T01:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a very busy week here in Paris- with family here and having only a day off from school leaves very little time for blogging. It's 10am on Saturday and I'm the only one awake- circle the calendar...this has never happened before and promises never to happen again. I have a cold which stinks but I'm trying to take medicine and drink all sorts of Vitamin C so I'm not clearing my throat and sniffling all through demo this afternoon.

Monday Mom and Lauren came to demo class with me. Everyone knew immediately that they belonged to me when we were waiting for class to start in the winter garden. We had Chef Poupard who seemed to be an a crabby mood at first. You could hear a pin drop in the classroom. No one was laughing- he wasn't cracking jokes, it was very uncharacteristic of him. I looked back to Mom and Bird to sort of say with my eyes...this isn't usually this scary and weird! Once he was done making dough for the sugar tart- he was back to his normal self...thank goodness!

He went on to make this amazing sugar tart, raw salmon marinated with dill and lemon juice which was awesome and veal stew- which I could have lived without. True to form- we were making the veal stew with glazed onions and rice pilaf in practical. Monday night after class- the farkels went to meet up with Mom and Dad's friend Elisabeth Wilmers for a drink in her house. She lives right around the corner from me and her house shares a wall with the infamous hotel that 'stole' my coke bottle collection the last time I was in Paris 12 years ago. It was very neat being in someone else's home- and boy was it gorgeous! We headed to a simple brasserie on the Saint Germaine where all 4 of us ordered burgers.

For Tuesday's practical- we had Chef Terrien, and it went without incident. I got a tres bien across the board (Chef Terrien doesn't grade using the standard LCB grading palm pilot- he writes your name out and makes a grid with all the grades on it). His method of grading seems a bit archaic- as if he uses an abacus to slide our grades across0 but in a way, it seems more thorough.

Wednesday's demo with Chef Stril was great- we learned about how to cook meat to different temperatures. Usually the cuts of meat that we make don't necessarily make my mouth water, but Wednesday was beef tenderloin, need I say more? We learned to make bearnaise sauce as well. Similar to hollandaise- bearnaise is an emulsion that makes my arms hurt just thinking about it. Why would we use a machine (the French pronounce maCHine- it makes me laugh every time) when we have our hands?

Thursday morning 8:30am practical wasn't too pleasant. We first had to make this reduction- which was actually really gross. A mixture of chopped shallots, wine, tarragon vinegar, salt, pepper and chopped tarragon and chervil stems. We had to let that reduce a lot- so that there were about 2 tablespoons. While that reduced, we clarified butter, and started emulsifying the egg yolks over a bain-marie. We had adorable Chef Clergue (Mr. Bean) and he kept looking over my shoulder telling me that I should whisk in a figure 8 motion. It's very hard to do an 8 motion while trying to whisk something very quickly. Everytime he wasn't around- Lara and I would go back to just whisking in circles. Every once in a while, he'd poke his head between us and we'd go back to doing 8's. We laughed so hard when this happened- I mean obviously we hadn't been doing the 8's, but when he looked at us we pretended her had been. He laughed too- love him. My eggs would NOT emulsify. I was pouring sweat and starting to lose my patience when I asked him "Chef, is this ok?" "1 more hour whisking Caroline" he said as he laughed and told me that I was ready to add the clarified butter. Once I finished the sauce, I cooked my turned artichokes in a blanc and sliced and pre-cooked my french fries or "pommes de pont neuf". They are named after the oldest bridge in Paris- and they needed to be pre boiled and then fried. Once all my sides were finished- I got to grill my meat. We had to cook 3 pieces of meat- 1 bleu (still mooing) 1 rare and 1 a point (medium). I had perfect grill marks and was ready to plate. We were able to plate whichever piece we wanted to, but we needed to identify how it was cooked. I thought I'd plate my medium piece...that was until I cut into it and found that it was rare. I plated it and it filled my turned artichoke bottom with bearnaise and made a little house of my fries. Everything was great- cuisson parfait (perfectly cooked meat), my sauce was tres bien and my artichoke was cooked very well. The only comment he had was that my fries were good, but they couldn't have been cooked anymore. That was like when Chef Cotte told me that my consomme was ALMOST too salty- it's not too salty, so why mention that? Typical French.

I came home after practical and crashed. I had to be back at school at 3 for demo- and I was moving tres slowly. I wanted to snuggle with blanky all day. We were on the 1st floor demo room which was TERRIBLE. The marketing lady from school came in and informed me that there was going to be a journalist from Time magazine sitting next to me- so I had to take good notes. I did and we learned to do our cotes de veau, and mussel soup. I had to go right from demo to practical (count that: 2 practicals in one day while my family was here). I was ready for it and felt like I had a handle on the recipe. We had to French the bone on the chop which means remove all flesh, and then trim and put string around it. The journalist came back and was in the kitchen with us- she asked me my name and how to spell it, so if I were you- I'd keep my eyes out for future issues!!! My veal was cooked perfectly (again), my onions, and mushrooms were great, and my potatoes were seasoned perfectly- the only complaint Chef Stril had for this practical was that my jus was too runny. It had been perfect until I thought I didn't have enough, so I added more water. NUTS. I really feel like I'm getting my groove in school- I'm getting more confident and it's proven to be so when I plate and present my dishes to the Chef's. Everything is cooked and seasoned well- imagine that, I'm improving!

I was assistant this week, so I made sure everything was put away and dragged my tired butt home where Mom, Dad and Bird were waiting with salad, bread, and wine. I told them I'd take care of the meat- and we had meat for days! It was delish- but I literally couldn't have been more tired. I took a sleeping pill just for good measure and thought that my head was sewn to the pillow when I woke up yesterday morning. We had planned to go to Strasbourg for the day to see Mark Gorey- old family friend and also because Aunt Andree was from there, but we didn't make it. I almost fell asleep at the lunch table as it was, a 2 hour train ride would have done me in. So Dad took a page from my Paris walks cards and we went for a fabulous walk in and around the Marais. A totally different area than I had ever been and I loved it. I have been so spoiled this past week with family around- I'm going to be seriously depression child when they leave me tomorrow, who will I talk to? what will I do? Who will I watch Olympic curling with?

I'm off to bond with them before they head back across the pond- I'll try and write tomorrow, but I'm sure I will be crying all day...literally. :( The good thing is- that I recognize how pathetic I become when my family is around me...and I'm OK with it!

A bientot!

Boeuf Bourguignonne, Cheese Soufflé, Fried Shrimp

2010-02-15T01:49:00.000-08:00

First, apologies for the delay in blogging, it's been a wild week for me- culminating in the arrival of my parents and sister! Their visit has been wonderful so far, but certainly bittersweet as there are several members that are missing. We keep saying "it's so cute" the way Lily does and it's made us all miss Boo, EJ, and Lily a lot.

Thursday was a crazy day- we had 8:30am demo where we finished the boeuf bourguignonne, among other red meat recipes. Chef Stril taught us the proper way to make bourguignonne even though we wouldn't have enough time to properly cook it through. It's a bit of a rush to get the thing in the oven- first you have to brown the meat- then add tomato paste and flour, strain the marinade- bring it to a boil and make sure to skim it, heat up the veal stock and get it in the oven for at LEAST an hour and a half. After demo- I came home to take a little nap, I then had to be back at school at 3:40 for my meeting with Chef Caals.

I was a little bit bummed that my meeting was with him because he doesn't know me. We've only had him once in practical so it wasn't like he could really give me insight as to how I can improve. All he said was to really know the recipes before heading into practical and also know WHY we do things. He asked me in French why do we always cook vegetables in 3x's as much water? That was easy- because you want them to move around and cook evenly on all sides- but that was his point. He wants us to know why we do the things we do.

After my meeting, I had tons of time to kill before 6:30pm practical. I sat and froze in the winter garden and wrote out the written exam recipes on flash cards that I had bought that morning. I also chatted with some classmates until it was time to go up to practical. I was nervous, but then Chef Caals came into the room- I got really nervous. He is a PSYCHO about cleanliness. He'll come in to a practical room where he's not even teaching and yell at you about cleaning. Lara and I were on a mission to be very clean. I mean we were lunatics about it!

It wasn't my night- my meat wouldn't brown, my stove wouldn't get hot enough and I was behind to get my boeuf into the oven. Then I worked on my garnish which was fine- but I'm still so bad at turning vegetables. My meal ended up being very good. The sauce was the correct consistency and tasted good. The meat wasn't cooked enough- but as he said that was a product of the recipe, not of me. My vegetables were good. But the real highlight was when he told me that my cleanliness and organization was PARFAIT. Hearing that from Caals is MAJOR.

Friday came with a demo of about 600 different types of eggs- which was boring, but we learned to clean, marinate, and fry giant shrimp AND make tartar sauce. Chef Stril took his sweet time and I had practical right after demo. I was feeling stressed about timing, so I didn't even taste his dishes. I went right up and got going. This practical was the fried shrimp and the cheese soufflé we learned a long time ago. I frantically got everything ready and for the first time yet- I felt completely at ease in the kitchen. I knew the steps for the soufflé. I knew exactly how it needed to be done- this time, people were asking me how to do things...ME! Chef Lesourd is back from London and he bopped into the room in his usual manner- loudly. We first made the batter to fry our shrimp, as that needed to rest. Then we cleaned and marinated our shrimp, and got on to the soufflé. I buttered my dish properly, made my béchamel, and beat my egg whites to perfection. Mine was the first into the oven. 12 minutes later, it came out (again, first) Chef Lesourd made everyone stop, clap and congratulate me on my soufflé. It was perfect. He immediately punctured the top of my pretty thing and tasted it- parfait! On to the tartar sauce.

Making a mayonnaise (cold emulsion) and beating egg whites to stiff peaks=arm very tired. But- I was way ahead and doing very well. My mayonnaise came out well, and I added the shallot, chopped capers, hard boiled egg, salt, pepper, tarragon, chervil and parsley. Tartar sauce...DONE. I fried my shrimp after Bruna- and they came out wonderfully. I plated 2nd(!) and Chef said everything was perfect. MY FIRST PERFECT!!!! I was really excited. Here's a picture of me getting my feedback...courtesy of Lara Said (again)

Saturday morning I went to the Paris cookbook fair to work. I was to assist a French Chef during a demonstration. I was absolutely terrified. Anthony said it best- he had to leave because I looked so nervous! Obviously communication was a challenge, but I managed to assist him and serve the cucumber gazpacho. I rushed home and awaited the arrival of Mom, Dad and Lauren!!

Once they arrived, we walked around the St. Germain- had a sandwich at Cosi, went to Le Bon Marché and had dinner at the little cute place Le Square right on my corner. It was very delish! Yesterday I took them to the Marais where they had their fist Falafel experience- they loved it! It was SO cold yesterday that after meandering the streets of the Marais, we came home, read- drank wine and I cooked at home. We're not getting ready to have lunch in the St. Germain area and then we're sending Dad on a walking tour while Mom and Lauren accompany me to demo class!

A Bientot!

Meat Part 1!

2010-02-09T06:52:00.000-08:00

I was not sad to say buh-bye to fish. Sure it tastes good (sometimes) it smells TERRIBLE and by the time you're done with it, you want nothing to do with it. Also after a fish practical- you seem to find scales everywhere. It's not pretty- so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see that we were starting meat!

We arrived today at 8:30 in the snow. Because of the change, my knees were really really killing me today. It also can't really decide whether to rain or snow- which makes them also hurt (thanks to Melissa for the aleve- what a lifesaver!). While waiting for class to start, Dimitri and Lauren mentioned how they got their grades yesterday in pastry demo, that we'd be getting ours today. WHAT?!?!? I was so scared. We got to class and Celine came in to hand them out. We were given our average and our groups average. I was higher than our groups average- so I was happy, but it wasn't as high as I would have liked. I'm right in the middle. I stewed over my grade for a second and thought that it couldn't be right. I then realized that because I had missed a practical- I had less numbers to average together. You don't get a 0, but you just have fewer grades to average together. I'm still not thrilled- but it is what it is.

Chef Stril diligently taught us how to marinade our beef for boeuf bourguignon which we'll be cooking next practical! He also showed us how to trim rump roast and cook it slowly for 3 hours. Then he showed us how to make what we were going to do in practical. Roasted sirloin and potato puree.

We had practical right after demo, so I was sure to pay very close attention and write my notes on my recipe in steps. We got in there and I got all my pots, pans, turned on my oven, turned on my burners and got out all my tools. I was ready. Chef Terrien came in- I'd never had him before. My group had him while I was sick and loved him so I was happy to have him. First order of business was to trim the beef to be marinated for our bourguignon. We had to dice it into chunks, pour in a whole bottle of vin rouge, add some mirepoix carrots, celery, onion, a bouquet garni, some cognac, and some peppercorns. Once that was safely in the frigo, we were able to begin our roast sirloin.

We had these GIANT slabs of beef that were cut, but NOT trimmed. We had to remove the hard fat- mine was very fatty and make sure there was no cartilage on there. We then had to tie string around it so it was a neat little package. After searing it on both sides, we added the aromatic garnish (carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bouquet garni) browned that and threw it in the oven for 8 minutes. 1/2 way through the cooking- we turned the meat.

While that was cooking, we boiled our potatoes and put them through the ricer. Once it was puree, we added beaucoup de beurre (a lot of butter Ker!) and lait chaud (hot milk) and made it beautiful. Theoretically, we should have seasoned them enough by salting the boiling water, as Stril told us it was too late at this point.

My meat just wouldn't seem to cook- it was SO rare. We're not supposed to cut into it, so I pulled the old Mark Hutchinson and pinched to see if it was cooked. Still rare, so I threw it back in for a couple of minutes. I took it out, determined that I would serve the Chef the ends that were cooked medium rare and just take the other home. I took it out, covered it in foil and let it rest near the heat. Meanwhile, I cooked the aromatic garnish and added some veal stock and let it cook into a jus. After straining it, degreasing it and making sure it was properly seasoned, I was ready to plate. I was in the first 5 people to plate which is rare for me.

I plated and I got a tres bien. My meat was cooked perfectly (they like it rare here in France- if you order meat bien cuit it will come medium rare), my jus was parfait, and my potatoes were the perfect consistency...BUT they could have used un peu de sel (a little salt) DAMNIT!!!! SO close to being perfect, grrrrr.

I was pleased, it was a great practical- easy, fast (we were mostly done in an hour and a half) and there were no catastrophes!

Ansel Adams (Lara Said) took some pictures of us in practical today...here they are!

A Bientot!

Brill Fillets/White Wine Sauce/Turned Potatoes

2010-02-05T10:11:00.000-08:00

It was GORGEOUS on Friday. Blue skies, about 50 degrees and the sun was shining. Perfect day to get some exercise so I decided to jog to school. I got there, had a quick sandwich and re-wrote my notes before class.

We hadn't had Poupard in a while and so I was so excited when he shouted "Bonjour tout le monde!"

We had been told that we were going to share 1 large fish between 2 people- I was pretty pumped about that because the last time we had to fillet a fish, I was told mine looked like crocodiles. When we got there and saw all the food, we realized there were 10 fish and 10 people in our practical. I got nervous but went right to work. Fins were snipped, scales were removed and I was ready to tackle this thing. I cut down the center of the back and started slowly removing the fillets. Chef Poupard suggested I turn the fish a different way which made it very easy. I worked slowly and tried to get every ounce of meat off the bones. He kept commenting that people were leaving too much meat on the bones so I tried extra hard. My first fillet was a thing of beauty. It was enormous and perfectly cut. The next one wasn't as pretty but it worked. I flipped over to the belly side and cut 2 more gorgeous fillets. I put the carcass in a pot with some butter to make stock while I skinned them. The skins came off perfectly and I honestly didn't know what I was going to do with all the fish! I was so happy that I had done a good job filleting and skinning them.

As the stock was bubbling away (we added wine, shallots, onions, garlic, mushroom trimmings and water) we had to turn potatoes. Chef said it should take us 20 seconds to turn a potato. It took me about 10 minutes to get them to not look completely horrible. Then we had to ciselee shallot, onion and tomatoes that had to be skinned, seeded and chopped very very very very finely. Once the fillets were placed in the pan, we added wine, the chopped veggies and stock to braise the fish.

6 minutes later, the fish was cooked. It needed to remain firm, if it fell apart it was overcooked, so we all were very vigilante. Once the fish was determined to be cooked properly, it was removed, covered and kept near the heat. We then had to reduce the braising liquid into a thick sauce. Normally, sauces are my thing- they always reduce and taste great. This one I couldn't pay it to reduce. I used a few tricks- switching it to a shallower and smaller pan so it would reduce faster, adding butter- nothing seemed to get it to reduce! Everyone plated and I was the last one standing. I didn't want to plate it before I knew it had reduced enough because I knew Chef wouldn't like that. So I impatiently cleaned my station, put away my knives and put my plate in the oven to warm. With 1 minute left- I plated my dish. Fish was cooked very well, sauce reduced enough but tasted too much like fish stock...aka needed MORE butter, and my potatoes needed to be cooked a little more.

I was very bummed. I have yet to get a perfect in school (besides the quiche- which doesn't count) and I really want one. Often, there are perfect elements to my dish, but never the whole thing. I'm half way through basic- I need a couple of perfects!

It POURED rain all day yesterday- I mean I was getting ready to build the ark! I watched a lot of Entourage and Lauren and I walked around and went to Le Bon Marché which is far more than an amazing grocery store. I'm happy to report that my French is getting much better. I'm able to speak thoughtfully with sales clerks and navigate myself around- I'm pretty darn proud of myself!

I have to start drinking tea so I can stay up and watch the Super Bowl. I'd really like to see the Saints take it- they've had a great season so far and deserve to win

A Bientot!

Class Dinner, Hake and Hollandaise

2010-02-03T11:55:00.001-08:00

Tuesday was GROSS and rainy, but I was so excited to get all gussied up for our class dinner in the Gare de Lyon at Le Train Bleu. I met Lauren at the train station and we walked up to head to the restaurant. Basic cuisine and pastry had a joint dinner so I got to meet some new people which is always fun!

We walked up and there were 6 long tables set for us. We saw Juliette the director of academics and she marked that we were there and we hung up our coats. We were a few minutes late so we started our own table with Noor, Sara, Florence, Laura, Chef Stril and some others. Everyone was so dolled up and looked great- especially the Chefs! As you know by now, we're to address them as Chef. Bonjour Chef, Bon Soir Chef, Merci Chef and the ever popular Oui Chef. While this formality remained for our dinner, it was really fun to get to see them without their whites. It made them seem more human. Of course, none of us could talk about anything else besides food and school- but it was fun to hear about other groups. Group B (my group) is always full of drama- but I love hearing who stands in my spot in the kitchens, who is fast, who is slow, which Chefs are nice to whom etc.

Dinner was served and we started champagne and Pressé de foie gras de canard grillé aux artichaux:

it was delicious but VERY rich. I didn't finish all of mine.

Then we had Blanc de cabillaud, jus corsé, carottes craquantes au miel et cumin which was really, really great. I loved the carrots. OF COURSE being that we're a group of Chefs and Culinary students no one left anything un-commented on. The Chefs (Stril, Clergue (Mr. Bean), and my pal Cotte) especially didn't care for the carrots, they said that they were over cooked. Mine seemed fine and I cleaned my plate!

We then had a sélection de fromages affinés et sa salade which was also great but I couldn't eat all the fromage. The French take triple cream to a whole new level. There was a fantastic Chevre that I just had to finish.

For dessert (no, we weren't done yet!) we had Millefeuille au kirsch et griottines. I liked the millefeuille but I personally don't love Kirsch so I didn't eat that. After we were finished eating, I mingled with other tables and sat down between Lara, Bruna and Anthony. Lara had been sitting with Chef Cotte the whole meal and at one point RAN over to tell me a story.

Apparently he had been telling her that he always seems to pick on students and make them cry. He doesn't mean to, but they end up thanking him in the end. He mentioned to her that he didn't do that with our group- and Lara (love you!) said "oh yes you do, you pick on Carolyn!" He told her that the only reason that he did that was because he thinks that I'm good and that he likes me in the class. That I work hard and am really starting to get it. I was so excited when she told me! When I sat down by them I wanted to make sure he knew I wasn't scared of him. So we chatted (as much as we could) and actually got along nicely. He thinks I'm funny (go figure) and ended up high fiving me about 300 times during the night. Pretty soon the other 2 Chefs- Stril and Clergue came and were sitting by us (there were about 7 of us chatting with them) and we took some fun pictures. It was so nice to see them outside of the scary kitchen and for them to laugh WITH us. We all were comparing war wounds at one point, and let's just say that I have NOTHING to complain about. I have years and years of burns and cuts ahead of me. Here is a picture of the new found friends Chef Cotte and I:

After dinner, I was saying goodbye to Chef Stril and he said "Thank you for always smiling" which I thought was so nice! Chef Clergue was super sweet (of course) too.

It was a great dinner capped off with drinks with a fun small group of us. Though I was slightly overserved and had a headache yesterday- I couldn't have had a better time. Dimitri, Anthony, Bruna, Lauren and I went to the St. Germaine for drinks and ran into JP, Zu, and Siham!!! of all the bars in Paris- we were at the same one!

Chef Stril made poached Hake (fish) with 'spaghetti' vegetables and hollandaise sauce the long way yesterday at 12:30. It looked simple enough but when we got to practical, right after demo it was far more tricky. While Chef Stril (had him in practical) cut the giant fish into slices, we still needed to clean the blood etc out which was tricky. Hake also has this nasty black lining on its stomach that we had to remove...YUCK. We got to use a mandolin to make our zucchini and carrot 'spaghetti' which I was really looking forward to, but it was hard! The vegetables kept slipping and I was one slip away from a spaghetti finger. Luckily I walked away with all 10 fingers but the hollandaise sauce was HARD.

We had to make a bain marie to cook and whip the egg yolks until they emulsified. Then we had to clarify our own butter and add that. All in, it was about 20 minutes of straight whisking. Chef made fun of my faces the whole time- apparently when I'm focused, I'm really really focused and I look funny! The first attempt I turned around and my eggs scrambled. DAMN. I had to start over, but in the end it was PARFAIT! I overcooked my vegetables, but my fish and sauce was perfect. HOORAY!

We had Chef Stril again today for fish demo part 2 which I will go into more detail tomorrow. BUT Chef Cotte came in the demo room when the assistant was plating our testers and yelled BONJOUR CAROLINE in front of everyone. Then came over and gave me a high 5- I was so embarassed...but hopefully he won't pick on me anymore!

Off to have French Sushi- this should be interesting!

A Bientot!

I cooked Peter Cottontail...

2010-02-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: The following blog post promises to be extremely graphic, please skip this one if you happen to be squeamish...Really...

We had to make rabbit yesterday with sauteed potatoes. Chef Stril showed us in demo (at 8am) how to butcher them, but it didn't really prepare me for what I was about to see.

First of all- they have their heads (without ears, but WITH eyes)and most of the major internal organs. Intestines and things were removed- but we were left with heart, lungs, liver, kidneys. We first had to remove the head- Chef Stril told us it was better to use the cleaver and lop it off in one foul chop. The cleaver is really heavy. Once it's in the air it's pretty tough to stop it, so aim is really important. I always remove my left hand from the meat...just in case. The other problem is you can completely mangle a piece of meat if you're not super careful. I was sadly unable to remove the head with one chop- so I had to do some sawing.

I had a really hard time with this. There's something about doing it yourself makes it a lot worse. When you order a chicken, duck, rabbit etc- it comes to you cooked and looking nothing like its original form. Here it takes a lot of work to get it into the 10 pieces that we needed. Also looking at open eyes and a tongue hanging out of a bunny rabbits mouth really made me think about the way that it died. I know- they are bred to be killed for food, but actually seeing it whole did something to me. I had to really focus on not gagging audibly. Chef Clergue (Mr. Bean) noticed that I was struggling and asked me twice if I was ok. I had to concentrate on not looking at its head and just looking at the empty cavity.

We then had to remove the kidneys and liver- mine was FULL of liver! We had to cook that so those were saved, but the heart and lungs were tossed. Once everything was cleaned, chopped and dusted in flour we browned them on the stove, and then put shallot and garlic, wine in there and tossed them in the oven.

I began working on my potatoes which were really hard to do- perfect 2mm round slices is challenging! We also had to remove much of the starch from them, which was tedious rinsing. Once my rabbit came out of the oven, I forgot to put my handy hand saver (le creuset rubber cover for hot handles) and I grabbed the handle. I never cut myself, but I can't seem to manage to not BURN myself. OUCH. I kept right on working and the Chef saw what happened. I was slicing my potatoes and was really fine- it was nothing like the finger burns before, but Chef came over without me noticing and bandaged me up- what a guy!

All in all- Chef liked my dish. Meat was cooked perfectly, potatoes cooked perfectly and seasoned properly (they were damn good) and my sauce was a thing of beauty. The only comments he had were that I plated my rabbit upside down...not really sure why it made a difference, but oh well- I also didn't cook the organs enough. We were told to leave them pink, and mine browned so quickly I didn't want to overcook them. I was pleased- but I handed all my rabbit off to the dishwasher (who loves me). She was excited to have it- which made me feel better not wasting. I just couldn't bring it home and eat it.

I walked with Lauren home and we decided that we were going to order pizza to her house and drink wine. We had no class today so we could sleep in. We had such a blast- Anthony came over and we hung out and laughed until 2am- the kind of laughing where your abs are sore the next day :) it was great AND I managed to order delivery en Francais and our order was correct and they found the apt! A little feather in my cap!

Tonight is our class dinner. I CAN NOT WAIT. We're getting all gussied up and having dinner at Le Train Bleu in the Gare de Lyon. Champagne is served promptly at 8. It's going to be SO MUCH FUN not only seeing everyone (including all our Chefs) in street clothes, but also getting to know everyone not sweating and bonding over rabbit murder. I will be sure to take a lot of pictures so you guys can place names and faces.

I better be off to primp!

A Bientot!

Sweet Caro-LINE!

2010-01-30T15:33:00.000-08:00

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. That's a very popular saying, though never really rang true for me until yesterdays practical.

Practical #12 Supremes de volialle farcis, sauce aux champignon; tourner les champignons

We walked in to 1ps and everything was set up for us. Definitely the best assistants yet. Lara and Fernando gave us all our cutting boards, and had placed our trays with ingredients in our spots. It was heavenly! OF COURSE Chef Cotte came in to our practical "Bonjour a tous" he says. Having had him yesterday (and done pretty darn well) I was feeling pretty good going into this one. We had to take a balloon chicken (one with the legs chopped off already), remove the breasts- chop the carcass for our braising liquid and sauce, stuff the breasts with chicken mousse (ew) and finish it with turned mushrooms and a cream sauce (are you catching a theme here?)

Chef kept walking by me and singing Sweet Caroline in my ear. He was clearly looking for a reaction- and I knew I had to stay focused. I felt very disorganized in the beginning- not remembering which 'blanc' which mushrooms had to be cooked in, how much the sauce had to reduce- but I managed to get a hold of myself and stay on my game.

I went to work removing the breasts from my chicken. I used the fish filleting knife because I would be able to follow the bones more precisely on the chicken with that knife. I knew it was mainly for fish but I've been told that I leave too much meat on my carcass so this time I was determined to get every ounce of meat off the bones. Chef Stril came into our class and made a comment about my knife choice. I simply said "hey, it's working, I'm getting all the meat" and he couldn't argue. As long as I knew that I was using a knife that was different than what he used- I was ok. That's what they are trying to teach us- we need to find our own groove and realize what works best for US. Every Chef that we encounter has a different way of accomplishing the same thing- they want us to be able to make a choice and deal with it.

3 of the chicken breasts were to be stuffed and one was to be diced and used in the stuffing. Lara and I were the first 2 to the robot (kitchen-aid) to make our mousse. We were actually ahead of the curve! We made our stuffing and went to work pushing it through a sieve to make it more mousse-y. It's repulsive. I found myself really working myself into a full blown sweat getting this mousse through the sieve and into the cooler while I worked on my breasts.

Irene- next to me on the left was hysterical. She had the comment of the term so far "GUYS, MY BREASTS ARE JUST TOO DAMN SMALL!" we couldn't help but laugh. Irene doesn't say boo in class, but when she does speak- it's genius!

I sliced the breasts, concassed the carcass- sauteed it in butter and removed it from the heat to actually stuff the chicken. Using a piping bag (first time this term!!) I took my mousse and piped it into the cavity I had carved into my chicken breasts. I of course blew right through the other end of one of the breasts with the filling, but managed to take the tender of that breast and patch up the mistake. I actually said out loud "come on Carolyn, you can do this" and managed to rock the last two. I poured stock into a saucepan and my chicken was in the oven for 25 minutes.

Turning mushrooms is cruel and unusual punishment. I can't even begin to explain how difficult this process is without a picture. I will spare you the frustration we all felt while trying to do it, and move right into taking our chicken out.

Chef kept singing in my ear, but again- I was determined to not let him get to me today. I worked quickly and cleanly- taking my chicken out of the oven and it looked GREAT. The juices ran clear so I knew it was cooked, and the skin was gorgeous and brown. I removed the breasts, covered them and set them near the heat to keep warm. I put the carcass through a chinois and let the jus reduce for a LONG time. Chef came by and said that he had never seen a sauce so gorgeous. Obviously he was lying, but I went with it. I added cream and butter to my sauce to make it shine and added my cooked mushrooms (not the turned ones).

After heating my plate and making sure everything was very hot- I plated my dish. My sauce was perfect, chicken cooked perfectly. The only note Chef had was that my mousse could have used a touch more salt. Again- better to under season my food than over season. I was thrilled. I had gotten stressed at the end and was dripping sweat. I hadn't even noticed that Phillip had sliced his palm and there was blood everywhere. I was in the zone, and it paid off. Cotte liked it! Even though he's a pastry Chef- he's the one that scared me so badly- and I won him over with my food. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I cleaned my station and went down to the winter garden. I couldn't stop sweating. It was SO hot in there with everyone's ovens at 200 and all burners fired. I ripped off my necktie (soaked) and noticed that not only was my hair completely sweaty- my undershirt was completely soaking wet. Well at least I did well!

Lara and I went for a crepe and headed home to relax. I did it- I survived practical with Cotte again. I was quick, clean, and my food was good. Best of all, my sauce reduced enough!!! That was HUGE and I was so proud of myself- I can't believe I didn't let him get to me. He was actually starting to grow on me. Best of all, I was feeling I'm really getting it- that I belong here. I can hang with the best of them and I can suck with the worst of them. This is what I'm supposed to be doing and I love it. I don't mind re-writing my notes from class and spending HOURS ironing my uniform. I love it, I belong here and am starting to really get my groove.

Allison said when Cotte first yelled at me that he'd be my favorite at the end. He certainly isn't my favorite (yet) but I survived and even spoke to him in French. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this thing- imagine that!

Will report tomorrow after falafel... I can't wait to have it again!

A Bientot!

ps. Thanks so much to everyone for their kind words of encouragement. They go a LONG way when you're trapped in a kitchen using a cleaver to destroy a chicken carcass. I hope you're all enjoying this journey as much as I am!

Bon Travaille

2010-01-29T01:37:00.000-08:00

After finally getting over my bout with illness, I went to demo on Wednesday to watch Chef Stril make stuffed veal paupiettes with a jus and 'turned' vegetables. Nothing gets an appetite back like watching veal, pork shoulder and pork fat go through a mincer!

It looked simple enough, no real surprises until it came time to turn the carrots. Turning is a process by which you essentially whittle a vegetable so it's the same size all the way around. For example a carrot goes from looking like a carrot to a bullet (with a perfectly round bottom). They look like baby carrots but more uniform and peeled- and we had to do 6-8 of these to accompany our stuffed veal. We then glazed them along with peeled baby onions and a jus.

8:30am came very early yesterday and I was feeling pretty good. It was my first day back in the kitchen in a week and I was excited to be back in there. Chef Stril walked into our room and a big sigh of relief came over group B. Then he walked out. Cotte walked in. I said aloud 'today's the day I will get over my fear of him'. I just put my nose down and worked. Quickly and efficiently making the stuffing, tenderizing the veal and wrapping them together with pork back fat (gross) and using string to tie them into parcels. Chef came by and said "Bon Travaille" or good work- things were looking up!

Once they were put together (I was ahead of the curve on this one) we had to dust them in flower, brown both sides and while they were browning, prepare the braising liquid. Mirepoix carrot, onion, celery and make a bouquet garni, peel, seed and concasse tomatoes and cook. Adding tomato paste for color, armagnac for taste and browning the veggies, it was time to braise the veal. Pouring veal stock 1/2 way up the sides of the veal paupiettes and cutting out a paper lid- they were in the oven for 30 minutes.

Carrots. UGH. It took me a LONG time to get them all turned and the chef had to do one for me so I could see. You need to use the paring knife in one movement to get this shape. I cooked them and the onions, and glazed them (let them caramelize in the butter and get color), strained and reduced my jus and everything was looking good! I cleaned and warmed my plate and was adding butter to make my sauce shine and the Chef came over, looked at my sauce and gave me a high five. PARFAIT! I plated my dish and I have to say, it looked really good! I removed the fatback from the veal and had the Chef taste it. He liked it, though he said I needed to salt my carrots a bit more. All in all, he didn't yell at me- he told me I was working well and loved my sauce. My veal was braised perfectly and I was SO happy.

I cleaned my station and headed to the winter garden to wait for our next class- a conference. This was the second conference we've had and was equally as dumb as the first one where we learned to say "CHAUD" when walking with something hot. We had a fire drill in the beginning which was kind of fun. Seeing a sea of students all in their uniforms walking across the street and the ladies from the front office standing in the street with vests on to stop traffic.

We had demo after conference and we watched Chef Stril make chicken breast stuffed with chicken mousse, turned mushrooms (can't even describe those yet) and yet another cream sauce! We also watched him plate his duck terrine that had been in the fridge since Wednesday...YUCK.

Now I'm off to make the chicken stuffed with chicken...wish me luck!

A bientot!

Cleaned my station and

Food poisoning?!...go figure

2010-01-26T01:53:00.000-08:00

I had to miss my 8:30 practical today because I got food poisoning last night. No, it wasn't my cooking- I think it was the lunch that we had yesterday after demo. All I had was some French onion soup and a salad!

I'm so mad. I didn't want to miss any classes this term and had to miss one because I was sick. Today I was supposed to be making grilled salmon, with these delicious potatoes (with bechamel sauce IN them) and sauteed spinach. I was feeling so good about this practical too.

That's it- no more French onion soup for me

:(

It's been 3 weeks already?

2010-01-24T10:58:00.001-08:00

Today marks 3 weeks since I arrived in Paris. I can't believe how quickly it's flown by!

I went to Le Marais today (as I do every Sunday because it's hoppin!) and per Mari Jimenez's suggestion I went with Zu and Chandra who is visiting to this Falafel place. We got a number and had to wait for about 25 minutes before entering this very small place called L'as Du Fallafel.

It was complete mayhem outside. There was another falafel place right across the street (but in Le Marais the streets are so narrow that it's more like a sidewalk) but everyone was waiting to get where we were going.

By the time we sat down, I was low blood sugs like you couldn't imagine. I hadn't eaten all day and it was 3:45pm. I ordered a falafel sandwich, Zu ordered a shawerma sandwich and Chandra ordered the falafel plate. Also per Mari's suggestion I ordered an Israeli beer.

Our food came and we didn't speak until it was done. It was hands down the best falafel I'd every had. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I licked my plate clean...

and we walked around Le Marais for a little while before stopping in for une verre du vin at the neatest cafe I've been to yet. Reggae music was blaring, it was such a cool scene and the waiters were so happy and jovial. It makes SUCH a difference with the people inside the cafe or restaurant seem happy- it's much more welcoming than getting the ever-popular French stink eye. We had a great glass of wine and hopped on the metro home. I had to stop and buy some essentials over there because everything is closed in the 7th. ZuZu thought it was really funny that I bought toilet paper really far from my house...so she took a picture of me with it...

On the metro I met an interior designer from San Francisco- who's going to help put me in touch with people when I get back, lucky me!

After I finish ironing my uniform, I'm going with some kids from my class to watch the NFL games at the moose...should be fun!

I can't believe I've been here 3 weeks...here's to a great 9 more!

A Bientot

We'll always have Avignon...

2010-01-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

I've heard the greatest things about Provence- My Aunt Andree used to rent a house there every year, my parents have rented a house there, and everyone I've ever talked to who has been there, has loved it. So I decided to see what all the hype was about!

When the only flight that I could find to Spain was $3,000.00, Anthony and I decided to take a trip. Thursday morning I trekked to Gare de Lyon to get a Eurail Pass. 5 travel days, 4 countries in 2 months. After demo and practical that night (made very delicious roasted chicken, "turned" an artichoke bottom and filled it with perfectly cut and cooked legumes) I came home and packed for our weekend getaway.

Yesterday I got up at 6am (pause for reaction) and headed to Gare de Lyon. When in my metro station, I heard a train coming, so I sprinted to it and ended up getting on the train heading in the wrong direction. Oops. I fixed that, and after 30 minutes of looking for Anthony we got on our train!

2.5 hours of chatting with other American businessmen heading to Cannes (tough life) we were there. We took a shuttle to the town center and walked to our Hotel. Being that it was 10:30am, the rooms weren't ready, so we ditched our stuff, got a couple of maps and headed out to explore. Our first stop was the Palais des Papes- this massive structure that was built and nearly destroyed during the revolution. Here is a picture of it:

As you can see it was a gorgeous day; it felt so nice to have some sun on my pasty skin! After we walked around there, we went behind it to these great gardens overlooking the city. Avignon is TINY. The maps we were given led us to believe that it was larger than it was, so end to end was about 10 minutes of walking. The gardens were very beautiful and had great views of the Rhone River.

That second picture reminded me so much of you Mom, I had to include it :) Sadly there was no lavender to put in my bottonhole, but I thought of you the whole time I was there!

At about 1pm we went back to our hotel to have a costume change and to get situated. We had a slight miscommunication that led to Anthony sitting downstairs in the lobby waiting while I "closed my eyes" for a few minutes in my room. Whoops! We then set out on the streets to look at other sights around town. The manager of the hotel gave us some great tips and a restaurant suggestion for dinner. We finally found the restaurant and decided we'd find another suitable place to make a reservation. We walked to the other end of town and found this really pretty square- we found a great restaurant and made a reservation for 8pm.

We then walked around to find the hotel where Mom and Dad stayed when they were there. When we found it, we knew it was slightly different than the teeny place we were staying in. It was so beautiful, and once again so Mom. We had a glass of red and felt like a king and queen...then back to reality. But not before taking a couple of pictures!

Upon leaving La Mirande (the haves) and heading back to our neck of the woods (the have nots) Anthony says he's hungry. It's now about 4:30pm and NO ONE was serving snacks. Even in this one cafe where the woman at the desk said they were serving food, a snotty waiter told us then that we were mistaken, that there was no food. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We were forced to go to this GROSS place and choke down a charcuterie plate and a goat cheese salad. It was disgusting, we left immediately and had some tea at another cafe.

After walking around some more, popping into some shops and sight seeing, we came back to shower up for dinner. Looking very dapper, we walked towards where we had made a reservation. 7:00pm is NOT when the French eat. It was a ghost town so we stopped in for a glass of Chateauneuf de Pape at a hotel bar across the square. We had some lovely peanuts and olives to tide us over and the chef sent out some salt cod with some sort of olive spread for us.

8:30 we walked in to the restaurant where we were having dinner. Surely the hostess would remember us...she didn't but we were still able to eat. We both had a tasting menu and it was delicious. I had oysters, then steak and Anthony had foie gras and steak. There was another miscommunication, this time with the waitress who brought us 2 cheese plates instead of 1 cheese plate and 1 apple tart. We choked down the amazing cheese and rolled home.

Having seen 99.99% of Avignon yesterday, we were slightly concerned that we would be bored today. We got up around 8 and walked over to this market to find us some breakfast. Some fruit, coffee/tea and some bread with jam later we were full and ready to walk the same streets again. This time we went in to some more shops and meandered until it was time to head to the train station. I had a BAD case of the giggles and was laughing so hard I cried before we left and we both shrugged and said "we'll always have Avignon".

Another quick train ride home and we're back in Paris! Both of us slept most of the trip home...

It was so beautiful and I'm really really glad we went, but we should have done yesterday in Aix-en-Provence and today in Avignon. That way we wouldn't have had so much time to kill and could have seen 2 beautiful places! I'm so glad I went, I 100% believe why people love it so much. It is beautiful and has a very laid back attitude which I loved. Now I'm back in the hustle bustle of Paris and happy to be home.

A Bientot!!

Day From Hell

2010-01-20T06:28:00.000-08:00

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!

Burned but not broken

2010-01-16T07:34:00.001-08:00

After a wonderful evening last night, I was pretty excited to get to school today. It was my last day as an assistant and I felt like I had a pretty good handle on how to do this one.

Boy was I wrong.

Chef Cottes- one I hadn't had before was our chef today. He walked in to the kitchen in a bad mood and just started yelling. He was very demanding, but kept telling me that I was doing things well. Then it was time to take the puff pastry out of the oven. He started screaming at us and shoving the hot baking sheets at us. I had my towel and thought I was ok until my towel slipped and I started searing my two pointer fingers. I had to continue to burn them as to not drop the tray full of puff pastry (that turned out not to even be mine). I didn't yell, I didn't scream but my fingers were really burned.

I kept on working and tears started falling- I wasn't actually CRYING, but my face was red and my eyes wouldn't stop tearing. I put my fingers under cold water and people started to notice. "YOU"RE CRYING!" Lara said when I looked up at her to ask her something about the albufera sauce we were making. The Chef came over and was talking to us and I just stared down as to not show him that I was hurting. Loredanna next to me said "you're really in pain, you really need to tell him...he'll be nicer to you". I went over to the Chef and told him about my fingers. His response "SO?" then he looked at the one that had already blistered and started to help. He explained that vinegar really takes the sting out of the burn. I thought he'd be nice to me for the rest of the practical.

I was wrong again.

After he saw that my eyes were watery- it was game over. He was ON me the entire rest of class- yelling at me the whole time. "Am I making you cry? are you crying because of me?" I kept telling him no that it wasn't him, it was my fingers but at this point I couldn't really tell. "YOU ARE NOT A MAN" he'd yell to make sure I knew I wasn't being tough. He stood over me and made me plate my food when I knew it was cold. Then he flew off the handle- screaming and making me run around and get pans to heat everything up. It was all theatrics- he was showing off now and everyone was watching.

Now, not only was I trying to stir my sauces with my bad fingers, Chef was screaming at me and everyone was hearing....oh, I was still fighting back tears. I finished- he said it was 'bon' but I was LIVID. I didn't even try my puff pastry- the labor of love that took us the better part of 2 practicals to make, nor did I taste the poached egg, stewed leeks, sauteed bell pepper or 2 kinds of sauces that I made. I threw it out immediately and got to cleaning. This was my last day as an assistant and I needed to at least finish that off well.

I took everything down to the sous-sol and saw Chef Strill who asked me how it went today. I told him that it was a bad day and he saw the vinegar soaked kleenex on my hands. He took a look, told me to go to the pharmacy and get BiaFine and tapped me on the back.

I knew there were going to be days like this- I signed up for it. I knew there were going to be times when I really got my ass kicked, and I wasn't afraid of it...I just didn't realize that Chef Cottes could break me like that. I was a wreck- I was sweating, SO beat red, and broken. I can handle being yelled at. I didn't subject myself to Coach T at Nichols for 4 years if I couldn't handle it. I could handle also being hurt and trying to push through- hell I've got the scars from 7 operations to prove that. I couldn't handle them at the same time I guess- I am really disappointed in myself for allowing him to break me. I'm better than that, I'm tougher than that.

I went down, changed again fighting the tears and went upstairs. Bruna and Lara were waiting for me, but I was so mad I couldn't even chit chat. My fingers were still burning so badly I had them pressed against a diet coke can for some relief. I decided to go to the front desk and have them bandaged. Vincent- the poor guy who had to wrap both of my pointer fingers was a star. He saw that they were really hurting and was super nice to me. A translator also noticed the look on my face and came to check them out "those hurt like a bitch don't they" she said- at least she knew I wasn't being a wimp!

Laura from class stood with me while I got them fixed and Bruna came in to find me as well. Laura is a mom of 3 and just knows. She said the right things, helped me to calm down and then went to pick up her own little girl. I wanted my mom and my blanky.

Bruna didn't leave me- and she listened to me swear the entire metro to my house where I changed so we could salvage a day. We went to lunch with Anthony in Les Halles and went to the most crowded mall ever. I bought a new Bodum mug to carry my tea in the morning to school and we just laughed. It was a good thing that I couldn't call home when I was feeling awful...it would have made me worse.

I came home, watched a little Entourage and went to meet up with Anthony, Zu, JP, Melissa, Mark, and Siham for Senegalese food in the Marais. It was so much fun- we all just had a great time and laughed. It was just what the Dr. ordered! After dinner, we went to a sports bar in the St. Germaine to watch the NFL playoffs. We talked about our favorite movies and laughed again until it was time to go home...

I came home to find such a sweet email from Laura and a note on facebook from Lara. Lara said she was impressed at how I held it together today...that's funny- I thought I completely fell apart! Laura asked how my fingers were. So thoughtful and sweet of both of them! I'm sure there are going to be many more burned fingers, screaming Chefs and tears, I'm just so lucky that I have met great people who are here to help when it happens next.

A Bientot!

C'est Parfait

2010-01-15T13:54:00.001-08:00

Those are words that a.) culinary school students don't hear too often and b.) are exactly what they want to hear every single day. I wake up in the mornings before class going over the steps in my head over and over and over again. Most nights before practical I don't sleep much because I'm so stressed and nervous. Last night was one such night.

This morning, at 8:30 I was in the basement getting everything ready (I'm still class assistant) and things weren't looking good for me. The dumb waiter with all our food wasn't coming up to the send floor, so I ran (literally sprinted) down to the basement again to make sure all the doors were closed, then ran up again. Nothing. Merde. I ran downstairs to group A who had all of their things and were happily preparing for practical. I ran back upstairs and luckily the dumbwaiter had arrived!

Things just kept on getting better. I was behind most of the class because I (assistant) had to keep running and getting more flour when we ran out. 10 students making 2 kinds of dough requires a lot of flour. I'd sprint up to the 3rd floor until finally Chef Poupard said "Caroline- why do you keep running upstairs? Do you need the exercise that badly? There's a hige vat of flour right here!" Oops.

First we did the savory short dough- made that and let it rest. Then we made the dough for the puff pastry and let that rest as well. We then blanched bacon- drained it, sauteed it in butter and got the rest of our stuff ready for the filling. Eggs, cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg- pass through a chinois and set aside. Once that was ready we rolled out our dough put it in the mold and blind baked it.

While they were blind baking, we did 2 turns of our puff pastry dough- you have to roll it out with a big X in it. Put a disgusting hunk of extra dry butter in there, fold the dough over the butter and roll it out into a perfect rectangle. Then fold it again, roll it and put it in the fridge again.

Once we finished that, we filled and baked our quiches. Mine came out brown and delish looking. I was frankly really surprised- I had been behind all class and here I was, the first one done! I did 2 more turns of the puff pastry dough and plated my quiche. Chef Poupard simply said "C'est Parfait!" I was SO excited (see picture) I could barely contain myself! I was getting very hungry so I dashed around the kitchen cleaning up after everyone and took the ingredients back down to the basement to enjoy my quiche.

I thought Chef Poupard was the best we'd had yet- he was calm, helpful, didn't yell and kept us all on target in a relaxed, yet stern way. He definitely yelled at some but I was just in a groove today- I felt good, I felt confident and it turned out!

After practical- I hoovered more quiche than I care to admit into my mouth and went to demo. We were in the bad demo room again but I was in the second row which is the best to be in. The mirrors show everything and it's easy to hear and see.

I came home, took a cat nap and just went to see It's Complicated with Bruna and Anthony. The movie was cute and for .0005 seconds made me a little homesick for California. I quickly snapped out of it when I noticed the French subtitles and said..."DUH I'm in Paris!" After the movie we walked around and had a crepe in the 6th St. Germaine area. I love that place SO much I could walk over there for hours. Each restaurant and cafe has more charm than the next and it's just very European. I loved it!

Tomorrow at 8:30 we have to finish our puff pastry and make poached eggs with this strange sauce/leek combination and put it IN the puff pastry...interesting. But then it's the weekend!!!

A Bientot!

Wait, what day is it?

2010-01-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

Students at Le Cordon Bleu know a lot of things. We know how to brunoise, we know how to clean, we know how to make sure our boards don't slide around, and we know how to be on time and in uniform. One thing we don't know is what day it is.

You see, at Le Cordon Bleu- we know time as it relates to class. For example- if you have 12:30 demo, you know for sure that it's about 3:30pm when you leave. When it comes to looking at a real calendar? forget about it. No one has a clue. Students stare at 'le planning' and say "wait, what day is it?" because school is the only thing on their minds. I must look at my planning 17 times per day to make sure I know when class is- and before I go to bed everynight, I triple check it to make sure I wasn't making a mistake and missing a class. In fact, I just emailed Lara to make sure that I'm not mistaken (I left my planning in my locker) that we only have 12:30 demo tomorrow. We're all a little pathetic.

You'll be happy to know that I received an "excellent" on my tart today. It was our first practical with Chef Strill and he made fun of me 23456786543 times because I was so tense. It was our first real grade and I was petrified! For the first time, when I looked around and saw people that were ahead of me, I just looked down and focused. Not one problem. I didn't kill my yeast, my dough rose, I seasoned my onions, I soaked my anchovies in milk and water (OUR anchovies. We had a tin per 2 people) and after 17 minutes, it came out golden and brown. The one thing I would complain about is that the SIDES of my tart were a little bit big. Bruno showed me a new technique and made the edges of my tart look fancy. In demo we learned to use an upside down plate and push the dough against the plate making a spot of the onions. Chef showed me how to make it pretty- and I wish it weren't so puffy.

I'm also pleased to announce that I have my first cut, though I'm sad to report that it happened when I was putting my knives AWAY. I knicked my finger on my cleaver and I had to run down to reception to have it fixed up. It really wouldn't stop bleeding! It didn't hurt at all, but for hygiene and sanitation, we must put this on:

All in all, a great day. I had THE BEST night's sleep ever thanks to my new travel alarm clock/sound machine. I slept to the pitter patter of raindrops and I had a great night's rest! Check out the picture below...a little SF here in PARIS!

A Bientot!

Re-Adjustment

2010-01-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

Since the tart incident. I had a glass of Chinon (the kind we had in class yesterday), ate the leftovers from lunch (penne arrabiata) and took a walk around the block keeping my eyes on the Eiffel Tower.

I am in Paris.

I am in Paris cooking.

I am in Paris learning more about something I love.

I am in Paris learning more about something I love and meeting incredible people.

I'm over the tart. I'm re-focused and am ready to KILL it tomorrow.

(Ok I watched an episode of Entourage and Ari Gold inspired me...is that so wrong?)

Looks can be deceiving

2010-01-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

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!

Les yeux, le nez et la bouche

2010-01-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

Before I get into the meaning behind my post title, I want to share my day yesterday!

After sleeping until the pm- I went and met Anthony at Concorde metro station to do a little sightseeing. EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays in my neighborhood, so I suggested that we head to Le Marais (which is a primarily Jewish neighborhood) to have some lunch and just breeze around. First we went to Notre Dame, which was SO cool. I lit a candle for my sister Allison who was running a marathon in Florida yesterday. She finished it!!!! I bet it was because of my candle lighting (just joking Boo) Here are some pictures of Notre Dame

It was just so gorgeous- I'm really glad we went!

Then we walked across the Seine to Le Marais where we just got to know eachother better. Fun fact: Anthony's family owns an egg farm in Utah- they produced 28 MILLION dozens of eggs last year. It was really nice to get to know someone here- and he has such an interesting story!

After a croque monsieur and some onion gratinee, we walked to Hotel de Ville. It was really neat to see and there's an ice skating rink in front, so we watched people skate for a minute before heading to L'Arc de Triomphe.

I just knew it would be gorgeous at night, so we went around 5. You have to pay to walk underneath it (very lame) so we didn't. Then we took a stroll up the Champs Elysees to find a movie store. I bought a season of Entourage so I could watch it in bed when I go to sleep. It's great!

Today we had class at 3:30 so I woke up, ironed my uniform, unloaded the dishwasher and headed to the Saint Germaine with my friend Bruna. We ate at Les Deux Magots- I thought of you Mom the whole time, I even took a picture of it! Then we jumped on the metro to class.

It was wine pairing class today. A sommelier came in and taught us all about how to taste wine, what kind of wines go with what food, and while he did that a chef prepared a meal for us to taste with our wines. He taught us that we taste first with our eyes (les yeux) then our nose (le nez) and then with our mouth (la bouche). I liked learning HOW to taste, and what to look for with each sip. We had braised ox cheek with glazed baby onions and puree of potato and sweet potato. It was INCREDIBLE. It was so tender and delicious. I hadn't ever had ox cheek so it was a real treat. We had a yummy red wine with that and everyone was impressed that I could suck air in with my wine (thank you lots of trips up to Napa!) Then he made a mango gratin which was paired with a white dessert Bordeaux wine (which I didn't care for, so I gave it to Sara).

I just ate dinner and am off to my kitchen to practice chopping onions, I will get them perfect if it KILLS me! I just bought 12 onions so I could practice on those and carrots :)

A bientot!

"Your knife, your hand and your product"

2010-01-10T03:26:00.001-08:00

It was bound to happen- and it happened. I had my first bad practical :(

We had 8:30 demo where we were in the BAD demo room- it is not stadium seating like the big one and is nearly impossible to see everything. Compound that with being unable to sleep the night before and the terrible translator and it just wasn't my day.

I sat next to Bruna (Brazil) and right down the row from Anthony and in front of Lara and was scratching my head most of the class. We had the goofy Chef- Frederic and he LOVES to hear himself talk, so he was yammering on and on about how he worked for the President and how cool he was while he started the chicken stock.

Chicken pieces covered by water with leek, carrots, onion (with 3 cloves poked into the flesh), peppercorns and a TEENY bit of salt. 20 minutes later, the stock is ready! Seemed easy enough!

Then he babbles some more, calls me out AGAIN in class- this time about being hesitant when I was filleting my fish. And cleans a chicken- cuts of the tips of the wings, trims various glands that need to be removed (one in the neck and one on the tail- area) and begins to truss with a giant needle and string. This is difficult to see, but all in all I get it- you just make a neat little package with the chicken. He blanches the chicken- removes it from the pan, adds vegetables and takes it back to the pan, covers with water and lets poach for an hour.

He then makes a cheese souffle which was TO DIE FOR. There are a few little tricks that he does but all in all, looks the same as my technique. I'm SO excited to make that!

Then he goes back to the task at hand- riz au gras (rice with onions, butter and cooked in chicken stock) and supreme sauce. It all looks easy enough- I'm fairly confident heading into this practical thinking "it's chicken with rice and sauce, how hard could it be?"

...And then we walked into 2PS. We all started prepping to make the stock. 10 minutes in, Chef (different one) comes in and says that we're NOT making the stock, that we're to use the poaching liquid for our stock. This really starts us out on a bad note. We get to work and he comes over and helps me organize and said that the ONLY things that should be om the cutting board is your knife, your hand and your product". There should be no peels, no ends, no uncut vegetables...nothing.

Then I begin my chicken- first and foremost we have to blowtorch any leftover feathers that were on it- then clean and truss it. OF COURSE this chef wants us to truss it a different way than we were just taught- so that took longer than planned. He helped me (did it for me) and I blanched the old bird.

After our chicken is blanching we prepare our vegetables for our 'stock'. Peel, wash, mirepoix, create 2 bouquet garni- 1 for the stock, and 1 for the rice. We need to brunoise an onion for the rice and make a roux (butter/flour cooked together as a thickening agent). I've made roux before, but I screwed up the first one. Toss, start again. I get all this done and we have some down time. We can't start cooking the rice because we don't want it overcooked, and because our 'stock' isn't ready yet. I clean up my station and put most of my knives away per Chef's suggestion.

Then it's a mad dash to finish everything. Take out the chicken, let it rest, start the rice, finish the sauce, plate your dish.

I finished, but Chef told me my food wasn't seasoned enough. He also said that I need to really go over the recipe and have a plan before I get into the kitchen. Break it down into steps- like today we dealt with the chicken, then prep ALL our vegetables and really think through the process in steps instead of minutia. He said he noticed that I was freaking out for no reason and that I should only focus on MY work, not compare where I am with others. Oh, and he said my plate had fingerprints on it. He did say that I was very organized and had a good attitude while in the kitchen, but needed to assert myself more. He made me stand there and say "OUI CHEF" over and over as if I was in the Army. Hey- at least he didn't tell me to throw my food out like he did to someone else in class...

Overtired+no food+unseasoned food in practical=me completely and utterly deflated.

I go have a glass of wine with Lara who got a "tres bien"o on her dish- we completely dissected everything from class and talked about how we can both improve. It's amazing how LCB students really only talk about school and class.

I came home, took a nap and was getting ready for my first night out in Paris with Zulaikha and Siham. I ate my seasonless food and headed over to the 16th where Siham lives. Her apartment is super cozy and we go to this club called Sences.

Now, for those of you who don't know me- my ideal Saturday night is having dinner with friends and having some drinks at a bar. Usually a hole in the wall kind of place or somewhere like Perry's where I know everyone. I walk behind velvet ropes and into this club. WHOA. Laser beams, lights, REALLY loud music. It was such a blast though. We danced until WAY too late and had a great night. I slept until noon- I really needed it, and think I'm heading to the Marais with Anthony later because I've never been and because NOTHING is open on Sundays in the 7th.

I'm also going to buy the stuff to practice a cheese souffle over there so I can get back on my Tres Bien's next week. I don't have practical until Wednesday- but I really want to study- having unseasoned food really made me so sad!

A Bientot

"Your fillets look like crocodiles hahah"

2010-01-08T15:02:00.001-08:00

I survived practical #2.

I slept until 11 this morning (!) I got up, showered and went to meet Anthony for lunch. We both had croque monsieurs- I realized quickly that the croque madame's aren't really my thing. I asked him about 650 questions as he had already done the fish practical.

On my way to school, I went and bought colored rubber bands and ziploc bags. The rubber bands are so you can mark your knives. Many people either etch their names into them, or use le vernis a ongles (nail polish) to differentiate their knives. I picked rubber bands and it worked very well!

I get all changed and head up to help Bruna and Moran who are this week's class assistants. We get everything set up for practical and the chef comes in and SCREAMS "YOU HAVE CINQ MINUTES". So we scramble around, set up our boards, get out the necessary knives (once class starts, you really can't run to your knife kit...so if you forget something, you're SOL). In the middle of our workspace is this giant box of sole fish. We each are given 2 fish that are slimy, stinky and looking at us. From both fish, we SHOULD get 8 fillets.

We get to work and I snip the tail, fins and gills with my kitchen shears, scale with a paring knife (scales EVERYWHERE) and start to fillet. I get the first one and it looks like it should...I almost yelled I DID IT!!!! but then I kept going. Each one got worse and worse. The chef walked by me at one point and laughed..."your fillets look like crocodiles". I didn't really get what that meant, but when he told me to throw one away, I knew it wasn't good.

We were all SUPER behind the entire class. Once we had our fillets, we had to skin and gut our fish (take out all the roe and brains, eyes etc) to be used in our fumet de poisson (fish stock). He kept yelling out that we should be at this point, we should be at that point and I was no where near where I was supposed to be. Instead of panic, I just kept my nose down and worked. I put a lot of butter in a stock pot, and put the fist bones in there (we were also given 2 other uncleaned fish for our stock) to steam. I then feverishly brunoised my leek, celery, and onions. Put them in the pot to let them steam- then brunoised shallots, chopped parsley TRES TRES FIN (very very fine). Then I added wine and water to my stock, let it steam for 5 minutes then added mirepoix mushrooms. Then it was time to prepare our fillets to be braised. We had to butter the bottom of a oven safe sautee pan, sprinkle some of our shallots on the bottom and fold out fish into 3 pieces like an envelope. This was hard because the side that came off the bones needed to be facing up. When you destroyed your fillets like I did, you can't tell which is which. I strained the stock (which was great) and ladled it so it was 1/2 way up the fish. Meanwhile Chef was screaming ALLER ALLER ALLER!!!! meaning we weren't working fast enough. I put my fish in the oven and carefully watched the clock while I tried to salvage things from my station. If the Chef walks by and your station is messy, he just throws everything out.

7 minutes later, my fish was cooked 'parfait'. I quickly put it in foil, and poured the braising liquid into a small saucepan. At this point people were freaking out! The braising liquid needs to reduce A LOT and then you add about a stick(!) of COLD diced butter and wisk it feverishly until it's thick. I had turned off my oven and put a plate in there to warm when the chef told me my wisk was too big for the pan I was using. Oh well I thought, too late now, better just make the sauce. I tasted, seasoned and plated my dish. C'est tres bien, le bercy est tres bon. Were the Chef's comments. I nearly jumped out of my skin...TRES BIEN? my sauce was TRES BON? HOLY SHIT!!!!! The girl next to me over cooked her fish, and my friend Lara's sauce separated, and many people's sauce didn't reduce enough. I felt like barbie queen of the prom.

Chef screamed at us and made us late for demo cleaning our kitchen (little did we know HE was our demo chef...) Group B all rushed into class breathless and there was our jolly chef, laughing at us. He then proceeded to call me out "Ou comme Caroline..." and demonstrated how loud I was wisking my sauce because my damn wisk was too big. I didn't care, I turned beat red as everyone laughed, but Bruna next to me said "who cares, you got a tres bien on your meal"

I just got home, am SO exhausted and have 8:30 demo, then right into 12:30 practical. We're making white chicken stock and poached chicken with sauce supreme. I have to get their early and clean the fish guts off my knives.

A Bientot!

Ps. I did burn myself while Chef was screaming at me, but STILL NO CUTS!

Pps. Someone barfed all over the steps of the locker room. GROSS!

Band-Aids, Burgers and Butter

2010-01-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

I survived my first practical.

I went to dinner last night with Zu and her friend Siham (Abu Dhabi) in the 5th. I was so excited to have clothes that I wore my tory flats with no socks to dinner. Well I got lost, and my feet were completely numb. Oops, rookie Paris mistake. We had a fabulous dinner- I thought I was going to have steak frites, but opted for poulet roti instead. Chicken was overcooked, but there were mashed potatoes...so who could complain. I came home and had a MAJOR bit of homesickness when I video chatted with Boo, EJ and Lily. I took some Nyquil and fell asleep.

I woke up today around 9- ate, checked email and headed off to school at 11:30. I was petrified of practical. I kept having this nightmare that I couldn't julienne my celery. I got there really early and started setting up, we were in the Julia Child kitchen which was pretty neat. I took the spot by the window- Lara (Dubai) and Bruna (Rio de Janiero) came in and started too. Pretty soon we were all there and the Chef came in. Practicals are NOT translated so understanding the French is difficult.

He gives us a couple of short demonstrations and we're on our way. We have to get all our stuff (pots, pans, chinois etc), turn on our burners and start prepping. One rule is that everything must be ready before you start cooking. So off we go, peeling, washing all our veggies (carrots, cabbage, leeks, radish), opening up our pea pods, topping and tailing our haricots verts etc. We have to cut everything into a brunoise- TEENY TINY cubes. How do you do that with a round vegetable do you ask? Well you need to slice the ends of to make it a cube. Then slice it lengthwise into strips and then into cubes. It's really fun, but quite the process. About 20 minutes into practical Fernando (cardiologist from France) saunters in. He's very late (BIG BIG BIG no no). The girl next to me had skipped demo yesterday, so technically- she shouldn't have been able to be in practical, but because it's the first day, he let her slide. She came without hairnet, apron, tea towel or necktie...so strange!

While we're working, periodically you'd hear "oops, j'ai coupe mes droits" or I cut my finger. You really have to focus because in order to get everything done you must move quickly but you can't be sloppy with your knives. I managed to get several "biens" on my brunoise from the chef and didn't cut myself!

I started cooking and I quickly realized that my window spot was a BAD choice. The sun coming through mixed with the steam of the soup made it so I couldn't see a THING. I'd have to take my pot off the stove in order to see it. My burner was also screaming hot and my soup coiled too rapidly.

While we were cooking, the chef had demonstrations- so he'd make us all go to him and watch him do something like a bouquet garnis or a different cut. This is tricky because you have something on the burner! I took mine off the heat for these. We also had tests we needed to complete while cooking our soup. We had to chop an onion 2 ways, garlic, shallot and make a bouquet garnis. I finished my soup and then did my tests. The chef tasted and said my soup was 'tres bien'!!!!!!!! MAJOR MAJOR excitement until he said that we weren't being graded today. MERDE. I rushed to get my tests done and finished as others were leaving the room. It was a bit of a cluster at the end- cleaning, pouring soup into our bowls, having chef taste again etc.

When I left, I thought I was going to pass out. Practical is exhausting, but was fun. I put my soup in the fridge and went to grab a burger of all things with my groupmates. We had SO MUCH FUN. I went with Lara (Dubai), Bruna (Brazil) and Phillip (Italy). It was such an inspiring lunch! We all ordered our burgers differently. Phillip with foie gras on top, Bruna bleu- meaning VERY rare, Me with sauce au poivre and Lara VERY well done (came out medium looking). I had so much fun learning about their backgrounds, ages, hometowns and we had a funny conversation about their thoughts on Americans. I was the oldest in the group- Lara is 20 and worked in a kitchen in Dubai this summer. Phillip is 22 and worked in a kitchen in Italy and Bruna is 25 and worked on a very high end boat in the kitchen. Then there's boring old me! We had a great time and went back for 6:30 lecture tonight.

Fillets of sole in a butter/wine sauce, veal stock, and 2 kinds of fish stock. We take a whole fish- snip the fins,scale it, remove the gills, and fillet it. We have to do all that, while making fish stock, braising the fish in the oven and making the sauce. Needless to say- practical tomorrow isn't going to be fun. I'm luck that I don't have class until 3:30. Poor Anthony has to do all that tomorrow at 8:30am...gross.

I'm exhausted, but pretty jazzed on the day as a whole. I'm going to eat my soup and hit the sack. I'll be sure to post on my fillets tomorrow...that should be interesting.

A Bientot!

Ps. The pastry students leave their cakes and tarts out in the winter garden for us to eat...so I had dessert before dinner. Oh well!

Bags and Vegetable Soup

2010-01-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

Great news, my bags arrived!!!! I had a morning intro session where we got our binders full of recipes, went over the rules (again! we get it, be on time) and went through other housekeeping items. I ran home in between that and demo to see if my bags had come (I got the call last night); when I didn't see them in the atrium I went upstairs feeling very deflated. Once I arrived in the apartment VOILA les bagages! I took them right upstairs, ransacked them (hugged blanky) and ran off to second session...our first demo.

I got there a bit early to avoid the traffic in the locker room which proved to be inevitable. It is literally like oragami in there. Picture 100 ish women trying to get dressed, wrangle knife kits, binders, jackets, scarves, purses, uniforms etc in a teeny tiny little room. I banged my head on the top locker once, got in my uniform and went to sit in winter garden. After finding my seat in class (there is not ONE left handers desk...) Chef Strill came in to begin our demonstration. He showed us how to tie our neckties and then went in to vegetable soup. He was very jovial and friendly, but I have to say that I really didn't like our translator today- she kept messing up and would skip over a bunch of stuff. I'm lucky that I can understand the actual French, there were many people scratching their heads.

He began by doing his prep work. Putting a towel under his board, then explaining to us that we use 1 board for our practical. We must keep our areas clean at all times. He also told us how we're to NEVER (jamais) place vegetables on our board that have not been cleaned, or as he said "no earth on the board". We're to use a big steel tub to put all dirty veggies and peels, and we have a big bowl of water to wash them in. Now we get to work.

1. trim leeks, remove outer layer and take a paring knife to cut a + sign into the top, soak in water
2. peel potato, take out the eyes, soak in H2o
3. trim and soak carrots
4. trim, peel and soak radish
5. trim and soak celery (making sure to remove all the fibers)
6. trim and soak cabbage leaves
7. top and tail haricots verts, waste NOTHING
8. remove peas from pods

Now we clean and chop the veggies into a paysanne cut (very small, thin triangles). Once the vegetables are chopped, we use a plastic scraper that we MUST keep in our pants pocket AT ALL TIMES to put into a clean bowl.

Then the actual cooking begins! It seems like a relatively simple recipe but at free moments, Chef showed us the different cuts we'll need to master. He showed us the Mirepoix, Julienne, Brunoise, and then taught us how to chop an onion with the heart in it, without the heart and also a shallot. Then he'd go back to the soup, then he showed us the bouquet garnis- where you tie herbs with string with a leek paper wrapped around it. Back to the soup, chopping garlic, season the soup, taste the soup, talk about herbs, show us our knives, etc.

When he was done, he let us take pictures and taste the soup. It was great, but to me could have used a little more salt! It's probably my untrained palate.

All said and done it was 3 hours of feverishly writing everything you saw and everything he said. I'm exhausted, and have 6 pages of notes. In practical, you're only allowed to bring 1 piece of paper in to the kitchen, so I need to re-write all my notes. People in class ask the DUMBEST questions and when they ask, it screws up the Chef's train of thought and we're all left going "what was that?" I'm all for asking questions, but some people really asked dumb ones.

I just got home and am going to re-write my recipe for tomorrow's practical and remove all the sleeves for my knives, label them and get everything ready.

I definitely made a friend today! Anthony is great, he is from Salt Lake City and is really nice. I'm excited to get to know him better. I also finally chatted with Melissa (who found this very blog and wrote me!) she found an apt in the 12th and lived in Sonoma and Petaluma working on a farm that supplied Chez Pannisse! Very cool.

I am LOVING Paris, and really feeling like I'm getting the hang of things. It's so beautiful and very clean, and it snowed today. It was so incredible looking out of the apartment and seeing snow falling on the Eiffel Tower...does life get any better? There are no windows at school, so I have to get my looks in when I'm traveling to and from. Tonight- I'm going to get steak frites with Zu who introduced me to the friends in her section. I felt really cool knowing someone in intermediate :) People at school are from every place you can imagine, I'm so lucky to be here and meeting these people that will surely go on and change the world!

I'm going to re-do my notes and UNPACK!

A Bientot!

ps. I have my blanky wrapped around my neck right now...I missed it SO much!

My internet here is spotty, so I'll upload the pictures from class today later

Chef Stril's soup:

Recent Findings/Orientation Day

2010-01-05T04:57:00.000-08:00

Well I just got back from my Orientation day at school. It was so exciting and I think I made 3 friends!!! I slept about 4 minutes last night (combination of jet lag and first day jitters). I set 3 alarms and was up and in the shower by 7:30. I had some special K and tea and was out the door by 8:30. Because my stupid luggage hasn't arrived yet (don't go there) I had to buy another lock before I went to school. I arrived around 9:10 and was given my ID badge and shown into the demonstration room.

Here is a picture of the outside of school:

The room itself was very ordinary but had croissants, jus d'orange, tea and cafe for us. We then met the head of the school who was a woman that looked mean but was very nice. Our translator had the most obscure accent, it was a mixture between British and Australian- hey, at least we have one. We introduced ourselves, and I wrote down the different countries where people were from:

Israel
Japan
Thailand
Brazil
Columbia
Taiwan
China
Italy
Canada
USA
Greece
United Arab Emirates
UK
France

WHOA! Talk about a melting pot of people. Most people spoke a little English and I forsee language being an issue for several. There are others who speak 5 languages and I found myself feeling jealous. I definitely can understand much of the French which is going to be helpful, but speaking is another issue. We got our uniforms, knives, scale, tupperware next and had to try it on in the locker room. My pants COULD NOT be any longer- I'm going to have to have them hemmed. The locker room is absolutely tiny, so I became very close to those that I met...

Then we had a tour of the school. It's very very very small and for being such a renowned place, the equipment seemed antiquated. I had to remind myself that it's not about the equipment, but the technique I will be learning. Pictures on the wall of all the famous alumni are so much fun to look at! (Lots of Julia Child) The prep kitchens are scary and I saw the biggest vat of bubbling veal stock just boiling away when we got a tour of that. We also met some of the chefs who were having lunch in the sous sol (basement). After the tour they took us back to the Winter Garden (not a garden at all, but a frigid cafeteria looking room) where we had some bread, brie, fruits and wine and went home!

While carrying all my stuff home and sweating profusely I managed to get my monthly metro card. The woman helping me spoke no English so I tested out my French. It worked and I have the card...PHEW! one more thing to cross off the list.

Here are a few things I've learned in my 2 days here (in no particular order):

1. The metro couldn't be easier. Everything is so self explanatory and easy- I've been in almost all of the neighborhoods!

2. Crying gets you absolutely nowhere in this country. I've spoken to Air France close to 50 times and each time there are at least a few tears...and my bags still aren't here. Maybe I will yell this time...

3. Paris is so gorgeous it's not even funny.

4. I will never, in my life live in a nicer house than I'm living in right now. I certainly don't deserve a place so incredible, but it's so nice to feel like I have a home.

5. The same annoying music plays in the Gap here too. (I bought a sweater, jeans, underwear and an undershirt)

6. It is no longer legal to smoke inside...making the few clothes that I have smell much better.

7. I miss my blanky

8. Most of the time when I attempt to speak French, people respond in English. Come on people, at least I'm trying!

9. One way to break in kitchen shoes is to wear them everywhere you go (my only pair) my feet hurt and my legs are sore

10. The toothpaste here tastes funny, I can't wait to get my Colgate

I'm going to take pictures of my equipment and go get my pants hemmed and head to the US Embassy to check in with them just in case. I will put pictures up of my first day of school outfit!

A Bientot!

I Made it...

2010-01-03T08:48:00.001-08:00

You know you look AWFUL when you walk onto a plane and the flight attendant says "ma'am, are you alright?", you manage to choke out "I'm moving to Paris" from behind your tears and keep walking. That's how my journey over here began. I had a full blown, four alarm panic before I got on the plane. There were MANY tears and not nearly enough wine.

I land in Amsterdam to be told that I've already missed my connection, but not to worry because KLM has already booked me on another flight leaving in 2 hours. I wait in line at customs where a scary looking woman doesn't say one word to me and stamps my passport. I got a sprite and a muffin with my KLM food voucher and waited to board my next plane. I asked the nice lady at the desk if my bags were on the plane and they were not, but they were still loading them. I asked the nice lady on the plane once we were in the air if they had made it on. They hadn't. Cue more tears...lots of them.

I arrive in Paris and wait at the carousel like an idiot knowing full well my bags with EVERYTHING in them aren't going to come out. I go, file a report and take the train(s) into Paris. Now in the middle of my misery, I manage to procure a train ticket from a machine in Euros (thanks Mom for the change!), get on the correct train, transfer at Chatelet Les Halles, then transfer again at Concorde to arrive at my stop, Solferino.

Fairly confident that I'm going to receive my bags, I'm pretty pleased at this feat and bee bop around the 7th to find my apartment. Somehow I find the place and the outside code works!!! This excitement was short lived as the inside code I had didn't work. Luckily the guardienne came out to help me. She was lovely and showed me the place- it really is unreal. I call Zu, figure out how to use the phone and look around. Secretly waiting for the phone to ring and it being Air France. The woman said they make a trip to Paris at 3 with delayed luggage and again at 8pm. I call, nothing. They can't find my bags. I decide to walk to the store to get something to eat. It's Sunday and EVERYTHING is closed. I finally find a market and get the necessities. I come home and am FRIGID so I take a shower and have been laying in bed crying. I've called my parents, they've called me, but nothing seems to be making my bags appear. All I want to do is snuggle up with my blanky, unpack and put on some warm socks.

Alone and wanting clothes.

Merde.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait?!

2009-12-23T07:56:00.000-08:00

To be fair, I'm not really a 'planner'. I wait until the last minute to accomplish most things. My father and sisters are major planners, I'm usually the one that will say "It will all work out". While being homeless in Paris is much better off than being homeless anywhere else, it really freaked me out. Lauren said that I was screaming in my sleep the other night "I'm NEVER going to find one"...yikes.

Then my fairy godmother Nancy called. Nancy is a colleague of Lauren's at Sotheby's that has an apartment in Paris that she and her husband Michael are letting me rent while I'm there. Embarrassing as this is, I was jumping up and down screaming when she called saying I could rent it. They sent me pictures and I'm fairly certain that it's the most fabulous apartment that ever existed in Paris. The location is PERFECT (in the 7e) and I will be in a home. As Lauren said it "You will be yelled and screamed at all day, and burn your hands and cut your fingers, but at least you have a home to come home to!". I will be able to walk to school which is important considering the sheer amount of butter I plan on ingesting, and there's a woman who lives in the building that can help me if I get lost, or something tragic that is bound to happen to me.

Since I made the decision to come to Le Cordon Bleu, things have just seemed to fallen into place. I've been able to find someone to sublet my place in SF, I've now found a place in Paris, I've got my flights, I dropped off my car, I've gotten my insurance, and I'm ready to go! People have been saying that because things have fallen into place for me, that this journey was meant to be. I can finally say with my whole heart that it was meant to be.

Now all I have to do is email those several agencies and proudly say "Thanks but NO THANKS!" I have been so frustrated with them that I'm sure this will be a fun exercise for me.

Here is a picture of the view out of my new Parisian apartment:

Joyeux Noel!

Why didn't I stick with Twilight?

2009-12-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

For some reason last night after I went to the Symphony (and watched Jersey Shore) I got in bed and instead of reading the epilogue of Eclipse, I picked up my other book...the one about Le Cordon Bleu. I was about 30 pages into the Basic Cuisine section. I had stopped reading it because it was freaking me out. It was so similar to my life and decision to go to Paris that I was worried that it would make me get really anxious. Well I started reading it again, and boy did I get freaked out.

Not only was there a chapter on beheading innocent little bunnies (don't tell Lily!), but she goes through the final exam process and it really made me nervous. I had decided that I wanted to be at the top of my class a couple of weeks ago- this woman ended up sobbing on the floor of the locker room after a Chef told her she was wasting her time coming to school there. To say I'm nervous is an understatement- it's possible to fail this program, what would I DO if I failed? I'm nervous enough just getting ready to leave let alone if my mirepoix isn't perfect.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to deal with apartment stuff, I lost yet ANOTHER apartment. Fortunately, one of the original selections has become available again so I am going to sign the contract. OF COURSE in Paris signing a contract doesn't actually mean anything, because 19 other people could have signed the contract, and of course because of the time change, it's the weekend there, so nothing will happen until next week. I"VE HAD IT with Paris housing agencies.

I've cleaned out my apt, and am about to take my car up to Napa to leave it at Dominique and Boz's house. One of the last things I have to do before I leave Sunday morning!

Je suis tres fatigue, a bientot!

My Pretty Welcome Folder!

2009-12-11T13:38:00.001-08:00

Well, I just got my official "welcome packet"!!! It's really really exciting! Yesterday was horrendous. That housing agency I was working with made me run around town to get all my paperwork together and fax it to them (it cost me $22!) only for them to email me saying "Unfortunately there are 4 or 5 other people ahead of you for this apartment". WHAT???? Why couldn't they tell me that BEFORE I went to get all my paperwork in? I was SO mad.

I went on VRBO, Craigslist and just about every agency site in Paris. I found one and inquired...it's available!!! I emailed her back this morning saying that I would like to rent it so please reserve it for me! Hopefully this one works out. It's in the 7e and a block from Le Tour Eiffel!! It's a 30 minute walk to school and 2 stops on the train if I take le metro. I'm really hoping this one works out, I'm OVER this housing situation.

Back to my welcome packet- it has my orientation day information, a map of Paris, a metro map, visa information (luckily I don't need one!), and other course information. There's a 4 day wine course that they are offering to students, if it fits in with my other classes, I'm IN. I'd love to learn about wine!

Here are some pictures of my beautiful folder, even the way they write my name and address (incorrectly) is prettier. I can't wait to get over there!

A Bientot!

"Wharton was cake compared to Le Cordon Bleu"

2009-12-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

Today, after I freaked out and cried to my parents (thanks for talking me down mom and dad!) I went to Ryan's to do some work on my blog and to print some documents out. I went to Kinko's and tried to fax my apartment documents to the agency. Obviously it didn't go through. My fax to Le Cordon Bleu went through, but not the really important one! Frustrated and angry- I went to meet Goergia, MB and Katie Ho at Ottimistta on Union. We were chatting about my new adventure and a woman interrupted us and said "are you going to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris??"

Turns out she went to Le Cordon Bleu...AFTER she went to Wharton Business School. She very plainly said that Wharton was cake compared to LCB. She was very sweet and I'm going to meet her on Friday so she can make a copy of all of her notes for me (very VERY nice) but I'm more nervous than I was this morning. She said it was the hardest thing she's ever had to do. She also told me that I really need to learn the metric system before I go. Anyone who knows me knows that math is NOT my strong suit. I'm going to see if I can get an easy book on learning the metric system tomorrow. That will be much harder for me than learning French.

I'm going to call Valerie tomorrow and hopefully get all of her notes...and also try and fax the documents to Paris again. I hope I'm able to sleep tonight.

Bon Soir!

Panic is starting to set in

2009-12-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

I heard back from the agency and I'm moving forward on one of their apartments. I freaked about the one in the 3e because I was nervous it was too far from school and far from Zu. The agency is requiring a lot of information within 24 hours and I'm trying to get it all together. I skyped them in a panic because I need a certificate of insurance, but the insurance website won't let me proceed without a contract number from the agency. It's a little bit like which came first? the chicken or the egg?

I have my flights to and from Paris- so I suppose I should be pleased with that. I leave out of Toronto on Jan 2 and return to SF at 2:30pm on March 19th. I will sleep from the moment I get back to my apt here so I can be fresh as a daisy for your wedding MB!

The school is requiring me to RE-SEND my uniform size information, which makes me wonder...did they lose my passport photos too? I'm going to Ryan's this afternoon to print all sorts of info out and then fax them to France from a Kinko's or something. Moral of this blog entry- one should always own a printer/scanner/copier as this is a royal pain to deal with!

For those of you who don't already have Skype...GET IT! that's how I'm going to be able to call for free! My Skype name is carolyngioia, if you're a member already add me as a contact! I'm new, so be patient with me!

I should probably get off my blog and get cracking on all the stuff I need to do. I can't believe I'm actually moving to Paris...I'm freaking out.

Ps. Thanks to Ryan SO much for helping me make my blog cool! You're the best

A Bientot!

Check it off the list!

2009-12-06T17:54:00.000-08:00

My San Francisco apartment has been subletted! I am SO relieved to have found someone great. John is 28 and will be studying for the Bar here for January and February...aka won't be having wild parties in my house!

I went to Target today (which was a nightmare) and got 6 tide sticks to clean my chef's jacket and some undershirts to wear under my jackets. I'm told that I will be sweating like CRAZY during the practical portion of the day so I wanted just something light to wear.

I hope to have all my apt in Paris dealt with this week! I have 2 in mind with the same agency and I'm just waiting to hear back from the agent again. Zuzu is over there already and might look at one for me, but part of my thinks it's more adventurous to just get one and figure it out? 1 of the places is a 1 month minimum, and the other is a 3 month minimum- what if I HATE the second one? then I'm stuck for another 2 months. I'm sure it will all work out- I'm just so excited that SF is dealt with and the rent is covered...FEW!

Keep your fingers crossed that I hear back from the Paris agency tomorrow!

A Bientot!

One Step Closer!

2009-12-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

I finally got a hold of my landlord and asked told her about my adventure. She couldn't have been more supportive! AND she said that she'd be perfectly fine with my subletting my place while I'm in Paris! To say that's a sigh of relief is an understatement. I was losing a lot of sleep over whether or not I'd be able to sublet.

I've also been communicating with an agency in Paris about renting an apartment. It's a great studio (furnished) in the 7th arrondissement. It has a sofabed on the first floor and 2 beds up in a loft so visitors are all welcome (it sure will be cozy!) The French are very formal, every email I receive from either Le Cordon Bleu or the agency say "Dear Miss GIOIA". I really like it- it makes me feel special. The only downfall of being in California dealing with this is the time difference. I send emails and get responses at 4am, oh well!

I've posted my apt in SF on craigslist- hopefully I can find someone to live here for January and February in the next couple of weeks...that will be such a relief.

I'm off to the AT&T store to see if I can take my iphone over there...this should be interesting

a bientot!

Bienvenue sur Le Cordon Bleu Paris!!

2009-12-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

I got the email...it's official! I'm going to Paris!!!!!!!! I'm SO excited and VERY freaked out. I had such a great time in Buffalo for Thanksgiving and everyone I talked to was so excited and supportive. Sarah Mitchell who did the basic program in London got me SUPER excited about the program itself, she thinks I'm going to love it...FEW!

Now begins the stress: Telling my landlord, trying to sublet, finding an apt. in Paris, breaking in my kitchen shoes, buying enough wife beaters to wear under my chef's coat...and the list goes on!

I'm so happy that people have been giving me names of people that live in Paris- I'm contacting everyone I possibly can to have friends there. A friend from Buffalo Zuzu is there and will be starting the intermediate course when I start basic. She's been SO helpful so far and we're emailing about different housing agencies that she found helpful. She's also telling me which neighborhoods I want to live in, what to wear under my jacket, telling me that LCB has an infinite supply of hair nets, and that the knife kit is as cool as I think it will be.

I sent in all my information and tuition (YIKES) yesterday and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my uniform(s) and knife kit. Here is a picture of Mom measuring my head for my Chef's hat (22.5 inches!)...don't worry I will put the whole getup on when I receive it.

I spent the morning emailing housing agencies...I'm interested to see what kind of furnished studios they can come up with. I'll keep you all posted!

A Bientot

Application Day!

2009-11-23T22:57:00.000-08:00

I wanted to start my blog on the day that I submitted my application to Le Cordon Bleu because today is the day my journey officially begins. Today is the day I made the official decision to leave everything I know and head off on an amazing adventure abroad.

I plan to take you through my journey from start to finish: the good, the bad, and the ugly! I hope to take as many pictures as I can in class. I'm told that cameras aren't allowed in the classrooms- but we'll see about that!

...and yes, I will post a picture of me in my ridiculous LCB uniform- complete with 'neckerchief'

Thanks for coming on this journey with me!

a bientot!