Tuesday; Today is our last 'working day'. Two demo's and a practical. And yes, I overslept today. I got a phone call from Cristina where I was.... It was already 11 o 'clock. So I missed the canard/orange dish-demo and the corresponding practical. Shit.. That's minus two points on my list. Quickly, I went to school and talked to chef. He allowed me in on the practical. At least I had a nice dinner tonight !
I did fine in my duck-practical. Turned out that my sauce was super - thick, sweet and spot-on! Too bad that I didnt get points for it.
Our 30th demonstration was a 'gala dinner'; Rack of lamb, gratin Dauphinois and a burning baked alaska ! nice... but it was a very,very long and boring demo.... (sorry chef !).
Wednesday: Ze exam !
(I received a wake-up call today from Amsterdam,
a text message from Spain and my alarm clock worked again)
Went straight to the cafe (for coffee) and then to school.
We had to 'choose' between two dishes; I got the duck unfortunately. I would have liked to do the fish, but no.
And we also had to work on an artichoke to prove our
technical skills.
Well, the duck looked like it had been at the Olympics. Skinny and hairy. Very,very bad quality thing.. And the artichokes were also very little, unfortunately. Too bad, we had to use the stuff anyway.
Three guys were LATE ! Again.... how can you turn up late for an exam? I don't know. Chef was pretty annoyed and so were we. Thank God they're gone now....
I think the exam did go pretty well. The French like their duck pink. Mine was not really pink, but hopefully it was OK. By 11 o'clock it was all over. A final beer in the cafe and then back home.
Went shopping/sightseeing in the afternoon with Cris, had dinner that night with Jayne. Yippee, she's back again. Champagne to celebrate.
Thursday shopping, sightseeing, meeting Joel/Cristina/Brynjar for dinner.
Friday is graduation day. We have to be at ze school by 10 o'clock. The (elegantly groomed French) Director, M. Frederic Chauvin made a speach, all the chefs were introduced by the most senior chef. Today, all the people from the basic courses (cuisine and pastry) were present.
Frederic and Bruno, our two chefs in cuisine.
Yes ! I did it. Here's proof of it.
After the ceremony we had a very nice buffet with hors d'oeuvres and champagne. Thank you chefs AND all the assistants for this!
Goodbyes, kisses, and last hugs (mostly by giggling Asian girls in pasrty...)
Thank you for all your support/emails/comments etc !
Ze blog will not stop yet...... i'll be back soon !
Sj
