Stage

No, I am not getting on a stage.

Instead, I am talking about the French term for someone who works in the kitchen for free. In the US, we would recognize this as an intern (and apparently if you live in DC, you would recognize it as the average post-grad 20-something). In France, we call it your stage (pronounced like corsage) or being a stagiaire. 

At the end of our diploma, if you have followed all of the right steps and protocols, the school places you in a stage in a kitchen here in Paris.

At school, that is known as your "official" or "real" stage.

However, some people take on extra jobs or stages while in school (most of the job people happen to be fluent in French or even better, citizens). Well, as of yesterday, I joined that rank of super cool people as I started my own "unofficial" stage.

You may remember the first part of my two part Thanksgiving Post Special (or you could refresh your memory here), in which I discuss dining at the opening of a good friend's new restaurant. Well, I was finally able to convince that good friend to let be his newest stagiaire.

So, I showed up Tuesday at 5pm with my jacket and security shoes, ready to go. I helped prep some of the mise and then worked the passe with Chef Yann during service! It was definitely a trial by fire experience, but also completely amazing.

Some highlights:

• Yann speaks perfect English, which he used when speaking to me
• No one else in the kitchen speaks English and at one time when Yann was giving me shit for a stupid mistake, they all started chanting "Translate! Translate!" to which I responded with an emphatic, "Non!"
• It took me like an hour to distinguish Yann speaking to the other chefs in French versus when he was reading off a ticket that I needed to prep- which can be a HUGE problem
• I made all of the steak tartare served last night
• I had to taste the tartare to make sure it was good
• I've never had tartare before...
• I was an hour in before I realized I kept referring to Yann as Yann and not Chef which is not only disrespectful, but also super embarrassing!
• The 3 other chefs in the kitchen even though they speak NO English could not have been NICER to me
• At the end of the night when I was looking for where the spritz-cleaner-bottle was, I asked the pastry chef in terrible French if he knew where the *insert spritz-bottle trigger finger motion* for the *wax on/wax off motion* was. The look on his face as I did this for a good 30 seconds was priceless. We finally figured it out together. 
• In my mind, I made so many mistakes, but at the end of the night Yann told me that I did a good job, especially for my first time

So, that was my first night at Beaucoup and I can't wait for Friday night and Saturday when I will be back. Hopefully, Yann will indulge me and let me stay for the rest of my time here in France. Maybe my French will even become just bad as opposed to horrific.