I love Paris in the Springtime

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!

I cooked Peter Cottontail...

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!