A Moveable Feast

How I became a waitress

Last weekend I became a waitress. Now before you get worried about another career change in my up and down adventures in French kitchens, this was just for a couple of minutes. And it was in Germany.

My mother had planned to celebrate her birthday last Friday with my father, my sister and some of their closest friends in a restaurant near their home (a little town in north-west Germany, somewhere between Hannover and Amsterdam). What she did not know, was that my sister, my grandmother and I had prepared a big surprise together for that evening since a while. My mother thought that I was working in Paris, and that her monther was at her home in Bavaria, about 700 km away, but in fact my grandmother and me met on Thursday evening secretely at my sister's home, my grandmother (87 years old!) arriving by train and me by plane.

Thursday the three of us spent a day together "secretely" in Hanover, where my sister lives, and the next day we all travelled to the restaurant (2 hours from Hanover). I had told the restaurant owners about our surprise plans, and they were all excited about the idea and wanted to help us make it a big success. So while my parents, my sister and their friends arrived, my grandmother and I were hidden by the owner family in the breakfast room of the hotel/restaurant. Then, when it was time for my family and their friends to look at the menu, the restaurant owner came into the breakfast room, I put on the waitress uniform, took the menus under my arm and went out in the dining room. Everybody looked at me with this "a new waitress ! And she reminds me of someone"-look, and when I handed the menu to my mother, she couldn't believe it. I think the pictures tell the rest. The surprise was more than perfect.

   

I messed up the subsequent distribution of the menus, so I did not get hired by the restaurant. I gave my mother a couple of minutes to recover from "the shock", before I gave the secret sign to the real waitress, and ordered a glass of champagne, which meant, she was now supposed to get my grandmother from the breakfast room, whom my mother believed to be in Bavaria. And then my grandmother appeared with a glass of champagne. This was too much...and my mother didn't know anymore whether to laugh or to cry.

We did not stop laughing all evening, and it was lots of fun for everybody.

Below two snapshots of my "little" sister and me. Difficult to say who's the younger one of us, isn't it !?!. First still well behaved, then a couple of glasses of wine later falling with our heads -pretending to be tired- on the table during a boring speech of one of the party guests, whose identity I will not make public here. But I can say we did not fail to get more attention than the speaker by doing this ;)

   

Because I work Sundays, unfortunately I had to travel back already the next day to Paris. So it was a very short trip but definitely worth it. But I'll be back soon on a friends & family tour through Germany (and the US) in August, when the restaurant will be closed for 4 weeks...

Jetzt faengt das Leben an...

Liebe Mami, bonne anniversaire, und viele liebe Geburtstagsgruesse, feier schoen, flipp ruhig ein bisschen aus.

Fuer das Geburtstagsstaendchen moechte ich Dich gerne auf diesen Blog-Eintrag verweisen :

http://moveablefeast.typepad.com/a_moveable_feast/2007/11/mit-da-faengt-d.html

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody...

Danke Nina fuer die Vorlage ;)

An ordinary day - part 2

During my break in the Café de la Place I decided I needed to do a bit more than just not sleep if I wanted to make the day feel a bit more extraordinary. The issue was, because of French laws I couldn't take a day off, and because of the working hours I couldn't really go out or celebrate or meet friends.

The only people I would be able to meet this year on my birthday were my new colleagues. So before returning back for the dinner service I bought the best chocolate cake in my neighbourhood patisserie. My new colleagues were really pleased, and I was glad that I had done it, because even if I hadn't told anybody about my birthday in the morning, they had found out through management. So one of the waiters surprised me with a flower bouquet, and then they put the "happy birthday" tape on very loud. Eventually I got the birthday feeling. After the service, the waiters invited me for a glass of champagne, and so on my way home in the metro with my flowers in hand, I could not stop to smile all the way....

Tomorrow after the lunch service my weekly 2.5 days off start, and I will take the train to Brussels where I meet my parents, and so the birthday feeling and smile should continue.

An ordinary day !?

Just like any day since beginning of February I left my appartment at 8:40 a.m., took the metro 10 stations to get out at "La Madeleine", entered the bistrot, had a very good espresso before climbing down the hundreds of years old wooden stairs into the "cave" and locker rooms to get into my cooks uniform. 

Official working time to be in the kitchen is 9 a.m., but with everybody having an esprosso first, it usually gets 9.15. For the month of March I am assigned to working "au chaud", on the hot line. This morning I prepared a "gratin dauphinois", which was the side dish for the "plat du jour", the entrecote. It needed to be planned to be for 20-30 orders, so it was a huge gratin. Then the usual "mise en place" checking if of everything for the service was ready and in enough quantity in the fridges, from lemons, to tomatoe cubes, to meat, fish, scallops, lobster, precooked vegetable. I cooked some potatoes, that are served with the sole meuniere and the "blanquette de veau", and prepared the mini-legumes that go with the lobster. Before 11 I also finished preparing the meal for the staff (4 cooks, 1 dishwasher and 4 servers), today roastbeef and pasta.

Like every day at 11 a.m. the chef kicked us out of the kitchen, even if we wanted to continue with the mise-en-place. But he insists on everybody respecting the break time. It is the first of the restaurants I have been working at where the staff eats at the normal customer tables and not on the pass or on the working benchens, so I am enjoying those 45 minutes. Like everyday I get back into the kitchen at 11:45 and double checked if everything was ready for the service to start. I quickly produced a sauce Bernaise, that we were running short of, that is served with the filet-frites. The amount is 10 times more that we used to do at school, so the techique and tools need to be adjusted a little bit, but I can do a sauce Bearnaise for 100 people perfectly now in one shot ! Customers come in starting at noon, and are accepted until 3 p.m. Today it was my turn to cook everything, while an appretice did the plating. Usually we take turns. The chef just interfered, when we were starting to "drown" or to be "dans le jus" (in the juice, or losing it).

We sold a lot of "blanquette de veau" today, a dish that goes very well, when it is cold outside. Basically it is a combination of big cubes of veal, carrots, bacon, potatoes, and small onions in a thick creamy sauce, not light but very yummy and the specialty of the bistrot. I also cooked ris de veau, andouillette, chicken breast with vegetables, pork feet, sole meuniere, filets de boeuf, "saignant" and "a point" perfectly mastered, something that was a mystery to me only 1 month ago, the plat du jour, entrecotes served with my gratin that the chef had complimented. Around 1 p.m. the apprentice and I got a bit in trouble, because the tickets were flowing in all at the same time. For each table the machine spits out a ticket twice, once when the customer orders (la commande), and once when the waiter wants the order on the customer table (la reclame). Depending on whether the customer has a starter or not, drinks an apero or not, eats slow or fast, the time between the reception of the two tickets at the hot line can be anything between 1 second and 20 minutes. So I started to lose it a little between knowing what I had to cook for sending out immediately, or what I had to prepare for later. Sometimes you can't wait for the second ticket, for example a pork feet cooks at least 15 minutes, so it must go in the oven with the first ticket. For an entrecote on the other hand, you just start to sear it, when you get the second ticket, and then imagine 15 tickets getting in at the same time... But the chef interfered a little bit to set the priorities and very quickly we were back on track.

(my current work area at the end of today's service, with the last order for a table of two on the pass : a steak-frites with sauce bearnaise and an entrecote)

It got quiet for me around 2 p.m. when the last customers all had their main courses and moved on to desserts. But this month I am not in charge of them. So at that time I started to clean my area, the stove, the workbench, moving items back into the fridges, and cleaning the floor while being ready for late customers, which we have to accept, but everybody hates when they walk in at 2:50. Whether there is something to do or not, we have to stay in the kitchen until 3 p.m. and then are kicked out by the chef again. I took the metro back home, usually I take my afternoon nap before getting back at 6 p.m. to start the service at 6:45. But I decided I will skip the nap today, and instead be awake the most time possible today, and offer myself a nice café in the Café de la Place. 

Actually I don't want this day to be just an ordinary day.

A list of moments

"There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness” says a Spanish proverb. I think there might be some truth to that. The last days I had a couple of such moments that made me smile for a while ....

Moment #1 :
The chef-owner of my bistrot is not present all the time, he comes in usually three days a week for the lunch service (he is also busy running a second restaurant). Then everybody gets nervous, when he is around, as he is pushing us to accelerate, is very demanding and creating quite some pressure. As long as he is not stressing me too much (he did become a little impatient with me a couple of times), I am quite excited when he is in, as he is the only one of the kitchen team with gastronomic experience including working for Ducasse. For example he turns mistakes into a kind of quiz to make people think why things turned out not the way they were supposed to. Why did the dough not become crispy ? Why is the dessert too liquid ? Also he is forcing everybody to taste every special of the day. But in general the team is very stressed out, when he is around, because he is double checking everything and often makes people redo all their work. When he came in this morning he said the pear tart he had seen yesterday, was the best one he has seen in a very very long time. (Every day we do one apple or pear tart as the "dessert du jour".) I will let my readers guess who had done that pear tart yesterday ! Any idea ? Writing this makes me smile again. I know that details and precision in pastry is something that I have a talent for, but it was very very good for my ego and for some recognition within the team, to have the big boss mentioning it very loud to everybody.

Moment #2 :
One thing I still find difficult is coming home around midnight from work, and go to bed immediately to get the quantity of sleep I would need at my age. I should, but I simply can't and don't want to. So to wind down, I need to have a little bit of entertainment, and since the energy level at that hour is relatively low and even in the animated Monparnasse neighbourhood everything closes down around midnight, I mostly end up in front of the TV. Since a couple of days I have a new internet subscription, that includes international TV programs, and I am sooo happy to be able to switch to something else than French TV. So now every night at midnight I have 30 happy minutes with Jay Leno, that make me giggle and sometimes laugh out lout.

Moment #3 :
Talking about the neighbourhood closing down at midnight (on weekdays), yesterday after my night service, I walked by the Cafe de la Place just before midnight on my way home. It was empty but outside in the rain was my favourite waiter having a cigarette (Since Jan 1st smoking is forbidden in bars and restaurants in France). Since he is always so nice to me, always guesses what I want to order before I even can pronounce it and makes me feel at home there, I decided to stop, shake hands and chat a little bit. Somehow we got to talk about my new profession, my exam last year (I spent all May and June with my books there to study) and life changes. Then he revealed his story, he was not the long experienced waiter that I thougth he was, but in fact the manager of the Cafe de la Place, having left his job as a trader at the Paris stock exchange 2 years ago at the age of 50, just to do eventually something that he enjoys, even if it has nothing to do with his education and university degrees. Amazing. I was very happy that I had decided to stop for a chat, and guess I will spend now even more time in the Cafe de la Place. I want to find out more about his story and who knows maybe even get some advice about my own project from someone who is already 2 steps ahead of me. 

Moment(s) #4:
I am counting down the days until Wednesday next week, I will get a year older again, and to celebrate the occasion I will cross the French border and meet some people that have considerably contributed to my existence on this planet, in Brussels durning my 2.5 days off. There will be happy moments then (Belgium is famous for beer, French (!) fries and chocolate truffels), but the moments of anticipation this week are happy too.

Mit ... da faengt das Leben an

Herzlichen Glueckwunsch !!!
Aber bitte nicht zu sehr ausflippen ;)

I could be French and German !

Today I found something interesting on the website of the German consulate. Since years I am playing with the idea of acquiring the French nationality. But when I called the German embassy last time a couple of years ago to inquire what it would mean for my German passport, I was given a long speech by a German consulate officer, about one having to choose things in life, and they wouldn't prevent me from taking French citizenship, but I would have to give up my German citizenship in return. Although the "speech" on citizenship I got was in German, he threw in a popular French proverb : "on ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre". In English this corresponds to "you can't have your cake and eat it".

Through further research at that time on German government sites about my impossible question I found that the reason behind this restriction of denying a second nationality to Germans, was for a potential situation of war between the two concerned countries, to avoid that you would have a conflict of interest. I guess it's somehow true that those days I wouldn't know which side to fight on. Definitely would want to defend foie gras and tarte au citron, without forgetting about Knoedel and Frankfurter Kranz !

Now the good news is, that apparently German authorities have considered on August 28 2007 that the risk of an imminent war between Germany and France can be considered as relatively low those days, so now if I acquired French citizenship I could keep my German one. So that makes me want to talk again to that German consulate officer about having butter and the money for the butter at the same time...

So the German side is solved, nothing to do there. Now I have to file in an request to the French authorities, and a lot of paperwork is waiting for me including an interview where my ability to communicate in French will be tested. Mais je suis prête ! Then nothing is guaranteed, and the French authorities will decide on a case by case basis, whether French nationality will be given to someone or not. And the process can take up to 2 years. But I will try. J'y vais. Do I have any advantage by doing this ? Not really (except for being able to vote). It's symbolic for me. I have been living now for 13 years in France, and I feel at home in this country, I noticed this very strongly when returning from Italy. I know that I don't want to go back to Germany, except for visiting friends and family, and the desire to live and work in another country is (at the moment) not existing. So....update in 2009.

5 days in Paris

My short trip to Paris last week has lead to some significant consequences. I was so incredibly happy to be in Paris, to see my friends, to stay in my appartment, I felt I was in Paradise, and it made me fully appreciate the life that I live. The program was condensed especially on the social side.

When I entered the Café de la Place in Montparnasse, almost immediately after getting off the train, my favourite waiter gave me a big smile and said "but where have you been all the time !?!?!" Oh that was so nice and felt so good. The whole five days continued like this I was so happy to see everybody again, and I believe it was mutual. Katia for a wine and cheese feast in St. Germain, rocking with Ayako and still cool and young looking Sting Saturday night, Katrina, who cooked me a 7 course Italian dinner to die for in her tiny tiny kitchen corner, amazing. Michelin-star lunch with Diane and Cathleen (on the photo) my former classmates, which was like a reunion celebration, Allison and Ella, friends from Grenoble who have moved to Paris too a while ago, came to visit me in Montparnasse. And of course I went to Ferrandi to see Chef Sebastien again. I dropped in the middle of him teaching the new anglo class all about stocks, which was very funny for me to see... I also met one of my blog readers, Andrew during that visit, who is now in that Anglo class, I believe a little bit inspired by my blog....

(The Stade de France last Saturday, while Ayako, I and Sting (and 79997 other people) were screaming "You don't have to put on the red light"....)

I also had a great interview Saturday morning for a job in one of my favourite restaurants in Paris. The sous-chef is definitely a person I want to work for and I am waiting now for a final confirmation within the next weeks. He said it was 90% confirmed..... I will tell more about it when it's final. I think if it comes true it will be very very hard, but more on the physical and technical side, than on the psychological side...

Speaking of psychological difficulties.... Already when I got in the train back I wondered how I am going to make it until mid November. And the next morning in the kitchen I was missing Paris and my life there too much. The opportunity came the next day. When I told the chef here about my job opportunity in Paris, he asked me whether I need to leave earlier for that opportunity, and after two days of intense thinking about the pros and cons, I eventually told him, that yes, I would like to go back to Paris earlier than planned to get my life organized there before starting to work. So my last day here will be October 14 now. Sorry to disappoint those friends and blog readers who have written to me how much they admire me for hanging in. But I was just too lonely here, and I need to find my life back. And after all I stayed 3 months, not too bad actually.

I have now eventually moved to the "hot" area, and I am happy to feel the heat, to hold and shake a pan, burn my fingers when plating the hot langustines directly from the pan, even though the responsibilities are not very big. But I enjoy the busy services, I do learn, and the chef de partie, a former Ferrandi "sup" student, while he is very tough with me, is also very fair, and explains techniques and "behaviour" to me. So it seems that my last days here will also be quite good days in the kitchen.

Happy Birthday

I have been wondering the last days how long ago you got my balloon, I think it is 10 years now, but not 100% sure. Whatever, as far as you are concerned, it will never matter to me whether it was yesterday or 10 years ago anyway. Thinking of you a lot and wishing you all the best, and try to keep the ballon this time :)

Happy birthday. I think you'll never be 2 old 2...