Viennoiserie mon amour

Normally we would be told the week before what we are going to make the week after, when chef said we would be making viennoiseries, I kept my cool but my insides were doing back flips. So excited :) because you know... I've tried and tried but I was far from happy with the result.. and I think it wasn't due to me being incapable you see... it's because I wasn't in the right environment with controlled temperature. Anyway so I practically pranced to school on Monday... I had French in the morning and the lab in the afternoon. Someday I will write about the other classes we attend, and the school lunches .. because I enjoy them in equal measure.

That Monday we finished around 8pm, and especially in the beginning it was pretty intense and chef was yelling pushing us to work faster. We had three types of dough to make pâte à croissant, pâte à brioche and pain au lait. All by hand. It was like slap slap roll roll laminate, next dough, bam bam fall down, next dough, cut cut shape egg wash. We left with big bags of fresh pain au lait, but the croissants and brioches were to be baked the next day.

Tuesday we prepared pâte à croissant and pâte à brioche again though this time we mada a huge brioche dough in bulk with a mixing machine phew... (cos it is so s t i c k y!). The brioche dough from Monday had to be shaped and to make the little brioche with a head.... turned out to be super tricky!!!

Actually to cut pain au lait into a navette shape with the little teeth... that was hard as well. It's ok if you can stand them being irregular and homey but I CAN'T! And sadly at the moment, my cuts are looking like a british bulldog's teeth.. different sizes and pointing everywhere. On the other hand my croissants and pain au chocolat were not bad!

Happy with the shape and how they look... when I cut in to check the crumb.. pretty good... so yes overall, happiness! I left most at school and only took a few home, cos you know no need to be greedy so early... Wednesday we made pâte à croissant again... and I think that's all but we each were given a kilo of brioche dough to shape into 5 different classic shapes : Parisienne, Nanterre, two types of brioches tressées, and a brioche feuilletée.

This photo of brioches feuilletées I love!

We baked the croissants from yesterday, this time all were shaped into croissants because they are the hardest one to master and disappointingly they all came out from the oven misshapen and looking all weird. Not just mine, but for most of us in general. My chef said the dough was too strong and so they opened up when baked. Boo... anyway this time I took them all home and gave most to the sisters.

Thursday we made pâte à croissant AGAIN and even though I had never had a perfect batch, by then the process became something almost banal and easy. I think a few in the class were a bit over it by then but I really love it and I think, for those who makes croissants even everyday it's always a quest for perfection... NO??
Croissants baked from Wednesday's dough turned out ok, when I cut them in half when we make them into croissants aux amandes I was quite pleased with the crumb.

Alright! Who burnt my almond croissants?? Sigh, anyway.. gave them all out but one, really good.

We also made a kougelhoph which we mixed in a machine thankfully... baked in a traditional clay mould which I had been wanting to get for years if not for it's bulk and weight. Once they baked, then they get submerged in a syrup flavoured with vanilla, cinnamon, star anise and then a bath in melted butter before finally get showered in cinnamon sugar and lastly icing sugar. It is seriously very very good! A long time ago I had kougelhoph in Alsace and it is no where near this beauty, after I tried this I really want to try Christine Ferber's.

Before we started cleaning, chef told us to make another .... croissant dough yes! So half class had to do croissant dough the rest puff pastry dough ready to be laminated tomorrow. On Friday the last day, let me tell you first what we made : 8 croissants and 8 pain aux raisins, 8 danishes, 6 chaussons italiens and I got the kougeloph from yesterday that I kept in the freezer. Chef swapped our class and so we started at 7, sanitised everything then we started rolling and rolling and laminate, then we shaped the croissants and the pain aux raisins, then the danishes. Lastly the very unassuming but very yummy chaussons italiens made with puff pastry rolled in sugar then filled with a mixture of choux pastry and crème patissière and rhum soaked raisins. I brought everything to Accor to share with some colleagues I know and they also said kougelhoph and the chaussons italiens, THE tastiest. As my chef who is always right would say, NO FAT NO FUN. Oui chef!

Hours and weeks really fly by... this week honestly had been the most tiring and physical but my most favourite so far! Sometimes I still feel that it's crazy after only a month all of us can pull things out like these like little machines... especially when we lay out all the stuff that we had made for the chef to inspect and for us to take photos I can't help to feel a certain kind of pride. And even though I may not seem that I was.... (cos you know.. i'm mature and all that), I sometimes feel that I could burst out with happiness.

Melinda xx

Week two puffed like I never puffed before

Week two was going to be dangerous for me... I love the things that we were going to make, and having them so accessible and available was not going to be good for my waistline. Our pastry lab would be in the afternoons which means that we can sleep in woohoo!! French, techno and wine class do not start until 9-10am so it's not bad! But as usual I still manage to stress myself. I live less than 10 minutes walk from the school and you can see me running the streets like a mad woman to arrive just in time. I'm in group Pastry FA (F for February) with chef Stévy and I sure don't want to come in late for his lab and class.

So, on Monday I learnt how to do pâte feuilletée CORRECTLY without battling against the butter and having a minor breakdown when butter starts to seep out everywhere and it was GREAT!! The air con was blasting cold air and the pastry lab was like a walk in fridge but woo I never enjoyed making puff pastry as much. We made my ever favourite Chaussons aux Pommes and a bande de pommes. I made chaussons before but Argh! this time they look quite presentable!! and the pastry, light and flaky... and the bande looked a bit rustic to me but also tasted great.

Tuesday we repeated the pâte feuilletée and we were to make a pithiviers, a dartois and a jalousie. In the past few years, I made galette des rois on several occasions and although they always tasted great, lookwise they were all rustic and homey. I made effort to score it the best I could and waited with bated breath to see how it turned out as it came out from the oven. And well well.... it baked quite nicely and the scoring, not bad at all.

Wednesday and Thursday we made different things based on pâte à choux, a Paris Brest, some individual Saint Honorés, some religieuses and éclairs... and did I make some frustrating minor stupidities like I forgot to stuff in the second pastry wheel into my Paris Brest!!! and my little choux for the Saint Honorés were too small!!!

This photo I took after I realised that the wheel on the left was to go in before I did the piping... my chef said it's not a big mistake but it's just the cost of my Paris Brest would be more, but I was more disappointed that it looked a bit smaller and less generous than it should had been. *Sigh*

Come to think of it, those were my only complaints, so not too bad over all... and on the other hand I was well pleased about my glaçage for my éclairs because it came out shiny, and the heads of my religieuse I thought, look quite proportional and so when I piped the colerette, they ended up quite a beauty. YAY!

On Friday the pace was a bit relax... we were only to make one thing and one thing only, a Millefeuille... which was something that I had always been wanting to make but never did.

The pâte feuilletée we made was the inversed one with butter envelopping the détrempe, which had been my go to when I make pâte feuilletée at home. It's amazing how much I had learnt already in these two weeks.... I realised that at home, I was doing too many unnecessary turns. My mindset is that I would forget what I had ever done at home as if I had been reset to zero and learn the correct techniques for everything... I am such a stickler for correct techniques and no shortcuts so I am so born for this :)

Honestly I am loving my life right now and I have no remorse whatsoever leaving Sydney... except that I miss you my friends!

Melinda xx

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