The past month in retrospective part 2 - the week we were on level 4 lab

I am officially on a month holiday from last Saturday morning. Today is Tuesday and I am actually itching to do something slightly productive and hence I'm here typing away. So again, this recount is of something that happened more than a month ago, but I have a memory of an elephant... if only very selectively so you can (ahem) definitely rely that all I say here is accurate. Anyway, so this happened around mid June and it was our very last week of class and all week we were in the lab on level 4. Walking up flights of stairs with our rather hefty tool box at 7am in the morning was not cool! Especially because I always tend towards running slightly tardy and had to leg it in the morning... Those five days it felt like I had a mini work out every morning... legs, biceps, bum. It was like hurry hurry you are already so late hurry and when I arrived finally... out of breath like a puffer fish the lab was still locked. Not cool.

Anyhow it was probably one of the more special week, because first, it was our last week of class because after we only had the creative challenge week and then final exam and the trip. Second, we were on the 4th level lab and I liked it eventhough it's an older lab but I just liked the feeling of it, and we had nice view from the top and we could go out for fresh air and we got to have a peek at what the bachelor students were cooking up. Third, it was the week of ice cream cakes! then we had two days of sugar work which was quite amazing because sugar work is not normally for students of our level.

The week started with us not feeling familiar with the lab... I thought, maybe this would be how I feel when I first start my internship... everything not familiar and I had no idea what is kept where. On the Monday we made all the biscuits needed for the cakes and also all the appareils for the ice cream and sorbets, then on Tuesday we churned churned churned, built some of the cakes and on Wednesday we did the finishing. We made several different types of ice cream : sorbets, glaçes, parfait... we used them to make vacherins, omelettes norvegienne, oranges givrés and a couple of cakes called constellation and pomelo. They are all good, I loved especially the cointreau crème glaçé for the omelette norvegienne and the parfait vanille for the vacherin.. and the sorbet orange. Building them cakes were not easy easy because boy they were icy cold and to pipe for a long time was quite painful, and we had to be superfast for them not to melt. It was good to learn, I would love to recreate one day, because they were sooo good! We kept them for snack and breakfast for Thursday and Friday because nothing to eat really when doing sugar work!

The two days we did sugar work it was quite suspenseful because, the sugar breaks like glass if you are not careful. A couple of my friends broke their bases when transferring them for storage, and plus the elements were against us... during the two days we had rain and humidity is sugar worst enemy. Nevertheless, it was all new to me and I really liked it of course, if I had all the time in the world... pulling sugar could be my newest hobby eventhough even after only an hour or two my thumb became a bit swollen and plump.

We made the base and the structure on Thursday plus we made some leaves. On Friday, we were with our chef (Wed Thurs we were with Nicolas) and he showed us how to make roses and ribbon. Actually, a couple of things bummed me just a little bit on that day, first I didn't get a piece of ribbon because I didn't think it would run out! second, we didn't take a group photo eventhough it would had been the very very very last time we had class together and our sugar pieces turned out quite beautiful and we already had them presented on a table we just had to line up and smile. But no, no one cared.

So the very last group photo in the class was actually the one with all the ice cream cakes and our chef was initially very coy and had to be coerced a little bit to join the group photo.

That week also, we had our last French class. I really like my teacher and so it was quite sad to say good bye. Otherwise, we also had TA class with chef where we discussed about the formula to make sorbets and ice creams which was very very interesting!!! During another TA with Nicolas, we had a long discussion about internship and I really really appreciate how he communicated with us, he was sharing stories and I thought that he was very very good, motivating and passionate and really touched me. I said to myself that yes, no matter how hard it would be I will remember why I came to this school in the first place... that later when I look back, it would all be worth it and to see how far I've came from when I started bla bla bla.

I had done three weeks of internship before the shop closed for a month break, maybe one day I will write something about it. Umm thanks for reading, I know I had whinged too much here today but you know that it's all good times, I loved school and miss it. And here is the sugar piece I made... ribbonless and probably the most simple and my roses hadn't enough petals, but at least it survived till the end of the class (before they all went into the bin!)

Melinda x

The past month in retrospective part 1 - week of petits gateaux

This feels like ancient history now, the moment I'm typing this, I am 10 days in my internship. So long school life... :( So anyway, let me be nostalgic and resume with the week where we made petits gateaux. It was a busy week, we started preparing the elements for 3 days and to build the cake and the finishing took another 2 days. I think we made 7 different individual cakes : Tarte aux pommes revisitée, After eight, Fingers macarons, Le Banyuls, Le Mont Blanc, Finger chocolat cassis, Millefeuille pistache fruit rouges, and Verrine Dulcey.

We worked in pairs and I was lucky to have paired up with my besties Bhupar and Kiman. I think that week we had a little insight of how shops produced their petits gateaux, and how much more time and effort required to produce individual sized than a whole cake. We were like petits gateaux army, in the end there were so many cakes that even though we all could take however much we wanted there were heaps of leftovers. All were very good of course, my favourite firstly was the millefeuille because eating puff pastry fresh right after it's being built is the bomb. It was the The Bomb allright!! because as I was trying to reach out to the off cuts bowl my arm accidentally brushed the nozzle of a decapeur thermique alias the heat gun which is a kin to a mighty hot hair dryer used to melt chocolate. Now me and a few girls from my class are like members of a cult because we have burn marks around the same area from the same chocolate weapon.

Actually, many photos were taken on that friday, and because as times went by the bond got closer... the more recent photos including those taken that week are very dear to me. So just to keep it neutral and not too sentimental (I get a bit teary sometimes still looking at the photos... pathethic I know!), I'll just show you photos of the cakes.

Below are the tarte aux pommes revisitée, I remember that the day we finished the tarte aux pommes, the TV crews who had been coming in every now and then to film a documentary were there... I was quite surprised because I had never had a 'positive' comment from my chef other than pas mal before, that day I had a 'c'est bien ça... c'est propre' twice! Later that week I was sorting out my photos and I saw he was wearing a recorder underneath his apron. Ahhh, anyway I think Kiman and I did a good job on these tarts!

And the fingers macarons (with a reality shot of how messy my piping is) which were super simple really but very good! and can be very pretty and elegant... if you know how to pipe.

That week also, on Wednesday and Thursday we had Boulangerie class in the morning. We had to come in ready to go by 6.15. At that time it was WOAH! Nowadays I have to catch the first metro at 5.36 am to get to my intern place. When I used to work as an accountant, I hardly get in by 8.30. How quickly things change... Anyway, so we had 2 days intro to French breads with the new boulangerie teacher Didier, who is too nice. To be honest my baguette turned out so so. I didn't score them deep enough.... otherwise the class was informative and I learned new things for example, temperature of the dough, temperature of the water etc. Very interesting.... for a bread geek enthusiast like me.

Today is 5 months exactly since I arrived in Paris, my heart still feels a bit strung thinking that I finished school. That was what brought me here, and it's done. BOO HOO HOO. I don't know when I feel like writing part 2 of this entry... I get a bit sad still, shifting through photos reminiscing all the good times. It would be the last week of real classes before the creative challenge week and then the final exam and the final school trip. BOO HOO HOO again.

Melinda x