- Forêt Noire (Black Forest cake) - Mastering the art of making chocolate curls
- San Marco - Pistachio/chocolate deliciousness
- Tiramisu - Absolutely delicious...I could eat this every day! Our chef adds lemon zest to the marscarpone cream which gives the tiramisu a lighter/fresher taste.
- Pudding diplomate de cabinet - an egg custard with lady fingers and alcohol soaked candied fruits - not a fan
- Gateau de fromage blanc -very similar to cheesecake but lighter and more eggy
- Gateau de Voyage - Pound cake aka cakes that travel well and don't need refrigeration. We made a quatre quart (basically a pound cake but a little richer), a raspberry/rose cake, lemon cake, marble cake, fruit cake (much lighter than my grandmother's - the only fruit cake I'll ever eat) and a weekend which is basically a very eggy pound cake covered with kirsch glaze.
- Marble Cake
Raspberry/Rose cake
Fruit Cake
We also had dinner service two weeks ago and it was by far the easiest dinner service I've ever had because I spent most of the afternoon doing mis en place aka making lady fingers (biscuit à la cuillère) for us to use the next day. My first batch was less than stellar which chef was all too quick to note, comparing my batter to a bodily fluid - "Qu'est-ce que c'est cette piss?" The next batter was much better and by batch 8, my partner and I were lady finger experts. We spent the rest of the night sampling our classmates' wares - brioche french toast with red berry coulis, apple aumônière with tonka bean ice cream and calvados/caramel sauce, marmite glacé (mint meringue filled with chocolate mint sauce), date squares and chocolate covered physallis. Service went pretty well and we finished at a decent hour which is always nice.
Brioche french toast w/ red fruit coulis
Apple aumônière with tonka bean ice cream and caramel/calvados syrup
Chocolate covered physallis
Last week we also carved styrofoam with Pascal Niau, our drawing teacher, in preparation for the ice carving we'll do in a few weeks. Evidently, the topic I picked and had been working on for weeks, a mermaid in a shell, was far too complicated and got scraped for something more realizable, a shell. I never thought I would be taking a knife to a rectangular block of styrofoam and making a shell "magically" appear, but slowly but surely, I made it happen thanks to lots of guidance from Mr. Niau. I'm curious to see how our ice sculptures will turn out...on verra.
Clay model of my shell - future ice carving
Desirée's amazing styrofoam sculpture
Outside of class, I've been visiting pastry shops/restaurants with my classmates and hanging out with Laura before she goes back to the US :( Laura and I tried out a crêperie we had both been wanting to try, Crêperie Bretonne Fleurie (67 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris), a very quaint creperie with Breton knick knacks scattered all over. I had a galette with tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions which was crispy, slightly buttery and delicious. The dessert crepe was just ok - I enjoyed the confiture de lait (similar to dulce de leche) that was on top but the consistency of the crepe was too soft for me. Most of my classmates and I have eaten good galettes in Paris but have yet to find a crepe that's up to our incredibly high standards - we're on a mission.
Window decor at the crêperie
Crêperie Bretonne Fleurie
Fenny and Desirée (two of my classmates) and I went to Carl Marletti (51, rue Censier, 75005 Paris) one afternoon because Fenny and another classmate had been raving about it. Desirée and I ordered the Lily of the Valley and Fenny ordered a lemon tart. The Lily of the valley is a pastry with several components including mini choux pastry puffs filled with violet/blueberry cream stuck on a puff pastry square with more violet/blueberry cream and topped with a violet/sugar piece. This is by far one of the best pastries I've ever tasted! The flavors were perfectly balanced, the choux pastry was cooked to perfection and the whole thing was incredibly light even though it contained lots of cream. Fenny's lemon tart was amazing and apparently infamous - people are always waiting for them to come out of the oven. If you ever get the chance to go, eat outside and you'll be served your chosen pastry with mint flavored water on an elegant black plateau - very chic. I also bought a caramel eclair to take with me and it was divine -crunchy crumble topped choux with a light caramel topping and the creamiest caramel filling you've ever tasted. As the French say...miam, miam!
Lily of the Valley at Carl Marletti
Dessert case at Carl Marletti
Desserts on the terrace = perfection
I've been to a few restaurants lately but will have to save those for another post - this one is already long. But, before I forget, I did attend two interesting events over the last two weeks. Two weekends ago, Desirée and I went to Salon Saveurs et Gourmandes, a food expo with regional specialties from France, Italy and Germany. We tasted our way through the expo for three hours and sampled everything from fresh Parmesan cheese, white truffle butter, every type of oil imaginable, chocolate, ice cream, vodka, and so much more. When we left, our bags were pretty heavy after buying some of the delectable goodies that we were drawn to buy after tasting them and our stomachs were pretty confused after the range of things we ate.
Marzipan creations at Salon Saveurs
Biggest mortadella I've ever seen!
Last week, Laura and I went to see a book reading by David Lebovitz, a former American pastry chef living in Paris who recently published a book about his life in Paris. If you are ever in Paris and need to hear some good old American English, head to WHSmith, an English bookstore at 248, rue de Rivoli. Being surrounded by David Lebovitz's following of Americans in France was surreal - I'm pretty sure I didn't hear a word of French all evening. It was interesting to hear David speak about being an American in Paris and I sympathized and laughed about certain things that us Americans collectively remark about the French. His book, The Sweet Life in Paris, which I read over vacation, had me laughing out loud (I attracted quite a few stares from the Portuguese and French) and contains some good recipes if you're interested.
The infamous David Lebovitz
Laura at the Jardin de Tuilerie
I'm off to get ready for our 2nd to last restaurant service. I'm on plated desserts tonight and since there are three of them, it should be a pretty "interesting" evening ;)
More about my vacation in Portugal later...here's a picture to whet your appetite.
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