Class Dinner, Hake and Hollandaise

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...

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!

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

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

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?

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...

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

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

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

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!