First week in the Lab

Last week, our group had an early 7.30 am start everyday which means that we have to be ready in the lab by 7 am. Monday and Tuesday I arrived late around 7.15 even though I think I live the closest to the school! I now set the alarm at 5 am just to be sure I get to school at decent time now. It is always still dark when I walk out but it doesn't feel eerie, I actually quite like walking to school everyday.

I really really enjoyed last week… I even like the cleaning and all the sanitising and looking after our tools everyday... and am quite get used to washing my hands often! I feel so lucky to be in our group, our chef is definitely the best!! He is cool, quite funny, very good and very French! I notice already that he has an eagle eye and pick up on little things that I don't do correctly like when I used wrong fingers to core the apples or when I didn't use the knife as how he showed us. There are 13 of us and we get along quite well. I quickly become friendly with a few of them especially, but all of them are really nice.

Everyday we did 2 tarts and by the end of the week we made : Tarte Bourdaloue and Flan on Monday, Tarte aux Pommes and Tarte Normandie (Tuesday), Tarte au Citron Meringuée and Tarte au Chocolat (Wednesday), Tarte Linzer and Clafoutis (Thursday), Tarte aux Fruits Rouges and Tarte Dacquoise aux Fruits Exotiques (Friday). We learnt the correct technique to make pâte à foncer/pâte brisée and pâte sucré and up to last week I had never done it correctly… I was always a mess whenever I had to transfer the rolled out dough to cover my tart tin but last week I have to say that it was a breeze…

We didn't bring home our tarts on Monday and so on Tuesday I had four family size tarts to take away, luckily the weather was really nice, we finished at 4 and my Accor friend said yes the team would love them, so I took the metro to Bibliotheque François Mitterand to meet him to offload my tartes. Done hehe.. So relieved to find a willing recipient :) The following day I managed to exchange a quarter of my tarte au chocolat with quarter of a galette from a Cuisine student... and gave my tarte au citron meringuée to the neighbour who happened to have their door open. Cool! On Thursday I gave my clafoutis to a sister and kept the Linzer torte. Really like the Linzer torte, the base is really nice and shorter than the other we had done and the cinnamon notes did come through, the raspberry jam we used is of good quality and the addition of almond cream also compliments it nicely.

Chef commented on how I didn't put enough raspberry in the clafoutis... why are you shy with the raspberries? So on Friday when we made two fruit tarts and I went crazy with the amount of fruits. Both went to good appreciative homes.

Actually photos with hands on it are my chef's in action… the last one is mine! I tried to replicate his style but his tart was definitely more beautiful and less clumsy.

So everyday we have 5 hours of Pastry Lab, the rest are TA (Technique Appliquée) class with Chef, French class with Marc, and Oenologie class with Christian. Busy busy busy everyday! But I am really loving it, I find everything interesting and it's only the second week and I'm already dreading that the end is nearing…

This week, it's adventure with pâte à choux and pâte feuilletée, can't wait!

Melinda x

First week and first day

I decided to go back to blogging, because I think my life is about to change. And ten twenty years from now, I want to be able to look back to this point where it all started.

The past few weeks before I left were quite tiring to say the least and honestly, the day I was due to fly was the most stressful day I had had for a long long time. Truly glad it's all behind me.

It's only been a week since I arrived in Paris, sometimes it still feels quite surreal. I had been so blessed because by the time I landed, took the bus and jumped out of the taxi with my 3 suitcases, the agent was already there and I could go into this flat I am going to call home for the next year, straight away.



When I first stepped into the flat, regardless of the size I had a nice feeling about it and could see straight away what I could (eventually) do to make it look pretty. What is important for me is that it is pet friendly, and is within walking distance to the school in the 6e arrondisement which is a very very nice neighbourhood. Location wise, it really can't be better.... the nearest boulangerie is Poîlane and in less than 10 minutes walk I have Marché Raspail, La Grande Epicerie, Pierre Hermé, and City Pharma.



On Tuesday it was Welcome day, my first day at Ferrandi my new school for the next 5-6 months. I think the school is more reknowned inside France than outside, but for me it is the only one I want to go to. The excitement of the first day, and everything related to this school fills me with joy. I think other students also seem very eager and all seem really nice... many comes from Asia, some from the US and South America, only 1 Australian, me and an Asian New Zealander plus other parts of the world. I am part of Anglo Pastry A and with 12 other students and there are 4 groups all together. We toured the school and sat through orientation and paper work, and most importantly we got introduced to our chefs and they explained their rules and expectations from us and what we can expect from the internship.

We picked up our uniforms on Wednesday morning, we got fitted one by one .. tops, pants, shoes and got our names embroidered in. When we finally got to wear it in the afternoon, I think everybody just feel so happy.

We also given our malette (toolbox just like a trady) with all our tools in it. A number is engraved on each malette and our knives and steel spatulas are also engraved so that they don't get mixed up with others. We also received our books, and the book that I had been eyeing for since last year until just last weekend! Le Grand Cours de Cuisine written by Ferrandi, 5kg in weight and is a best seller for good reason. So happy to finally have a copy!

We spent a good couple of hours learning about what to do before we start Pastry Lab : sanitising our tools, all work surfaces... basically we have to arrive half an hour at least before class starts and next week I have 7.30 class nearly everyday which means I have to reach school by 7 am! Gone are the days when I loiter into work at 9 am, and have coffee / tea before I start sorting my emails....

At the end of Pastry Lab we also have to clean and by cleaning we essentially had to pull the kitchen apart, scrub and dry the floor, clean all the fridge and all work surfaces. Team work make work load light and we finished in an hour but next week, we have to do it in half an hour. Today I only had lab in the afternoon and we made pâte à choux and practiced our piping. The chef made it look so easy but grrrrrr it's hard and my choux shapes were a bit all over the place, and my eclairs of different length and the shape were not good. We didn't bake it though, our chef said the real stuff starts next week.

Can't wait!

Melinda x