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!