Pissalidiere, welcome party, Jean Paul Hevin, garlic noodles

During our practical today, we made pizza. They call it pissalediere but it really is pretty much pizza. I made the dough from scratch, reduced the onions (for 1 hour!), and prepped the toppings (tomatoes, anchovies, garlic, capers, and olives). It turned out quite well (I've never been able to make yeasty dough correctly before) and I was surprised to see how much the dough rose. Next time I try this at home, I'll try topping it with tomato sauce, cheese, and veggies - yum!

After our morning class, the school held a welcome party for the "Basic" students. They had cheese, wine (lots of wine), and fruit setup in the winter garden for us. Some of the Superior patisserie students had made mango mousse with rasperry sauce and cookies during their practical in the morning and some had left their classwork on the tables for everyone to eat. It was sooo good! I met a couple of Americans who were sitting at my table who were enrolled in Superior patisserie. One of the guys called it "flavored butter" but still, it was soooo good.

This afternoon, Quinn and I walked around the city, ran errands (got our train tickets to Champagne for this weekend), and stopped by Jean Paul Hevin for some chocolat chaud. It was quite delish and the ambience was cute too.

I whipped up a quick dinner of garlic noodles and chicken using some of the leftovers (chicken from class, Bercy sauce from Sunday's lunch). mmmm, just thinking about it makes me want to go get some from the fridge for a late night snack :-)

A typical day in Paris... walking, going to class, cooking, going to a patisserie, hanging out at cafés

Daylight savings took affect yesterday so the sun was just rising as I walked to school this morning. My favorite time of the day in Paris is the early morn when things are quiet, still, and so peaceful. Here's a pic of Île de la Cité and the Seine River on my walk to school.

Today, I had a demo class where the chef made pissalediere (onion tart with anchovies) and fresh canneloni stuffed with spinach and procsiutto with pistou, tomato sauce, and mornay sauce. It took 3 hours to make all the components for the canneloni!

After class, I went to lunch with one of my fellow American classmates, and we headed to Baribal café where I had the steak tartare (yet again) with potaoes (if I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be potatoes... or pain au chocolat).

On the walk home, I stopped by Pierre Hermé to pick up a wasabi grapefruit macaroon. Brian had mentioned it was one of his favs so we had to try it out. It was creamy and quite delish!

I had a leftover fillet from yesterday's salmon (I love leftovers!) so I prepared it over a bed of polenta for a quick dinner.

For an after dinner drink and dessert, we headed to our corner café for café crème and hot chocolate. It was a huge dissapointment. St. Eustache café is 0 for 2. We're not going to go back again. The hot chocolate was not "Parisian" hot chocolate but more like a watered down version of Nestle hot chocolate. Quinn thought he ordered a "tarte tatin" (apple upside down cake), but the waiter brought "tartine buerre" (a baguette with butter) instead. At least the bread and butter was quite tasty...

St. Eustache, Paris market, Maison Jouvin, Montorgueil cafe, Royal Madeleine

We started the morning at mass at St. Eustache. The gothic church was built in the 16th century and was situated at the entrance of Paris' ancient Les Halles markets.

Right outside of the church, there was a market, which we strolled down after mass. At the fish market, the promo was a whole salmon for only 5 euros. I had just learned to fillet a fish at school so I got all excited when we bought a fish to take home for lunch. We also bought some veggies so I could make some fish stock and Bercy sauce.

After cooking, I headed downstairs to Franprix to get some ice cube bags for my fish stock. Instead of using an ice tray, you can pour liquid into a bag and it makes ice cubes. Unfortunately, the grocery store closes early on Sunday so instead, I brought home pain au chocolat from our fav boulangerie, Maison Jouvin. I'll take pain au chocolat over ice cube bags anyday! Yum!

It was a lazy day in Paris, and Quinn and I headed to a café down the street to enjoy a cup of café crème. I was disssapointed that they didn't serve a piece of chocolate with their coffee so I rushed across the street to pick something up from L'Atelier du Chocolat. Both the café and the chocolat were mediocre but Quinn and I had a chance to relax and chit chat for a bit.

Brian, Diana, Chang Soo, Nina, Ed, and Pachi were all in Paris this weekend so we met up for dinner at Royal Madeleine. It was an SF reunion in Paris! The service was good, the company was great, and the food was delish.

A rainy day in Paris...

It was our first real rainy day in Paris. Since we've been here, we've been blessed with some pretty great weather. It's rained a few times but usually at night or just a sprinkle. Today, however, there was quite a bit of rain throughout the day.

We escaped the rain by heading to Hippo Resto for some lunch and a cup of café crème. It's ironic that I kicked my coffee habit once I came to Paris (since their coffee here is so smooth and délicieux unlike what we have back home). I used to have a cup of coffee every morning back in SF, but now, it's become a once a week occurence and usually accompanies people watching as we sit sipping our coffee ever so slowly. I also had their Hippo'tatoes de mais, which were quite tasty and satisfying, and Quinn had a burger, which seemed pretty mediocre especially for being a $17 burger. I would have much preferred the $1 hamburger at McDonalds.

We spent the rest of the day taking care of some admin stuff, planning our day trips, and running errands (I had to get about 10 inches hemmed from the bottom of my ginormous uniform).

Our guilty indulgence for the day was at Deliziefollie, a gelaterie creperie place just a couple of doors down from our appartment. Both their crepes and gelato are yum-o. The service was great, and one of the gals working there spoke fluent English so we chit chatted for quite a bit as we waited for our crepes.

Lesson 3: Chicken & rice with supreme sauce

Whew! I made it through my first week of school. Today, I had a demonstration and then a practical class following right after. Classes started at 12:30 today so I finally had a chance to sleep in a little. Most days, I have to be up by 6am to make it to class on time.

Today, we learned quite a bit: how to truss a chicken, how to poach chicken, how to make chicken stock, how to make cheese soufflé, how to make rice, about thickening agents (how to make roux & beurre manie, how to use the different potato, corn, and rice starches), how to make bechamel sauce, how to make supreme sauce, how to make different kinds of rice, and about different kinds of salts. Chef made all of these different things in our demonstration class but during our practical, we made poached chicken au riz gras with supreme sauce. Here are some pics from our demonstration class (chef's demo plate, the cheese soufflé, my tasting plate, and a pic of the chef and our translator).

I was exhausted after class and headed home on the metro. Quinn and I went for a short stroll along Rue Montorgueil and ran into Chang Soo and Nina! They were heading to Le Grappillon on Rue Tiquetonne for dinner. Later that night, Chang Soo and Nina stopped by the appart for some muscat and a variety of desserts (apple tartlette, chocolate ebene, mont blanc, and pain au chocolat), which we picked up from our fav patisserie, Maison Jouvin.

Lesson 2: Filets de merlan Bercy

I had my second demonstration and second practical today, and unfortunately, I didn't survive "bandage free" this time around. :-(

In our demonstration class, we learned all about stocks, and the chef made a brown veal stock, fish stock, and filets de merlan Bercy (whiting fillets in a white wine sauce). The chefs teach quite a bit for our 3 hour demonstration classes. I took pages and pages of notes, and this time, I arrived early so I could get a seat in the front row on the demonstration classroom.

Brown veal stock simmering on the stovetop

Here's are pics of the chef's plate after the demonstration and my little tasting plate of what he made. They reinforce that we "taste, taste, taste."

I had a 4 hour break between my demo and my practical today so I walked over to Julien Boulangerie (yummy pain au chocolat and paninis there!) near the Invalides to have a picnic lunch with Chang Soo and Nina (who are visiting for a few days) and Quinn. It was a pretty chilly day today so after lunch, we ducked into a Greek café nearby to escape from the cold and to enjoy a cup of café crème .

For our practical this afternoon, we made filets de merlan Bercy. The process consists of filleting the fish (my first time filleting a fish!), making fish stock, and making a complementary sauce to go with the fish.

After preparing a sauté pan with butter, shallots, white wine, salt, pepper, and a little bit of fish stock along with my filleted whiting, it goes in the oven for just a few minutes. When I pulled my hot sauté pan out of the oven, I inadvertently set it on top of one of the burners that was turned on by my chef to heat the burner for preparing my Bercy sauce. I noticed the liquids in my sauté pan coming to a boil and realized what I had done so I reached over to move the pan off the hot burner. Ouch!! I thought it would hurt for just a minute or two so I continued working as I didn't want to fall behind. The gal working next to me advised that I run my hand under some cold water, which I did, and then the chef took me to the ice machine to give me ice to hold in my hand. The chef asked that I stay in the back for a few minutes as I held the pieces of ice in my hand. After a little bit of time had passed, I headed back to my station to continue my dish and it wasn't until quite a while later that I noticed that my hand was throbbing. I headed back to grab more ice. I kept going back to the ice machine as I finished off my cooking and plated my dish. The chef noticed and said he'd bandage me up once I was done putting my things away... at least my dish tasted pretty yummy (so I thought as Quinn and I ate it for dinner tonight). The chef thought my fish was done well and the dish had good flavor, but my sauce was a little too thin and my plate was not perfectly clean (I had a fingerprint on it since I had forgotten to wipe it down with vinegar before plating it).

I took the metro home after class, and Quinn took such good care of me and my not so functional hand... I'm one lucky gal. After inspecting my battle wounds, Quinn said it looked like a 1st degree burn on the verge of being a 2nd degree burn since parts of my hand had started to blister. Thank goodness I have a boy scout to take care of me. :-)

We enjoyed a three course dinner of arugula salad, rustic vegetable soup, and my filet de merlan Bercy over some white rice along with a glass of wine. For dessert, we headed to L'Atelier du Chocolat down the street, but since they were already closed for the night, we just enjoyed our short little neighborhood stroll.

My first practical class!

Today, I had my first practical class where we made the rustic vegetable soup that we learned during our demo the previous day. It was a pretty stressful 3 hours in the kitchen especially considering that I couldn't understand what the chef was saying. The practicals are only taught in French, and there is no translator in the room - eeeek! The worst was when the chef was speaking to me directly, and I had to try my hardest to figure out the gist of what he was saying. It's time to dust off my good ol' Rosetta Stone and start doing more lessons.

The Basic Cuisine class is split into smaller groups for the practicals. In my group, Group D, there are only 8 of us (3 of us from the States, 2 from Turkey, and the others from Netherlands, Chile, and Russia). I seemed to be the slow one of the group. The chef even helped me shell my green peas since I was behind the group. I finished last out of everyone in the group, but when the chef came by to taste my soup, he said my veggies were cut well, the seasoning was good, and it was "Très Bien." Phew! Cutting up all the vegetables was good practice, and with our new, sharp knife sets, it was so much easier than it usually is at home! They gave each of us a cake-size tupperware box with our equipment so I took home my rustic veggie soup, which is what we'll be having for leftovers for the next couple of days. :-)

We also had a "conference" today, which was basically a lecture where they don't cook any food. The Chef went over all of the equipment we would find in our practical rooms, some history on equipment and being in the kitchen as a chef, and also the who's who inside the kitchen of a typical restaurant. I looked around the room during the conference today and quite a few people had bandages on their fingers from the first practical - ouch!! I'm glad I wasn't one of them!

My first class demonstration!

During my first class demonstration, we went over knife cuts, rustic vegetable soup, croutons, and bouquet garni. The class is taught in French, but there is an English translator who translates during the class (thank goodness!). I mean, I answer "oui chef!" whenever the chef says some word in French that I don't even know the meaning to!!!

Quinn and I had Thai for lunch (not even nearly as good as the Thai in SF), and we did quite a bit of walking around the neighborhood. We also hung out at a cafe named Angelina on Rue de Rivoli. It had gotten rave reviews for their signature hot chocolate, which I, of course, had to order. It was almost like melted chocolate, so thick and decadent. It was quite delicious, but I could have sufficed with a quarter of a cup of it since it was so rich.

My first day of school!!

On my first day as a student at Le Cordon Bleu, I attended an orientation session, received my equipment, received my uniform, and called it a day. It was also the same day Quinn came back from SF - yay!!

My Basic Cuisine class consists of 33 people, and there are people from all over the world. From within our class, we represent 17 different nationalities. The United States makes up the majority with 11 people coming from there. During orientation, they went over the school rules, introduced the staff, spoke of the different services provided, and gave us the basic intro/general information about the school. I also received my knife set along with some other goodies that we'll need to use during our practicals. It's a pretty intense collection of kitchen essentials and is covered by our tuition. The knives are a Wusthof collection that is made specifically for Le Cordon Bleu students.

When I first tried on my uniform, it was swimmingly big, but after pinning up the pants (like an entire foot), and rolling up the sleeves, I was good to go. Our uniform consists of a cap, necktie, jacket, apron, pants, tea towel, professional kitchen shoes, and a hair net (for people with long hair). It's quite something trying to put on all the different pieces in the super-cramped locker room on the basement floor.

Since it was Quinn's first day back in SF, we went out for a nice, relaxing lunch at the St. Eustache cafe at the end of our street. I had beef tartare (again), and we caught up on the last several days we were apart. To celebrate Quinn's return, we had 2 pain au chocolats (each!). The first was from Eric Kayser, a boulangerie that I've heard of several times from online reviews. The pain au chocolat was dismal in comparison to the first pain au chocolat we had in Paris so we had to go back to the place where we got our first pain au chocolat in Paris to see if it was really as good as we remembered... and it was!

Goals: more walking and more cooking...

One of my goals while I'm in Paris is to walk at least 5 miles a day (so that I can see as much of the city as I can and to get a little bit of exercise). Most days, I walk somewhere between 5 to 8 miles. Sometimes, it becomes difficult to tackle such a task when I don't have any particular destination. To help me achieve this goal today, I ventured off to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Monmartre.

I also saw the venue for Moulin Rouge, strolled the neighborhoods of Pigalle, and admired the architecture of the Paris Opéra.

Another one of my goals while I'm out here is to cook as much as possible and to learn new dishes. After all, I am here to attend culinary school (which starts tomorrow). I'm excited about starting classes yet a little nervous at the same time. It's been almost 6 years since I've been in school (St. Charles doesn't count!). I hardly remember what it's like to study, have homework, and get grades - yikes!

My culinary creations for today were a savory crepe and rice pudding. Hopefully, my creations will become more exciting as I get further along in my classes. If anyone has any ideas for what I should concoct for the days I'm not in school or has any favorite dishes/desserts they'd like me to learn, please send them my way! I'm always looking for ideas. If I learn how to make it, I promise I'll make it for you when I'm back in the States :-)

A picnic, people watching, crepes

Having a picnic is one of my favorite things to do in Paris. Today, I made my way over to the Champ de Mars near the Eiffel tower and made myself a veggie sandwich. For some reason, I haven't eaten much meat since I've been here. It's probably because the produce is so fresh that the veggies actually taste good!

After miles of walking around the city, I perched myself on a set of stairs at the end of my street to do some people watching. The streets were particularly lively today, probably because it's Saturday. There were masses of people everywhere. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like during peak tourist season when the city is flooded with even more people. I love living on a pedestrian-only street. It's the greatest feeling to just walk downstairs and be in the middle of it all.

When I first came to Paris in 2002, Nutella and banana crepes were my staple, but this time around, I still haven't gotten around to getting one from one of the many street vendors that sell them. I was inspired today to make my own Nutella and banana crepes after the narrator of The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry talked about making them (I've been listening to the audiobook during my walks).

Pedometer count for the day: 7.5 miles