A Moveable Feast

Happiness is ...

... 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.....

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...

Currywurst mit Pommes rot-weiss

I just returned from a wonderful vacation in Germany, and am now already repacking my suitcase to fly to the US tomorrow. One of the must have culinary experiences as soon as I set foot on German territory is Currywurst mit Pommes rot-weiss, a true German national fast food. It is a grilled sausage, drowning in tomato ketchup with curry powder ("Currywurst"), with french fries ("pommes") and ketchup and mayonnaise ("rot-weiss" = red-white). I guess only people who live and have lived in Germany and had to do without this delight for a while will be able to understand me and my craving for this...  

Le Yumming Tasting Club

Last Saturday I was invited to an amazing dinner by chef Diane. She was my class mate in the Ferrandi Anglo class (one of the three mousqueteers), and after her stage she continued her culinary education by joining the prestigious "sup" ( as in superieur) class of the ESCF. In parallel she created her first business, which she named "Le Yumming Tasting Club". Apparently I inspired the name, as I had told her once that she has the habit of always using the word YUM when she wants to say tasty, good, delicious, etc.. "This is YUM !" is one of her most frequent exclamations...

Instead of cooking in a restaurant, she creates gastronomic dinners in her home, a beautiful typical French appartment near the Louvre. I always tease her and her husband Eric of living in the King's and Queen's appartment, as even their adress is "rue du Louvre". So her customers can enjoy at the same time outstanding French gastronomic cuisine, and the typical setting of a Parisien family home. A bigger cultural event, than just going to a restaurant. She will soon host a relatively big group, so that dinner last Saturday was also a little test for her, and I was very happy to have been selected as one of the guinea-pigs (although I was dead during work last Sunday as a consequence).

I have no worries for the quality of the food and the service Diane provides, only that she won't charge enough ;) Here are some pictures of that evening's menu. It was insane....

If you are interested in such a dining experience at chef Diane's either for yourself or for a group of friends that are visiting Paris, let me know and I will get you in touch with her.

Merci and Bravo Diane.
19.9/20 !
Good luck for next weekend ;)

Amuse Bouches
Gaspacho Andalou, Beignet de Parmesan, Dattes farcies de foie gras enrobeés de Lardo di Colonnata, sauce poivrons rouge

Entrée
Salade de Chèvre, caviar d'aubergine fumé, crevettes, coulis de tomates et tapenade

Plat
Ballotine de Poulet avec farce mousseline aux épinards, abricot et pignons de pins torréfiés, navets nouveaux aux champignons, quinoa vert, purrée de cresson.

Fromage
Rocamadour avec salade d'endives en deux façons

Dessert
Anti-stress (chocolat/framboise), jus de fraises, sorbet.
(my personal favourite of the evening, an Alain-Ducasse-inspired recipe. YUM.YUM.YUM.YUM.YUM)

No foie gras without....

...the right wine !

Philippe was so right in his comment to my last post, how can I dare to talk about foie gras without mentioning the wine to go with it. Shame on me. If you eat foie gras, and don't suppport it by a glass of matching wine, you spoil the whole experience. As essential as good bread and fleur de sel to make the experience perfect.

The classic match is a sweet white Bordeaux wine, Sauternes. There are other possibilities though, as Sauternes might be too sweet for some, and the big challenge is also with which wine do you continue your meal if you start with Sauternes ?

Other good matches :

- Gewurztraminer ("vendanges tardives")
- Coteaux de Layon  (less sweet)
- Muscat (de Rivesaltes, for examples)
- similar to Sauternes but less expensive : Loupiac, Sainte-Croiz du Mont
- Jurancon
- or as a dry white wine alternative a Chardonnay, like for example a Meursault

So I hope I made up for this "minor" mistake in my last post. I confirm again, it is really essential to be able to enjoy the foie gras tast to the fullest !

Coming up soon on this channel : how the founder of Yahoo Europe became my new boss this week...

Tapas in San Sebastian

Before you continue reading, please take note of this warning :

The following pictures contain culinary tempting content and may torture your taste buds resulting in a desire to quit everything immediately and leave towards the Basque country.

So it happened at least when I showed my photos of the tapas (called pintxos there) bars in San Sebastian to Diane and Katia this week. They both wanted to go there immediately as a consequence.

San Sabastian, a seaside resort on the Bay of Biscay was just a two hour train ride away from Magescq, so I had decided well in advance to spend one of my free "weekends" (my days off were actually Monday and Tuesday) in October there. But I had not expected such a culinary paradise.

Quoting from the last "Food & Travel" magazine issue : "San Sebastian (Donostia to the Basques) is a city which devotes itself to food and drink, where foie gras forms part of the daily diet, where salt cod is more highly prized than caviar [...] gastronomy is a religion here". Do I need to say more ?

Now simply enjoy the photos. I am happy that I eventually found a great tool that lets me share more pictures with you, without spending a whole day editing my blog. Just click on the big picture to move on to the next one, by moving the cursor on the small picture a comment for the picture will appear. If you want to go there, please let me know, I am in to repeat a bar-to-bar night anytime. If you go without me, find my adress list below... ;)

Tapas (Pintxos) bars :

Usually you get a plate, then you just pick all the tapas you want and show your plate to the waiter behind the bar who will count, or sometimes the tapas comes with toothpicks, then you pay at the end simply according to the number of toothpicks you collected.

I got along very well in all those places, even without one word of Spanish. Everybody was very welcoming and friendly to me (maybe because I consumed a lot ?).

Garbola Bar
Paeso Colon, 11 (on the "other" side of the river, Gros neigbourhood)
small bar, but nice selection of tapas, and a prowd and friendly owner, that has pinned all his awards and press clips on the wall)

Martinez
31 de Agosto, 13
Award winning Tapas, but less ambiance.

Bar Aralar
Puerto, 10 (old town)
big choice of quality tapas, and very good ambiance

Bar Astelena
Inigo 1 (old town, on plaza de la Constitution)
my favourite one
"gastronomic" pintxos with foie gras and high quality bread and jamon
According to Food & Travel magazine the story goes that Juan-Marie Arzak was inspired here by one of the pintxos (hake in pastry) and turned it into one of his signature dishes ("pudin de krabarroka").

Hotel :
Following a recommendation in the French "guide du routard" I stayed in the

Hostal Alemania
San Martin, 53
+34 943 46 25 44

clean, quiet, safe, very helpful & friendly & professional service
1 minute from the Concha beach, 10 minutes to walk to the old town
reasonnable prices (I paid about 65 Euros a night)

I can poach an egg !!!

One of the biggest frustrations of my stage was the lack of interesting tasks given to me, and the feeling that with all the daily herbs chopping and vegetable peeling I applied almost nothing I had learned at Ferrandi before. Deboning poultry, preparing a lamb rack or fish were tasks apparently too risky to give to stagiaires like me, and only the sous-chefs or very talented apprentis were allowed to do that, while I watched them chopping my parsley (I am really good and fast at that though now).

The "highlight", the mother of all rejections, during this stage took place during the last two weeks when I was working eventually at the stoves where the hot starters were prepared and plated. One of the dishes my station was in charge of was the "poêlée de champignons",  a mix of mushrooms, simply sautéed, arranged with a poached egg in the middle. Right at the beginning I wanted to take the egg out of the water when it was time to plate it, but everybody broke out in panic "no, don't touch the egg !". I didn't get it, but continued to obey and shut up as usual. So all they let me do was do dig a whole with my fingers into the heap of mushrooms, once they were put by the chef the partie on the plate to make room for the poached egg. Very cool.

So obviously on of the most urgent desires I had back in my own kitchen here to cook this dish, and just demonstrate to myself that I could poach an egg. It sounds ridiculous, because it is one of the very basic things you are taught early in culinary school, and not really difficult. But as I mentioned before, after three months in an environment, where I lost a lot of confidence into my capabilites, I had to do this. And of course it was really easy.

A very simple but delicious seasonal dish. I used cepes (porcini mushrooms). After cleaning them carefully with a towel dipped in cold water (ah, another thing I learnt !), simply sautéed in very hot olive oil, and at the end some chopped garlic, shallots and parsley added. And then a perfectly poached egg put in the middle. Voila. I can do it. Anybody had doubts ? I can do more than digging holes into a heap !

I'm on THE list !!!!!

I made it ! On the list. Of the candidates that passed the C.A.P. de cuisine, the French state diploma for cooks. Only now I am really relieved, this day and result was more important to me than the school's certificate. Only now it is official, and only now I dare to say the "holy" words : I am a French cook ! Certified by the French state. I have a real professional qualification. Wow !

The results were published on printed lists in the school yesterday, when I was still in Bavaria, where I spent a week with my grandmother and too many Knoedel (huge potatoe dumplings). So I was only able today to go and take a picture of the list. It's public and black on white. I am on it. Yes. Yes. Yes. !!!


Et si jamais vous lisez toujours mon blog de temps en temps, Chef, merci pour tout et en particulier pour le support enorme pour cette epreuve pas si facile.... !

P.S. The numbers behind the names are not the grades (I do hope I got more than 12 or 3 out of 19), but simply the date of birth... ;)

Le Fooding d'Eté

I still feel like I have been let out of prison some days ago. The last weeks have been very tough for me and I am so happy everything is over and I can enjoy life again. It did take me a couple of days to recover. The most enjoyable activity last week was just being able to sit in a café in the sun and read a newspaper. It was heaven. I fall asleep with a big smile every night, this hasn't happened in a long time...

So it's also time to pick up again some of my pre-exam activities like checking out restaurants, and joining "food"-events. Today Cathleen, Diane and I went together to "Le fooding de l'ete". I call us now the Les Trois Mousquetaires (the three musketeers), because we three are the only ones who have gone through the pain of obtaining the state C.A.P. exam on top of the school certificate. That meant about 5-7 exams more than the rest of our class, so we three have suffered together through all this. It helped a lot, not to be alone with all this additional pressure. One for all, and all for one...

Anyway this fooding event was announced as a menu "barbecunomique", happening in the garden of the MAC/VAL modern art museum in the suburbs of Paris, with a very promising participation list of grands chefs (including two with three Michelin stars) of Paris and although we didn't really know what exactly to expect, we were very excited...

MENU BARBECUNOMIQUE

Saveurs de coquillages et parfums de légumes “belle saison”.
Par Alain Passard/L’Arpège, PARIS

Chipolata d’agneau confit, anchois et olive, escabèche de courgette et haricot coco au soja.
Par Laurent Chareau/Le Transversal, VITRY-SUR-SEINE

Pincho de “lomo Unico”con su Chimichurri.
Par Gaston Stivelmaher/Unico, PARIS

L’os à moelle garni d’un paleron de boeuf confit, façon pot-au-feu, recouvert d’un Zéphyr.
Par Frédéric Anton/Le Pré Catelan, PARIS

Faux caviar et encornet au gingembre.
Par Philippe Delacourcelle/Le Pré Verre, PARIS

I had wondered how all this would be set up, and had honestly not expected to actually find the chefs themselves there. But I was wrong ! Already on the first barbecue stand behind the entrance the big and famous three star chef Alain Passard himself was at the grill. I couldn't believe it. So immediately we got into that queue, still short at that time. Once it was our turn I said to Monsieur Passard (in French of course) : "Bonjour Monsieur Passard ! Do you remember a chef called Sebastien de Massard working for you ?" Which brought a big and curious smile on his face. (Our chef had worked a couple of years for him in l'Arpege.) Then I said " We are students of M. de Massard at Ferrandi !" That got me another big smile. Sigh.... And some wonderfully tasting grilled razor clams. Look at the details of the herbs and spices and young garlic on each shell.

We thought it was amazing, that a busy three-star chef would spend his whole Sunday grilling for nothing (Despite a one time 5€ entrance fee, all the food was for free!).

 

Le grand Alain Passard "plating" razor clams for me....I was soooo excited and could feel my heart race. Alone for that moment the trip was worth it.

3 star "mussels".... To die for.

Then we noticed, that more and more people were coming in, so we hit immediately the next queue to taste what the chef of for Le Pré Verre would offer. This is a restaurant I had already heard about through Laura from cucinatestarossa, but I never went. After tasting the chef's sampler I understand now why she's crazy for his food. So I am waiting impatiently for her return from the US to go to the Pre Verre with her.

Chef Philippe Delacourcelle and his faux caviar et encornet au gingembre. Delicieux !

Unfortunately the queues got bigger and bigger then, we tried one more, but then were disappointed with what we got for one hour waiting, so decided to watch other people queue and "pique-niqued" on the lawn.

For the grand finale Diane and Cathleen queued again and brought me a Crème glacée Häagen-Dazs Coconut Macaroon, coulis de fruits exotiques mangue ananas et fruits de la passion, by Christine Ferber from Alsace who is famous for her marmelades nationwide. Yummie, Yummie ! I was so desperate for it, even forgot to take a picture....

Tomorrow we go for three days to La Baule, a seaside resort on the Atlantic coast in Southern Brittany, with both Anglo cuisine classes and our teachers for the final trip. Chef Sebastien has worked on a complete program, that includes visits and tours of all the gastronomic highlights of that region, including mussels "production", the salt marshes and the world-famous "fleur de sel" de Guerande, a fish auction (la crieé) at 3 a.m. , gastronomic restaurants, patisserie visits, etc., etc. full report here end of next week.

And then it's time to start talking about my long stage, which is going to be the next big exciting thing in my life....

Bonne semaine !

La Bûche de Noël

The Bûche de Noël is "THE" dessert served at Christmas dinners in France.

It is a cake that resembles a log that you would burn in your fireplace. The tradition originates from the days before central heating : the only way to keep a house warm was by the fireplace. So, when friends and family would come for the holidays, they would bring a log to put in the fireplace.

The tradition of burning the log began to disappear with the arrival of small stoves. The log was replaced by a smaller branch that was set in the middle of the table and surrounded by little "friandises" (sweets, delicacies) that were given as treats to guests. It is this branch that was eventually transformed into the cake known as the Bûche de Noël.

Obviously, with the title of our program being "French gastronomy", in our last pastry classes we had to produce our own Bûche de Noël.

The key components of making a bûche de Noël are

• a rolled cake based on génoise batter (similar to biscuit or sponge cake)
• crème de marron for the filling
• the decoration including butter cream, ivy leaves, fake mushrooms, chocolate, snowman and father xmas !

Of course there are many many recipes and variations especially for the cremes and the decoration. No limits to the imagination. Here is how our pastry chef Thierry taught us to do one :

For the log's foundation : spread the genoise batter on a baking sheet, bake ~15 minutes at 250° C, sprinkle both sides with a mix of rum ! and sirup, spread the crème de marron (chestnut cream), then roll firmly.

For the decoration we prepared the week before the fake mushrooms from meringue and the snowman and father Christmas from almond paste. That class felt a bit like in kindergarten, very playful.... We had a blast to see everybody's creations collected together. You could make very good psychological conclusions on some hidden character traits through the design of the figures. Look at Gil's Dracula-like Snowman (lower left section). He must have a dark side that we didn't know of yet.

Those are my fake mushrooms. The shape is not so easy to create....

The whole operations concludes with the decoration. Including spreading the butter cream, placing the figures, chocolate decoration and placing ivy leaves.

 

Et voilà le resultat final ! This is my Bûche before being packaged and frozen.

But the most fashionable Bûche de Noël and most discussed on TV and in food and design journals this year has been the one done in collaboration with designer Philippe Starck and the famous pâtisserie Lenotre. It is not only supposed to look like a real piece of wood but also has some wood flavour. I am sure it is delicious ! Joyeux Noël et Bon appetit ...