Graduation

I HAVE MY OWN INTERNET! And it's amazing. So let's get some posts going!

First off- Graduation.

Now, there has been some confusion over which graduation I am talking about as I have, no, not finished my diploma yet. See, the diploma is divided into 3 courses: Basic, Intermediate, and Superior. I have merely passed Basic. For which, I get a diploma.

So, graduation morning, I made my way down to the school for the ceremony. Many of the chefs were there, up at the front. It was a nice change from my last two graduations (under-grad and high school) because there were less of us (about 80 including cuisine and pastry), so everyone got his/her moment with the chef instead of feeling like a cattle call. PLUS, there were no stupid speeches.

"One day I was walking with a PEP! in my STEP!" (That's for my Elliot School GW friends out there)

Instead, the chefs in charge of our course just gave a nice summary of us as a group and how we had done the past few months.

In fact, two of my kitchen group friends turned out to be 4th and 5th in our whole class! (And my grade is only .3 less, so I think I probably did pretty well too!)

(The two chefs in charge of Basic Cuisine, the translator, and the Director is in the suit)

It was a lovely time.

Then they poured us champagne. I had not yet eaten breakfast (we had to be there before 9am!), so I drank my breakfast of champions!

(my diploma)

(With the two chefs in charge of Basic cuisine)

But, we could not stay too long because then me and two of my friends had to head over to Le Meurice Hotel in Paris for lunch.

So, here's the Le Meurice website: http://www.lemeurice.com/restaurants-bars (the first picture is the dining room that we sat in)

It's a 5 star hotel in Paris and it just so happens that we have a good friend and LCB graduate who is one of the chefs de partie. He got us rezzies. Pretty awesome.

The meal was incredible. We did the fall tasting menu. If you find yourself in the next few weeks in Paris and with a couple hundred extra euro, I would highly recommend. My favorite dishes: the beeftail cooked for 24hours and topped with a mushroom duxelle and the blood sausage with beet root. Incredible.

There are no pictures, because well, it's just no the type of place where you whip out your iphone in between courses.

Our friend came out to the dining room to say hi in his chef's whites and then joined us at the bar afterwards for some lovely drinks.

We stayed at that bar for about 6 hours. But it was worth it and no one really felt the need to leave. In fact, while we were there, Julianne Moore walked in and sat down at the table next to us (there are only about 10 tables at that bar) while she waited for her table.

Now there are two versions of what happened next. I'll let you decide which one happened.

1. She saw us and noticed how funny and quite frankly awesome we were and came over and asked if it would be rude to join us. We of course said not at all and had someone pull up a chair for her. Then we joked about how great Sauvignon Blanc is and her opinions on all things. In the end, she promised to get us a white lion before we had to leave to celebrate a friend's birthday.

2. We awkwardly gawked at her and she gave us a feigned smile before we continued to act like she was just a regular person because we are SO above acting like paparazzi groupies. And she sent over a note with the promise of getting us a white lion.

So there you have it. Two stories. I'll let you pick the one that suits your mind the best. I know what happened.

Anyways, congrats to everyone and I can't wait to be back in January! However, now that I have internet consistently, be expecting more posts again. I apologize for the hiatus!

And as Julianne Moore would say, "Laters, white lion lovers."

Final: Cuisine de Base

Andddddddddd we're back!

At least for tonight. But all is well because this week has been the MOST productive in the history of Elyssa living in Paris. Because this week (the week after the final) my dear friend S (who is up for Sainthood- I'm discussing her accession with the Pope as we speak) who is also fluent in French has helped me do more errands in two days than I have done in two months. One of those super fun tasks was talking to the internet company on the phone for hours...(yeah, she's the best) but now I should have my own internet working within the next two weeks! At least that's what they are promising...

ANYWAYS- I finished my final for Basic Cuisine! It was such a whirlwind. We were given a list of 10 possible recipes of which we had to learn the complete ingredients list as well as the methods and techniques of cooking those dishes because when we walked into the kitchen to perform our final practical, we would be picking one of those recipes out of a hat.

We also had to poach one egg and cook one hard-boiled egg to be plated next to our final dish.

The week before was filled with quizzing, studying, and memorizing because this one dish was worth 45% of our grade.

Last Friday morning (yes, I know it's been a week...) I woke up at 6:30am, was at school by 7:30am and in the kitchen by 7:50am ready to go. Our group would be cooking in a kitchen that we had never cooked in before; I would be working on a stove and with an oven that I had never touched and didn't know the feel or idiosyncrasies of heating, etc. I walked in, was assigned to a spot, and picked a recipe out of a hat.

I had chosen the chicken tarragon with a side of roasted vegetables. It was a relatively easy recipe- one of the easier ones in my opinion. Except, the day that we had cooked it in practical, it was under the supervision of a substitute chef who I detest. In fact, I have made numerous efforts to complain to the administration about this substitute. That day, he made us do the recipe differently than we had been taught by our wonderful chef and when we were confused about his new way he yelled at us that he would give us all zeros for the day if we asked "any more f**cking questions". Excuse me, I am in cooking school. What kind of teacher does not allow anyone to ask questions? And curses like that? Not okay.

So, while I had been lucky to choose a relatively easy recipe, I could only see red when I thought about it. Again, luckily for me though, my friends had made me repeat it from memory multiple times so that I could think of the lovely and flavorful dish without the thought of that horrid man.

ANYWAYS, I just started going. I cut the chicken, I emondee-d my tomatoes, ciselee-d the shallots, sauteed the chicken, started the braising liquid, cooked my first egg (hard boiled), started the vegetables and put them in, cooked the second egg (poach), decanted the chicken, reduced my sauce, pulled out the vegetables and stopped.

It was 9:50am and all I had left to do was add the final butter to my jus. We started cooking at 8:15 and had until 11:15 to finish. And I was finished with my dish over an hour early.

I'm not sure how it happened; how I did it. But, I just went and it was FUN!

So, with nothing to do and not wanting to finish my sauce until the end, I cleaned and packed up my knives. I cleaned my station 3 times. Then the chef walked in and heard that one of us was finished.

"Who is finished?" he asked.

"Me."

"Meez Kah-plahn, l'americaine. So plate!"

And I did. I plated my dish at 10:10am. I finished cleaning and I left. As I was leaving, the second/assistant chef in the kitchen whispered to me, "Don't worry- You're good."

Words can not describe my happiness at that moment. I was finished at a chef had told me not to worry about passing! Apparently, my friends in the kitchen could hear my whoop as I threw my hat down the stairs. I changed, cleared out my locker, and went to the bar to wait for everyone to join me for a night of celebration.

And, the assistant chef was right. I had nothing to worry about, because I never received that call from school asking me to come in so they could tell me I failed. And yesterday, I graduated.

That post will come soon :)

Internet Problems

I need to stop writing, "I will post tomorrow" because I keep losing my internet connection afterwards making me unable to post.

I am currently working on the issue and if I can not resolve it, I will try and make a Starbucks trip soon. 

Thanks for your patience!

e

Last Day of Class

Thursday morning I woke up at 7am, got dressed, caught the metro and made it to school by 8am for the last time in a long time. It was our last demonstration of basic cuisine and of course, we were scheduled for the 8:30am time slot.

But, this time, we could just watch and take notes as we pleased because there was no accompanying practical. We would not be re-creating any of these dishes in the kitchen later. The menu was "Gala Dinner" and it was pretty much that exciting:

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb served with Potatoes Dauphinois, roasted tomatoes filled with a mushroom duxelle, braised gems, honey-glazed carrots, and red currant glazed baby turnips

and for dessert, Baked Alaska

(the chef served it flaming, but the alcohol burned up before we could take pictures)

After class, we tasted (as we do everyday) but today was especially good as everything served was delicious and not coated in an egg yolk/butter emulsion. Plus, the chef popped some bottles of champagne, so the food went down even easier!

It was a little sad in the end because this would be our last demonstration with the Chef. He is the chef in charge of Basic Cuisine and when we return to class in January as Intermediate students, he will be welcoming a new group of eager young chefs instead of teaching us. But, I'm sure we'll still see him around school and every once in a while, maybe he'll be the chef in our practical kitchens.

Most exciting for me though is that when I raised my hand to ask a question at the beginning about a confusion I was having over whether he would be making the potatoes dauphinois (they are my favorite and I would hate it if we didn't get any!) he kind of rolled his eyes and smiled and said in English, "Don't worry Meez El-ee-za, we will make the potatoes." It impressed me that he remembered my name! (Especially since the day before he had yelled at me in the kitchen that I would fail out of school after I burned my béchamel...) There are a lot of us and we rotate through pretty quickly, so often the chefs can't remember our names unless they are looking at our name tags. I can't really blame them.

So, we celebrated and then we left to go our own ways to study more for the upcoming final the next morning. I will right about that experience tomorrow. Good night!

(beautiful, but very tired friends after class)

(toasting champagne at 11am...!)

(my notes and recipes for the day)

(bye basic cuisine! It's been a good ride)

#tbt guacamole

As promised, here is the #tbt with the guacamole recipe. I know, I know, it's a week late. But see, here's what happened. True story.

After a super awesome and fun Halloween night, I returned to my apartment to find that the internet that I have been using while the internet line that I pay for is still inactive (two months later...but I finally after two months got a bank account and phone. In France, beggars can't be choosers...) leaving me with only internet on my phone. And I do not have an unlimited data plan here, so sorry- no posts.

But for now, we're back! Also, tomorrow morning at 8am (so 2am EST), I will be entering the kitchen to perform for my final, one last time in Basic cuisine. We have been given a list of ten dishes. We will walk in there and choose one of them from a hat and proceed to write out the ingredients list, turn that in, be given the actual ingredients list, and then prep, cook, and serve the dish in less than 2.5 hours. We also have to hard-boil and poach an egg, the correct way during that time. This is 45% of my grade, so if I fail, I fail.

So, I also have not had a lot of free time this week to deal with my internet problems.

With that being said, I am back and posting on this lovely Thursday with my tried and true guacamole recipe. It's really easy and I usually, at least, double it.

2 avocados

3 Tbl lemon or lime juice (half a lime)

2 Tbl minced cilantro

1/3 c diced onion

3 Tbl chopped tomatoes

½ tsp salt

pepper

½ tsp cumin

2 cloves garlic

hot sauce

Actually, being in cooking school has not changed much about how I make this recipe. My dad found it a long time ago on line or in a magazine and then he finagled with it to get to this ratio. It's been finagled well and good.

Of course, start with the avocados- I mash with a fork. Then acidity immediately on to them to keep them from turning. From there, it's diced onion and chopped tomatoes. The quantities on those two are not exact- for a doubled recipe, I'd use 3 tomatoes (but I really like tomato), 2 onions. Mince the garlic. If you're one of those soapy cilantro people, then leave it out.

It's better if it sits in the refridgerator, so make it ahead of time, film over the top, touching the guac to keep from oxidizing or forming a skin. If you're serving immediately, it will need more salt- just a warning.

That's about it and see you on the other side of my basic final!