Au revoir!

I am now back home in the U.S. I completed my final exam, one of the most stressful tests I've ever taken. I was assigned the Gateau Basque, a butter cake, which normally wouldn't have been too much of a challenge, but the air-conditioning in the kitchen wasn't working that day, and because of the extremely high butter content of the tart dough...it was nearly impossible to roll and line the tart rings. I had to freeze the dough to keep it together! But I passed the exam and did well overall, I exceeded the class average by nearly five points.
I'm now back in classes at Northeastern and already missing Paris, even the baguettes I was so sick of. The week after flying home I made the cake for my cousin's wedding. I had no idea how many hours go into a cake that size, and can now really appreciate why they cost so much! But it was a really fun and delicious experience. I am now searching for co-op jobs this spring and hoping to put my newly acquired culinary skills to use!

I had my final demonstration on Friday! The chef made an intricate chocolate and orange mousse cake. The practical for this demonstration is actually our final exam, so I won't have a chance to recreate the cake at Le Cordon Bleu but I will definitely try back at home. We finished off our final class together with a champagne toast, I can't believe how fast my classes went by.
I now have a lot of time off to prepare for my exam on Thursday, and all of this free time has led me to miss some American staples. I found the store "Thanksgiving" which sells imported American products like oatmeal, pop tarts, muffin mix, fluff, chips and salsa etc. The products are much more expensive than in the US but it was nice to see them! I also went with three friends from school, two Americans, and one Canadian, to "Breakfast in America", a true American Diner in Paris. The food was enormous and delicious, they even had bottomless coffee!

This past Sunday I finally climbed to the top of Notre Dame. The view was beautiful, and it was especially nice to get a different perspective on my neighborhood. I also went to the wine museum of Paris, it is filled with tons of old tools and artifacts pertaining to the creation and consumption of wine. You can see the variety of old wine bottle openers on the left.
I had a pretty full week of class, we made the three kings cake, pastry twists, chocolate and pistachio log cake or "buche" cake, and a hazelnut with chocolate ganache cake. I had my final practical yesterday, so I won't be taking home any more baked goods from class. Then I have one more demonstration on Friday, and the final exam next Thursday!

This past weekend I went to Venice with two friends from my foyer. Venice was beautiful, but full of tourists. We tried all of the Italian classics, pizza, pasta, and gelato, they were all good, but not necessarily better than what I've had in the US. We made Brioche in class on Friday, the dough itself isn't very difficult, the real trick is letting it rise overnight and learning the specific molding techniques.
This week we also made a mango charlotte, it's basically a shell of ladyfingers, soaked with syrup and topped with mango mousse. The mango was bit much for me, but my favorite part of the practical was torching the pineapple decoration. Today we made a Mogador cake. It consists of a chocolate genoise cake, with a hidden layer of raspberry jam, topped with chocolate mousse, and a smooth raspberry jam finish. The cake was delicious, but I warmed my chocolate a little too much before incorporating it into the mousse so my final product wasn't homogeneous. The chefs have been trying to teach us how to gauge the temperature of chocolate by touch, now I see why it definitely takes some practice.

It has been almost a month since my last blog entry and I have been up to a lot! A few weeks ago I visited Chantilly castle, which is about 20 minutes outside of Paris. The castle is beautiful with enormous gardens, and the original hamlets, the ones Marie Antoinette used as inspiration for her hamlets at the Palace of Versailles. I wanted to go to the Castle to try the original Chantilly Cream, I had it on top of fresh strawberries and raspberries with rhubarb sparkling wine, all of it tasted fantastic! Their recipe calls for 50 cl of raw cream, 20 grams of vanilla sugar, and 20 grams of powdered sugar. I tried to recreate it when my family visited, but had a hard time because I bought the wrong type of cream at the supermarket ( I couldn’t tell the difference with all of the labels being in French!)

I also went on a Champagne tour, to the Champagne region of France. The tour was amazing and I now have a much greater appreciation for the drink. We visited two champagne houses on the tour, Mumm, and Moet & Chandon. The youngest champagne Mumm offers is aged for 15 months, while the youngest Moet & Chandon offers is aged for 20! In practical we also made the traditional Saint Honore cake. The puffs around the edges are choux pastry that have been dipped in caramel!

While my parents, sister and Aunt visited me in Paris we did a lot of sightseeing. I had my first look at the Mona Lisa, went to Versailles, and ate at the oldest open air market in Paris ( Le marche des Enfacts-Rouge). Conveniently the market was located right next to the apartment my parents rented. My family stayed in the Marais district, which had an amazing array of fresh foods, and good shopping!

My past few practicals have resulted in choux pastry with chocolate lining, raisin biscuits, chocolate and orange tartlettes, mocha cake, croissants, and pains aux chocolate. The croissants were a lot of work, but incredibly delicious. We also had our student dinner, which included a four course meal at L’atelier Maitre Albert, a restaurant in the Latin Quarter. The food wasn’t anything amazing, but it was very nice to be waited on!

And today I traveled to Giverny to visit Monet’s home and gardens. Monet’s entire property was amazing. Walking around the gardens you can see where Monet drew much of his inspiration from for many of his paintings. The famous water lilies, bridge, and row boats are still there. Being on his former property made me feel as though I was in one of his paintings!

In Thursday's demonstration we learned how to make Dacquoise, which is a hazelnut or almond meringue cake, complimented by french butter cream icing. The chef also made other varieties of meringue, and fresh raspberry sorbet during the demo. He took the meringue bases he had created, spread the frozen sorbet on top, then dressed up his creations by using his smaller meringue pieces, and whipped cream. The last cake on the right is a meringue swan he crafted!
I had never made a french butter cream before, so it was a bit of a challenge for me, but the final product was delicious. The french version takes a lot more work than the traditional American, however the time is well spent because the difference between the two types of frosting is striking. The French butter cream ends up being airy, buttery, and flavorful, not overly sweet and dense like the American counterpart. The cake itself was very unique, the meringue wasn't brittle, and the texture was closer to that of a cake rather than a traditional meringue.
I also spent the past weekend in Scotland with two friends from my residence. We stayed in Glasgow, but spent most of the day in Edinburgh, which was beautiful. We visited the Edinburgh castle, which is nearly a thousand years old, and I tried the traditional Scottish dish, Haggis. I didn't fully understand what Haggis was until we returned to our hostel and the receptionist informed us that it is sheep innards, minced with oatmeal and spices. It had a unique texture, and tasted decent. However I am happy the pub did not serve the dish in it's traditional fashion, encased in the sheep's stomach!

Over the past couple days I've done quiet a bit of sightseeing; I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, visited Sacre Coeur, saw the Catacombs, tried out the "best" macaroons in Paris at Laduree and made choux pastry!
I went up the Eiffel tower on Friday, where you have an amazing view of all of Paris, and then the next day went to Sacre Couer, the church constructed on the late 1800's, it was great to have the contrasting views of Paris back to back. On Tuesday the chef made a variety of creations using choux pastry and different creams and flavorings. I am excited to make my own variations when I have an oven again. After the demonstration I went to the catacombs, where Parisians buried their dead in the late 1700's. The bodies were dumped in a former mine, and later reorganized to make them presentable. The remains are a little creepy, but it is amazing to see remains and structures so old.
Today I went to Laduree with a friend to see if they really had the best macaroons in Paris. They did have interesting flavors, I tried violet-blackcurrant, vanilla, salted caramel, and a mint flavor off the seasonal menu. The flavor of each macaroon really, popped, but they are definitely not the best in Paris, from my experience those at La Grande Epicerie were better by far!
In practical class today we made choux pastry. Using the same dough we made chocolate eclairs, and smaller puffs coated in large sugar crystals.My chocolate eclairs tasted delicious but I definitely need to work on my pipping, and coating skills.