A Moveable Feast

Door #23 - Morgen Kinder wird's was geben

This is the title of a popular German Xmas song, translated : Tomorrow, children, you will be given something. One more day to Xmas and I am still very tired all day. It is just after midnight, I turned on the washing machine, and my neighbours will love me for hearing the noise of 1200 rpm in 30 minutes. But there is no alternative as otherwise I won't be ready to fly to Germany Thursday morning. I am also starting to pack my suitcase now, but it is difficult with eyes almost closed. My last two shifts are tomorrow, on the 24th. The restaurant is booked completely for dinner tomorrow, so there is no chance that we might be able to leave early, it will be a busy night. Among the reservations is again a table for 9 booked by the Ritz, so maybe Keanu is coming back ?.

Door #22 - Place de la Concorde

I am sooooo tired. Got up very early this morning to finish my Xmas gifts (in the kitchen) before going to work, and had no opportunity to sleep between the shifts. So I am not going to write a lot tonight. I just want to sleep now, my eyelids are falling down. Here is another picture I took last week on my walk from home to the restaurant on the place de la Concorde. Right now there is a big wheel installed, which adds a special atmosphere at night. On the lower right part of the picture : the beginning of the illuminated Champs Elysees. Bonne nuit. A demain.

Door #21 - what is a bad day ?

I have been thinking the whole week about how bad my Sunday would be, imagining dialogues with the sous-chef, in which I would eventually tell him to show me more respect. I fantasised about how I would report in January to management all the bad things about the sous chef and how he was treating me and was always late on Sundays, all in order to take revenge. Even my last three days off I couldn't enjoy as I was in a bad mood anticipating a bad Sunday. Then today life decided to give me a lesson, and with a literal wake-up call gave me a true reason to worry and be very sad. After that call I couldn't care less about how the sous chef would treat me, and surprisingly he was nice to me all day and all my bad thouhts about him and unhealthy revenge plans were wiped away. Still it was a very bad Sunday, but not for the reason I had expected. I guess I rediscovered life's priorities. 

Door #19 - Langoustines

Last Wednesday's entrée du jour (special starter) falls into the category : delicious, popular and to  simple to make to be true. On Tuesday the chef was called by his fish supplier to inform him that he could get a special price for langoustines, and so he decided spontaneously to make them the starter of the day for Wednesday. So Wednesday morning I peeled about 200 langoustines, they were very quickly sautéd in olive oil a la commande and we presented them with a arugula salad and shaved parmasan. It was a huge success, a starter that I need to remember...

Door #18 - Le Palais Bourbon

The Palais Bourbon is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament. It was buildt for the daughter of Louis XIV and constructions started in 1722. 1806 Napoleon had added the portico on the front, mirroring the columns of the Madeleine church on the other side of the Seine.

I recently started the habit to walk from home to the restaurant for the dinner shift instead of getting into the cramped metro. 45 minutes that lead along some beautiful parts of Paris, especially at night, and keep me moving a little bit...

Thanks to my new habit I discovered the video that is currently projected onto the front of the Palais Bourbon, conveying the origins of the European idea. Reason is the current French presidency of the European Union, ending December 31st.

 

Door #17 - the excited eggplant

This morning the chef found a very special eggplant in the vegetable delivery, with a funny shaped "extension".

He added the roots of a leek on top and some other vegetable parts, and kept showing it around to everybody, placing it eventually on the pass.

I couldn't resist the temptation and added a latex finger protection from the first-aid box. Hygiene and safety should be a priority in the kitchen, no ?

Door #16 - a Tuesday in the restaurant

Today was one of the many good days in the restaurant. Like any Tuesday now. The waiters on duty are my favourite ones, and so are my colleagues in the kitchen. Because we are open 7 days out of 7, everyday the team is a little differently composed, and the day I hate most is Sunday, because of a sous-chef who is terrorising me since recently after being nice to me for 8 months. But today is Tuesday and all is good. We made another soup as special starter, following a recipe I brought for tomato soup. And again it sold really well. Our crazy chef was in a good mood, which means we laugh a lot during the service, and joke around with the waiters, when they come into the kitchen to pick up plates.. An atmosphere I have always been dreaming about. Unfortunately the downside is that I feel I am not learning enough anymore, one of the reasons, besides the agressive sous-chef, that I will have to quit soon.

During the break between the service I learned about the terrorist threat and a bomb found in a big department store (Printemps) just two blocks away from the restaurant this morning. Of course this was the talk of the evening, it is scary and I hope this is just an incident without follow-ups.

Door #15 - Les Papilles

Les papilles means tastebuds and is the name of a combination between a wine store and a restaurant that I discovered last year thanks to and together with Katia. They apply a very in-fahion menu method for dinner : no choice, fixed price one tasting menu only, three to four courses, for a VERY reasonnable price (about 30 Euros). Something that seems to work well in Paris. A couple of restaurants are quite successful with that formula. We enjoyed it very much, and liked everything, despite the fact that we couldn't choose. And I especially love their bistro atmosphere with the beautiful zinc (bar counter)...

Les Papilles, www.lespapillesparis.fr
30 rue Gay Lussac
75005 Paris

door #14 - mon entrée du jour

Usually our chef announces to us during or after dinner service what will be the specials of the next day. When I asked him last Monday evening what we were going to do as special starter "entrée du jour" for Tuesday, he said "je m'en fous", which means something along the lines of "I couldn't care less".

Surprising answer, but I took it as an opportunity to suggest a soup that I had cooked before at home. Usually during fall and winter, if we suggest a soup as special, it is either pumpkin soup or lentil soup. Not bad, but always the same soups... The weather forecast for Tuesday was for real low temperatures, so I was sure a soup would work.

So I told the chef what to order and he also gave me his cell number, in case a missing ingredient came to my mind at home. His supplier takes orders until early morning via answering machine. I had a zucchini soup with fresh goat cheese in mind. So the chef ordered tons of zucchini for me as well as goat cheese. I was so excited, that he really accepted my proposal.

Once at home around midnight, I figured that the recipe required also coriander (cilantro), sent a text message to the chef, and next morning, all I needed had been delivered.

I made sure all our waiters tasted the soup before the lunch service, and they all loved it. That is something I noticed over the last months, when the waiters like a dish they are really able to push it to customers. Their selling of the dish is much more convincing.

So when the first order came in I jumped up and down. This was a big thing for me. The restaurant was making money with MY suggestion !!! Each time the maitre d'hotel entered the kitchen he made a comment about the soup. "Really good idea for the cold weather", "This soup is a real success, customers like it". At the end we sold 10 soups out of 25 starters sold in total. Good achievement, and I was very proud...

 

Door #11 - Le college des Bernardins

I just noticed that we are already December 13th and I am only opening my 11th door. Hmmm, did I miss something ?

Anyway, I am enjoying my last day off this week, which started by getting up really late today. I am posting some pictures from a visit of the College des Bernardins yesterday in the 5th arrondissement. When the pope visited Paris this year in September, he only went to two places : Notre Dame and Le college des Bernardins, so since then I was courious about what was special about this monument.

The College des Bernardins is a medieval monument, constructed starting 1248 as place for christian study and research. With the French revolution it became a state property. Since then it has also served as prison, warehouse, school, home to the fire brigade and police school. It was bought back by the church in 2001 from the town of Paris and restored during the last 5 years, and just reopened in September before the pope's visit, and serves now as a cultural center with expositions, seminars, debates, etc. The renovation is considered really successful and I was amazed by the beauty of the architecture.

Currently the Colelge hosts a modern art installation by Claudio Parmiggiani, including a "sea of broken glass" and a collection of more than hundred church bells.

 

 

www.collegedesbernardins.fr
20 rue de Poissy
75005 Paris