A Winter in Paris: Tuesday

This may seem silly, but I’ve just realized that I have to start practicing. I have two long weekends during my program and this weekend is one of them. It will be filled with cream, puff pastry and lots of choux. Next week I am the assistant with this kid Michel. This job requires a lot of screaming from the chefs if you haven’t done everything perfectly aka gotten all the ingredients for the class, but even if everything is right, there’s always something to “poutain” about. I will be sure to write about the trials and tribulations of being at the chef’s mercy.

Today was cold and windy. The clouds moved quickly through the grey sky. Only now can I see patches of blue. I’m pretty sure that it poured for about five minutes. I was inside making the only appropriate food for this weather, my mom’s lentil soup. I made it just the way I was taught. Here there are so many types of bullion, I didn’t know which to pick. In respect for the “recipe” (as we’ve learned in class over and over again) I stuck with veggie broth. It didn’t taste the same as from home, but it was good. I don’t have a pot big enough for soup or anything other than boiling eggs, so I cooked it in 2 pots.

There’s not much to share today. I was out the door into the frigid outside at seven in order to be on time. These 8:30 classes are dreadful. Although, I never feel like I have a free day until I’m done with class, even if it’s a 3:30 start. There’s something about learning how to make a pastry at 8:30 am and smelling the aroma of the flakey dough around 10, then eating the result at 11 that slightly makes my stomach churn, even on week 2/3. Today it was an apple turnover (yum, Dad I will make this for you when I get home), Palmiers and raspberry strawmats (Paille aux Framboises). It was so delicious, but too much for 11 am. It’s funny because I never though I liked some of these pastries, then I tried them here and I could eat them everyday.