A Moveable Feast

a magic moment

Sometimes there are situations that you can't anticipate, and that provide maybe for that very reason a magic moment in life. I just had a 15 minute lasting magic moment, that I want to capture. A long day in the restaurant, happy customers, among them my friends Allison and Paul, my team (I have now an apprentice and a commis) working hard, a flawless service, and my decision at 0:30 to let the last metro go and rather give some more time to clean the kitchen thoroughly and share a glass of wine with the waiters. Finding a taxi at 1:30 a.m., rather uncomfortable if not scared, because as a woman I always feel the metro is safer than a taxi, at least in Paris (there have been some "incidents").

I explain to the driver where to and how (!) to drive me home. Usually I would then pull out my cell phone, and type wildly nonsense prentending to text, just to give the taxi driver the feeling that he can't kidnap me without consequences. But not this time. Suddenly a huge wave of inner peace overwhelmes me by the beautiful music that is playing from his CD. After a while of silence between us I say : "what is the music, it reminds me of Leonard Cohen." And indeed, it is the London 2008 concert, and the taxi driver increases the sound level and tells me how much his wife and daughter love this music and that I must buy the DVD. Then we both listen in awed silence again.

We are driving by the opera house, the Palais Royal, the Louvre and its Pyramide, crossing the Seine on the Pont du Carrousel, with Notre Dame to the left and the muséee d'Orsay to the right, and all this to So long Marianne and Suzanne. I know it's very sentimental, but the moment almost made me cry and be grateful to be alive and live in such a beautiful city.

 (photo by Arnaud Frich, www.arnaudfrichphoto.com)

the new desserts - from ideas to reality

We are now in the third week of the new menu, and my dessert ideas have turned into reality. Most of the ideas were only existing in my imagination and the moment I suggested them I didn't really have a clue how to produce or present them.

The charts (the first three ones are choices in the fixed price menu, so it is normal they sell more than the other ones):

#1 bestseller (32%) : 
Brownie & glace caramel beurre salé
Brownie with salted butter fudge ice cream

Originally they were supposed to be with piment d'Espelette, but the first day of production we didn't have piment in stock. Since then we decided to continue like this, and I put the spice in the caramel instead. Less expensive. The chef insists on icing sugar, which I don't agree for a brownie decoration, but then he is the chef... The ice-cream production doesn't match the sales, it is just too good and nobody in the team can resist to take "just a little spoon" from time to time.

#2 (22%) Trio de pannacotta 

We started of with green matcha tea, mango and pomegranate. But then almost no customer ate the green matcha tea one (which I thought was the best flavour), so we changed it to pistaccio after two weeks, now all glasses are empty when they leave the customer table. Le patron has bought the glasses and the ardoise plates especially for this dessert following my suggestions. The pannacotta production required a lot of finetuning attempts in terms of sugar and gelatine quantinty to get the right texture and balance. Each flavour needs a very different amount.

  

#3 (17%) Salade Salade d'orange au mascarpone de datte et gingembre
Orange salad with date and ginger mascarpone

Quite simple in production, I got the flavour combination as I wanted it, but I am not really 100% happy with the presentation. Le patron loves it though.

 

 

#4 (14%) Sablé de tatin de poires au réglisse & crème à l'amande
Licorice flavored pear shortbread tatin with almond cream

My favourite in terms of presentation. Each time I send it out we go "wow. c'est vraiement beau".

 

 

#5 (8%) Tuile d'ananas rôti à la coco & crémeux au rhum
Wafer with roasted pineapple and coconut with rum flavored cream

The show-off-what-I-can-do dessert. This is almost "gastronomique", and I am happy I found a very simple way to produce the cylinders. Everybody is impressed.

(would somebody with English/American mother tongue please comment whether "wafer" would be the right word for this cylinder tuile. Merci)

 

#6 (6%) Cocotte de Camembert au pain brioche et aux groseilles

Delicious and simple to produce. Brioche, camembert and cream, with redcurrant jelly. 15 minutes in the oven. Will run more if it gets colder I guess.

 

 

#7 (1%) Tokio-Brest with yuzu cream.

Failed production and presentation and demand. Remember I struggled already with my own idea in the beginning ? Which led to negtive vibes during the production, and I didn't really succeed. 

My approach with the word-play around Paris-Brest was also maybe a little too intellectual (chef thinks nobody understands) and we had only 5 orders in two weeks, so we changed it yesterday to a dacquoise (almond cake) with yuzu cream. I succeeded in a nice flavour and texture for the cream and the cake, the patron's wife loved it, so I have official blessing, now we will see if customers order...

Where to live for 800€ a month

Just after my whining a couple of days ago "Le Parisien" newspaper has published yesterday a big article  comparing the appartment space you can live in for 800€ (1161 US$) rent per month across French cities.

Paris    : 32m² (344 ft²)
Bordeaux : 75m² (807 ft²)
Lyon     : 75m² (807 ft²)
Nancy   : 94m² (1012 ft²)

Insane !

Bordeaux, I'm coming......ocean, foie gras, Sauternes, vineyards, sunshine, cannelées,...