Anyway, so we had class as usual in the morning then went to lunch. During a particularly good lunch of pintade aux pruneaux all of a sudden we heard a loud KABOOM and for a second everything trembled! Everyone ran towards the window and we saw parts of rooftop flying up the sky just around the corner from school. Immediately we heard chef instructed us to evacuate and we walked through a thin cloud of smoke. So what happened was, there had been a gas leak in a building situated one street behind our school.
I didn't think that we had to wait out for that long, maybe half an hour... and everything would go back to normal and evaluation would run as per normal... but to cut a long story short we waited around for about 5 hours on the street luckily it was a particularly sunny day so mid afternoon a group of us took a walk to Angelina in Jardin du Luxembourg and had some team bonding tasting session. So how about the evaluation chef? some of us asked.. NO evaluation, no time to fit it in the packed schedule, too bad.
By late afternoon the sun was nowhere to be seen and because we were just standing around it was cold! I was probably seen huddling on to people like a duckling to its mama. Finally around 5pm we were allowed to enter school which was in darkness especially the basement where our change rooms are, we were told quickly to change and leave. Honestly, not that I was shaken but it was a bizzare day and even though I was tired I went on a good long walk to clear the head... I felt a bit cheated like an olympian who got disqualified... no evaluation after all that (little) preparation? I want to know whether I make the grade you know... you are talking to a nerd here, not sure everybody shared my disappointment about escaping the evaluation.
Apart from the explosive Friday, the week was fairly relaxing and a short one because Monday was Easter Monday. Tuesday in the lab was more collective work than individual, we made batches different types of pâte d'amandes and praliné. I actually love learning making basic ingredients like this, because I am all for 'if you can make it better why buy?! though I am not going to make my own pâte d'amandes anytime soon, not a fan. Praliné maybe ... because it is oh so good! Find a step by step praliné tutorial by my chef here.
On Wednesday we learnt to temper chocolate properly. I'd never done it before and I honestly didn't know much about chocolate. But as always whenever I listen to a talk about something I find interesting I get into it A LOT. Just like when I went to a talk about growing food in the balcony. I became a bit obsessed! I got myself a worm farm and everything! Anyway, back to chocolate. What I didn't know before was that tempering is precise work and I love PRECISION !! I want an infrared thermometer!! Also to enrobe things in chocolate using a fork and try to make some pattern is so much fun... love it!! Though to enrobe soft rocher in a coat of chocolate with chopped hazelnut with our hands is NOT as much fun.
And then on Thursday we made something that had been in my list of things I wanted to attempt one day, tarte infiniment vanille de Pierre Hermé. Even though I am not super happy with the pimply glaçage and my piping, I have to admit that it still looks quite pretty and I didn't have any intention to give this one away to anybody.
On that day we also made tarte caramel aux fruits secs. Over the years I have become very daring when it comes to making caramel, I like it dark and almost almost burnt. Caramel au beurre salé comes after vanilla and citrus in my top three favourite flavours, but when I asked if I could add salt chef said NO! Don't add salt because it wouldn't go well with the fruits. I think he was right, I love the caramel as it was without salt. This tart came as a surprise because in the end it looked quite festive and it tasted beautiful, lucky I kept one (we made two).
Friday you know what happened. So that was the end of another week that was 2 weeks ago now.
Time seriously flies and I am already a bit sad that we are nearly at the half way mark. But everything has an expiry date right? C'est la vie and all that ... *sigh*. Anyway, trying to look at the brighter side of things, I think I would love doing intership as well.... because not only I am a nerdy student, I am also a workaholic.
Melinda x
Ps. Chef said he rescheduled the evaluation to the 12th of May... bless him ;)
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