Band-Aids, Burgers and Butter

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

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: