c'est moi..... (picture taken by chef)
And Rosario (Valencia,Spain), chef from Paris and Erich (Dallas,TX,USA)
Maybe more to follow.....
19 November 2008
Busy,busy,busy
Yes, today was busy. I'm tired and are not putting too much effort in the blog today.
Left early for class and went straight to the cafe....... for un espresso. There was a guy in the cafe with a large beer. 3 minutes after I had my coffee he had another one... But he still thinks he hasn't got a problem.... It was class at 8.30 with a fish practical. I ended up gutting 2 small and one HUGE fish. Never thought I'd do this for a hobby... and early in the morning!
Fish-dish went alright. I think both my fish and sauce were well seasoned and I even received compliments from chef. He's a bit of a funny guy. 'Short and round' and trying to speak English. Well, it's not even close to Franglais, but at least he's trying.
I'm taking the fish hone for dinner (4 nice fillets with a good sauce.) Will publish details later. I think.
Then a demo lesson about basic sauces, stock and poaching a chicken. Oh yes, almost forgot, we chef did a (cheese) souffle. Nice. It collapsed after 2 minutes.... but a fantastic taste. We have to do the souffle ourselves in lesson 18. We also learned how to make proper rice. (Butter, shallot, rice and our own stock and finally double cream). - listen, this is France, so ALL the sauces are VERY,VERY rich.... bugger...
Then we had another practical. We did a (whole) poached chicken, made the perfect chicken stock, made a roux/bechamel sauce with the stock and as a side dish the rice.
Everything went smoothly. My dish went really well except for the bechamel. Slightly under seasoned according to chef. I couldn't care less. It tasted super and took everything home for my dinner tomorrow. The fridge is full !
Oops, nearly forgot to tell you... Today, I had 3 minor cuts in the fingers, then 1 in the palm of my hand, 1 sharp fish bone in the thumb and a few major burns on my left hand (grabbed the saute pan again when it just got out of the 220+C oven. Forgot to use the tea towel. shit,shit,shit) - it's OK now. Funny thing is, I'm still enjoying it all !
The two chefs we had today are really great guys with a good sense of humor. That will definitely change when it will get tougher, but at the moment it's just great.
Also, the translators are good fun. Ben from the UK (but lives in Paris) never exactly translates everything that chef tells us. He always adds something (funny) extra. Good fun.
And today Jayne left me.... cry,cry,cry. No she didn't leave me, but went back to Amsterdam. She shopped (till she dropped) here in Paris. Jayne will be back early December for my birthday. Yippee!
And before I forget, I do have some pics available now from myself in THE uniform. Maybe I will use them in the blog later!
See you all later,
Sj (moi) - that's French.
Left early for class and went straight to the cafe....... for un espresso. There was a guy in the cafe with a large beer. 3 minutes after I had my coffee he had another one... But he still thinks he hasn't got a problem.... It was class at 8.30 with a fish practical. I ended up gutting 2 small and one HUGE fish. Never thought I'd do this for a hobby... and early in the morning!
Fish-dish went alright. I think both my fish and sauce were well seasoned and I even received compliments from chef. He's a bit of a funny guy. 'Short and round' and trying to speak English. Well, it's not even close to Franglais, but at least he's trying.
I'm taking the fish hone for dinner (4 nice fillets with a good sauce.) Will publish details later. I think.
Then a demo lesson about basic sauces, stock and poaching a chicken. Oh yes, almost forgot, we chef did a (cheese) souffle. Nice. It collapsed after 2 minutes.... but a fantastic taste. We have to do the souffle ourselves in lesson 18. We also learned how to make proper rice. (Butter, shallot, rice and our own stock and finally double cream). - listen, this is France, so ALL the sauces are VERY,VERY rich.... bugger...
Then we had another practical. We did a (whole) poached chicken, made the perfect chicken stock, made a roux/bechamel sauce with the stock and as a side dish the rice.
Everything went smoothly. My dish went really well except for the bechamel. Slightly under seasoned according to chef. I couldn't care less. It tasted super and took everything home for my dinner tomorrow. The fridge is full !
Oops, nearly forgot to tell you... Today, I had 3 minor cuts in the fingers, then 1 in the palm of my hand, 1 sharp fish bone in the thumb and a few major burns on my left hand (grabbed the saute pan again when it just got out of the 220+C oven. Forgot to use the tea towel. shit,shit,shit) - it's OK now. Funny thing is, I'm still enjoying it all !
The two chefs we had today are really great guys with a good sense of humor. That will definitely change when it will get tougher, but at the moment it's just great.
Also, the translators are good fun. Ben from the UK (but lives in Paris) never exactly translates everything that chef tells us. He always adds something (funny) extra. Good fun.
And today Jayne left me.... cry,cry,cry. No she didn't leave me, but went back to Amsterdam. She shopped (till she dropped) here in Paris. Jayne will be back early December for my birthday. Yippee!
And before I forget, I do have some pics available now from myself in THE uniform. Maybe I will use them in the blog later!
See you all later,
Sj (moi) - that's French.
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