Veal with Fresh Pasta, Practice, Truffle Lecture

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!

Looks can be deceiving

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

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

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

Merde.

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

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

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

A bientot!