To stay in touch and share with my friends the latest news about : my new life in Paris, becoming a cook, recipes, restaurants, wisdoms and insights (if any gained). The title is an allusion to Hemingway's book about his early years in Paris. He was writing just around the corner of my new home in the Montparnasse cafes....
...were prepared by Adeline Grattard, a young chef that everyone talks about. Within a couple of months after opening her restaurant Yam'Tcha in the center of Paris near Les Halles, she got enthusiastic reviews from the creme de la creme of the food critics, and that included nothing less than a Michelin Star !
Her style of cooking is clearly focussed on taste, no complicated fancy presentation, by combining the flavours of Chinese and French Cuisine, integrating her experiences from learning at Ferrandi (yeah, just like me, so there is hope !), at Pascal Barbot's Astrance and then a couple of years spent in China.
The asparagus (our 3rd starter in the tasting menu) were from the Landes and braised with kumquats and petoncles (small scallops). Amazingly tender, melting in your mouth, and not only super delicious but also beautifully plated.
Just for the anecdote : at the end of our dinner, Adeline came to our table (initially because of a payment issue), and asked whether I was a cook. Ehhh, yes but how do you know, I replied. She pointed smilingly at my hand, that I had burnt the week before in the restaurant with damned hot oil running over it...
I can only recommend to try a dinner at Yam'Tcha...if you have the patience. Book about two months in advance and be prepared to a rather long service.
Yam'Tcha 4 rue Sauval 75001 Paris Tél. : 01 40 26 08 07
The bestseller among my spring 2010 desserts : caramelized cinnamon flavored apples and calvados-mascarpone cream, layered between crispy sheets of puff pastry. Photo by Stephane Laniray.
I have taken one of the bigger decisions of my life : It is time to stop giving my time and talent to others and in 2011 I will open my own restaurant. Most likely in Paris. Voila. Big big decision. I am excited and scared at the same time.
I handed in a resignation letter 2 weeks ago, after my weekend with my friend Nina in Lucca, which reopenend my eyes towards my initial goal and dreams, that led to abandoning life #1. While the restaurant that employed me for more than a year has been a fantastic professional and human experience, lately a couple of changes happened, that I don't want to describe in detail here. But let's say I have certain values and principles that I don't compromise on, and so I draw the consequences. The owner couldn't have reacted better, in fact my resignation in his office started with me crying, because it hurts a lot to end a good experience for bad reasons, but it ended in a 2 hour consultation about restaurant creation, and each day he keeps giving me new advice, yesterday he even came up with a suggestion for a currently to-let restaurant in Paris. So I am happy to leave in very good terms, and will be able to quickly erase the last four negative weeks from my memory.
With two weeks distance I now realize that something had to happen to wake me up and to get me out of my comfortable easy life at the restaurant, otherwise I would probably still work there a couple of more years, avoiding to make the big jump.
Everybody I told was at first shocked to hear that I quit, especially after the press brochure and the good articles, but when I then described the recent situation, everybody agreed, that I had to go. The first "blessing" I needed to feel better was the one from Chef Sebastien, and I went to Ferrandi to explain him everything, one day after my resignation, and he also agreed on my decision. He has always been a key "element" in my life #2 and he will continue to be, as I move on now seriously to become an entrepreneur.
The rest of 2010 will now be spent with travelling, seeing friends that I miss, spending time with my family, my godchild, my grandmother who will turn 90 this year, and making more big decisions as part of my restaurant business plan.
As I say every night to my team, when the first order comes in : Allez, on attaque...
As result of the 300 brochures sent out to journalists we are getting now weekly 2-3 reviews on blogs and on paper. In some of them my name appears, which makes me very proud, so far the critics about the starters and desserts have always been good, sometimes enthusiastic.
Here is one, where the author (John Talbott, THE reference of anglo phone critics in Paris) confuses however my name with the one of the chef and makes me thereby the chef of the restaurant ;) Which normally I wouldn't mind but it seems he liked my amuse bouche and the starter, but less the main course... He took his photos only after eating half of the starter, so it looks no longer as nice as when it left the kitchen. You can see my name appear on the chalkboard on the first photo. John Talbott's review
I like this one too from Do it in Paris. It is nicely written.
Good pictures and very positive notes on my starters and desserts on the Coup de Fourchette blog.
Here is the whole press brochure to download with lots of pictures of the restaurant, my creations, and even a photo and bio of myself on page 6, in the style "aleady as a child on her first vacation in France she loved creme caramel more than the Eiffeltower". Download DOSSIER_DE_PRESSE_AROMATIK_2010
In January the owner had a communications agency come in to create a press brochure that was subsequently sent to 300 journalists. Exciting times, we start to get a couple of nice articles and subsequently a significant increase in customers. For the brochure pictures of my starters and desserts were taken by a professional photographer and the outcome was amazing. Some plates look better on the photos than in reality. I know now that's one thing to do when I will open my own restaurant.
Here is a starter from the last menu, that was inspired by my cuisine class with Chef Sebastien at Ferrandi. Langoustines and daurade, raw like a tartare, with a light touch of an asian flavored marinade (coriander, ginger, lemongrass, kafir lime leaves, fish sauce, soja sauce, olive oil).
Sorry for the too long break, and thank you for the comments and emails to encourage me to continue this. After return from Xmas vacation I was without internet for a while, the neighbour apparently had "picked my line" and it took France Telecom four weeks and several visits to get me a new line. By that time I had gotten used to not posting any more and then kind of lazy about this blog. But a lot is going on (while I am still working for the same restaurant) and the desire to share and write down events and thoughts is returning.
My last post was about music and so will be this "I'm back" post.
Music has always been an important part of my life, and sometimes accidental circumstances bring new inspiration. Like the unforgettable taxi ride with Leonard Cohen last year. This week life brought Chet Baker to me. And while I am writing this, I am watching the "Let's get lost" documentary. I found the circumstances amusing, amazing and worth sharing. Actually Chet Baker was first brought to me by my friend Sarah in Grenoble, who knew that I secretely had a little crush on my Saxphone teacher (my mother had met him once and then used to say, she would not have been able to concentrate on music in his presence). Sarah found an album with a photo of Chet Baker on which he looked exactly like my saxophone teacher at that time, and offered it to me as a birthday present. I am not sure I listened actually to the CD, what a shame, but I did like the cover...
Anyway, a couple of years have passed since then, I have moved from Grenoble to Paris and therfore have a new Saxophone teacher (very very nice, but no crush-potential). Last week, before the vulcano cloud, I booked a hotel in Lucca in Tuscany for the upcoming weekend. I chose the hotel together with my friend Nina over the phone who I am going to meet there (still depending on the cloud). We figured the hotel Universo had a good price/quality ratio, ideal location and nice tripadvisor comments. I already loved the music of the hotel's website, and then found on the room description site, that room #15 was the one Chet Baker has stayed several times in, and thought this was a nice coincidence and was even more happy we had picked that hotel. I also thought I need to get out this CD from Sarah now and listen to Chet Baker. And I could end the story here.
A couple of famous photos exits of Chet Baker sitting in the window of the hotel Universo. This one's from the hotel website and I found another one on the back cover of Sarah's CDs. Nice, but still not the end of the story.
Today I told my (new) Saxophone teacher, that next Monday I will be in Tuscany and therfore we'd have to postpone my lesson, unless the European flights keep being cancelled. I mentioned that I'd stay in the same hotel as Chet Baker. The he smiled "I knew Chet Baker". Me : "No way !" Sax teacher : "Yes, we dined several times together". Me : "No way !" Sax teacher :"Actually he lived several years with my godmother in Paris, that is how I knew him" Me : "No way".
Ok I have to admit here that my contribution to the conversation was not very original, but I was just fascinated and surprised about this story and how normal it seemed to my Sax teacher. I asked him to tell me more about his godmother, a French actress, about her relationship to Chet Baker and researched later on web to find out more. So actually Chet Baker had left the US to follow his love Liliane to Paris. This was in 1955 and there are a couple of Paris concert recordings from that time. I also found a beautiful photo of the couple.
I proudly present Chet Baker and the godmother of my Saxophone teacher. I think this is cool.
For the moment this is the end of my little story. The big question is, will I actually get to Lucca on Saturday morning, the Paris airports are still closed...
This post however cannot end without the beautiful music of Chet Baker....
Merry Xmas to everybody who is celebrating it ! Last dinner service of 2009 for me tonight, on my way to Germany tomorrow morning where I will spend almost 2 weeks...
Being tired of all the cheap touristy adjusted-to-French-taste Sushi-Shops in Paris I wanted to try this "true" more authentic Japanese restaurant for a while, that has earned a lot of positive reviews. And I was not disappointed. I loved the way they delivered the explanations of the Bento-Box as part of the menu...
I have taken a couple of more photography classes since September. The two last ones about capturing speed and about night photography. The purchase of my new toy had been initiated by a missed opportunity during the finish of the Tour de France this year, when I had Lance and Alberto directly in front of me, and all I got was a lousy blurred photo. So I am hoping this will be different in 2010. I want them to be recognizable this time. But a good camera is not enough, there are some little tricks involved about capturing speed, I was hoping to learn. We took the photos around the Place de la Concord to appreciate the impact of using 1/1000 versus 1/60 on the water fountains, and then continued learning to capture sharp impages of the cars circulating around the Place de la Concorde, which is basically obtained by following the object with your camera (panning). Sonds easy but takes a little practice to master. So I got my Tour de France training, Lance I am ready !
Capturing the Fountain in the Jardin de Tuileries with the Ferris Wheel on the Place de la Concorde in the background :
Tour de France 2009, with my old toy. Lousy. Lance is blurred. The spectators are sharp, and the buildings in the background overexposed.:
Practicing for Tour de France 2010 on Place de la Concorde with my new toy, not yet perfect, but will be getting there. With panning the bikes are almost sharp, the background (Champs-Elysees with Arc de Triomphe) is blurred transmitting the notion of speed, and the exposure correct. :
The other class was about night photography, and I especially appreciated learning about the streaked light effects with long exposure, and the effects of changing the focal length during exposure ("zoom burst").
The trio de pannacotta, one of the best selling desserts had to be replaced last week. In the beginning I had 75 verrines (small glasses), just right for 25 portions, and it allowed me to prepare the pannacotta twice per week. Over time more and more glasses broke, at the end sometimes two per day and I ended up with 36 glasses, just 12 portions or the equivalent of what we sold from Thursday to Saturday per day, so I had to prepare the pannacotta every day, which added an hour to my mise en place. Impossible to maintain. As the pannacotta is part of the "formule", we had to come up with a dessert that is not expensive and fast to produce and plate. After researching a couple of days I had an idea but as usual I didn't talk about it, and simply produced it and presented it to the chef and the owner. The chef liked it immediately and accepted it, the owner, still in his recent new mood of correcting and criticizing for the sake of criticizing thought there "was a color missing" and wanted me also to try other shapes of the coconut-cake, like a ball instead of the "grissini". That type of feeback made me furious because I felt that my idea, the esthetics in terms of colors and plating was perfect and so I simply ignored the owner's comments. After all nobody else had come up with a new dessert suggestion, and I wanted it to remain as I had created it.
So that is still the way I present it today, it is on the menu since one week and running as well as the pannacotta did. The tapioca (perles du Japon) is cooked in milk and coconut milk, with just a little sugar, and I add pomegranate arils and passion fruit seeds, with a crispy "coconut grissini". My team loves it and each time we send one out they say "oh c'est beau, ce nouveau dessert".
... to find this on the Christmas market on the Champs-Elysees :
And a note on my previous post and the comments : Chee, Gloria, Mindy , Kelli & Olivier, Ulla, C, Lisa : I am very touched by your reactions, and your comments really lift me up. Thank you all for taking the time to write to me and for your encouragement ! Really touched.
And for those who think I am just complaining too much, I am sorry that they have obviously not understood the purpose of this blog and my history, neither me as a person. This is not a food blog, but a blog about an extreme professional transformation and the experiences and emotions that come with it. My decision to change profession was inspired 4 years ago by reading a similar blog by a woman who left IT to become a cook in Paris. Today she is back in IT, because it was too frustrating and not paid well enough. I will not be going that way, but at least I also want to show the reality, with the good sides and the bad sides of what it means to move to the restaurant business. Since 20 years my job has always been a key priority in my life, and naturally I expect it to be a source of happiness, maybe more than the average person does. So if I am not getting out of it what I am putting in and something is not meeting my expectations, I am sharing it here, being well aware that the world is not perfect. If it is tiring you, don't read my blog. About myself : yes I am a very emotional person, easily overwhelmed by small things in the good sense (by a Leonard Cohen song in a Paris taxi at night) and in the bad sense as well (by a boss, that stops appreciating my efforts). And I am happy and thankful that this is the way I am.
For the situation in the restaurant, I have been thinking about the options. I will not talk to the patron, as I believe he is that type of person who won't understand or change, and I have made bad experiences in the past with criticizing bosses. But I talked to the chef about my frustration, in fact he came to ask why I have been so grumpy lately. He said they couldn't function without me at the moment, that there was a certain pressure on him and the patron because of the recent success of the restaurant, that was certainly also due to my contributions. This was very nice to hear. Since then I noticed a new major effort on his side to keep my spirits up, and we agreed on a plan to get me better training in the next year at his "hot" station, so that I will continue to make progress. I stopped giving 200% and am now down to 150%. Not adding 2-3 hours overtime per day anymore, stopped accepting the role of personal assistant of the patron into which he is sometimes pushing me, stopped shopping for ingredients that we don't have in stock, stopped behaving as if the restaurant staff was my family and the restaurant my own, take more emotional distance and a more professionaly focussed approach. All this is unfortunately reducing the fun, because I have always been happiest when I can get involved 200%. But at the moment it is the way to go to protect myself and get back on track for the next steps.
Oooops, I realize I deviated just a little bit from the subject of German sausages, also a great source of happiness, but there a things that have to be said.....
I haven't been posting for a while about the restaurant, because I am going through a phase of doubts and wasn't in the mood to share dessert or starter photos. My motivation and drive for creativity has dropped sharpely and so has my enthusiasm for the restaurant where a couple of weeks ago I still believed I would stay for a couple of years. I am still waiting for this phase to end and hoping to be able to return to a more positive state of mind. I believe that my mistake was that I got too involved and too engaged in the operations of the restaurant, almost acting as if it was my own. While in the beginning the owner and the chef have lifted me up and expressed their admiration and appreciation continuously, all my extra contributions have become now the standard for them, positive returns are now an exception and I even sometimes feel negative vibes and pressure during service which has not existed for the first months I worked there. I feel I have lost the extremely good relation to the owner, which has been driving my enthusiasm, and while I am making more and more efforts every day to get the initial atmosphere back, I believe I need to step out or back emotionally from the restaurant, and consider it just as a milestone towards my ultimate goal. This is probably more realistic, after all I am just a poorly paid emloyee and not an associate, but the thought makes me sad.
Last week my favourite chef was on a well deserved vacation, and I had to deal once again with his replacement chef I don't like at all. Actually nobody in the team really likes him. A chef of the "old style", completely egoistic, ignorant and too much convinced of himself. Le patron keeps saying I need to get training at le chaud now soon, so that I can replace the chef next time. I know this has to be the next step if I want to make progress, at the same time I am scared that I won't be capable to fire out the number of main courses in a reasonnable time. Anyway, during that week, the replacement chef placed a couple of nonsense orders with our fruit and vegetable suppliers that nobody really needs, among them tons of kumquat.
First I told the chef on his return, that they need to use them as decoration element for the lunch menu desserts, but it didn't work. He suggested that I make a "confit", I said yes of course, without having a clue at all how to do it. But thank god there is the internet with all the recipes at hand I could possibly need.
And it turns out, that it is really easy to make kumquats confits (preserved kumquats) :
1) "Blanchir" - throw them 10 minutes in boiling water, then cool 2) "confire - step 1" - cook them 30 minutes in sirop (50:50) 3) let rest in the sirop 24 hours 4) "confire - step 2" - cook again 15 minutes in the sirop 5) dry - 15 minutes in the oven at low temperature (60 degrees Celsius)
Yesterday alone I had the impression that a third of the kumquats disappeared, just by my colleagues picking them each time they walked by... When I asked the chef during the afternoon mise en place, whether I can offer him a brownie, he addmitted : no merci, I already ate too many kumquats. No wonder, they turned out abolutely fantastic. A mixed but balanced taste of fruity, bitter, sweet, and sour.
Now the next question, what do we do with tons of kumquats confits, and I thought they would be nice on the "café gourmand" plate we have on the lunch menu, dipped in chocolate. "Sympa" was the chefs jugement, the typical French way, after "pas mal" (not bad), to characterize something outstandingly good.
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.