Choux pastry and landlords that go bump in the night

I'll be able to make choux pastry in my sleep after this week! We're having a pretty choux-ette (chouette means "cool" in French) week in the pastry laboratory making some classics like éclairs, religieuses, Paris-Brest, etc. After piping out choux pastry and working with finicky fondant to make glaze, we understood why such pastries cost what they do...they look easy to make but it takes time to make them all uniform and shiny. If you looked around our lab, you would see every éclair shape possible, unless you were looking at Chef's eclairs and then you would just see perfection ;) 

The proper glazing technique

Filling the éclairs and religieuses can be quite hilarious if you put too much cream in and who knew that you filled them that way? Every time we make something new in class, I feel like I've been let in on a secret. Sometimes when I see pastry in a shop, it looks complex and perfect, but when we break down the steps to make it in class, I'm confident that I will be able to make a decent reproduction in the future. 

Coffee and chocolate eclairs

Religieuses

In other news...The women I'm renting from let herself into my apartment at 11:15 last night and scared me half to death. She then proceeded to lock me in my apartment which I didn't realize until I was rushing to catch the metro to school...craziness! Life...never a dull moment. 

 

Adventures in puff pastry

It's hard to believe that I just finished my third week at ESCF and that tomorrow starts my fourth week - time is going by so quickly! This week was an intensive introduction to and training in puff pastry. I've seen puff pastry made once before during a class at Le Cordon Bleu so I knew the process was fairly complex and time-consuming. 

We started off the week by making two different types of puff pastry, one in which you incorporate the butter into the dough and the other in which you incorporate the dough into the butter. Our chef told us that the second process, called inverse puff pastry, produced better results but could be a little more difficult to work with. The class spent most of the day taking copious notes on the puff pastry process and then trying our hand at it. 

Chef working the puff pastry dough

The process of making puff pastry could be renamed the rolling and waiting game. After you incorporate the dough into the butter or vice versa, you have to roll out the dough several times, folding it and turning it in a specific way so that the puff pastry does exactly what its name indicates in the end - puffs. When you're not rolling, your letting the dough relax in your refrigerator. If you're ever in need of an arm workout complete with a tasty treat at the end, make puff pastry...your arms and your taste buds will thank you! 

After we mastered/massacred (in some cases) the process of making puff pastry dough, we used the two doughs we made to create a variety of classic French pastries that usually involved almond cream. The two things we made this week that I could eat everyday were chaussons aux pommes, puff pastry "slippers" filled with applesauce and apples and Pithiviers, decorated puff pastry filled with almond cream. Knowing that I actually made these two buttery and delicious creations only added to my delight when I tasted them. There is nothing like fresh, flaky, buttery puff pastry dough...yum! 

Chaussons aux pommes and apple tart in bands

When we weren't in the kitchen this week, we were either learning about the scientific part of pastry (although this usually turns into a lesson about choice French words), perfecting our French (pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation) or sketching/composing a dessert plate for an imaginary client with an outrageous budget.

Mr. Niau and our plated dessert sketch

Here's a list/review of places my fellow future pastry chefs and/or I visited this week:

• des Gateaux et du Pain (63 blvd Pasteur, 75015 Paris) - This is not your average pastry shop - it is incredibly chic almost to a fault, creating a quite austere/cold environment. However, what this shop lacks in warmth, it makes up for in the quality of its products. I had a chocolate creation (I can't remember the name!) with 5 layers of chocolaty goodness and I heard rave reviews from my other classmates about their purchases. 



Chocolaty deliciousness from des Gateaux et du Pain





• Amici Miei (44 Rue Saint Sabin, 75011 Paris) - An Italian restaurant run by Italians with quality wood-fired pizzas. I ordered a white pizza with potatoes, rosemary, and mozzarella and while the topping was a little bland (could have used more salt or rosemary), the crust was perfection. 



Potato, rosemary, and mozzarella cheese pizza


Denise Acabo A L'Etoile d'Or (30 rue Fontaine, 75009 Paris) - Thank you David Lebovitz for mentioning this place on your website, it's a true find! This candy store and it's owner are like nothing you have ever seen before. Denise, the owner of the shop, is an unforgettable and knowledgeable woman who is known for her braided grey pigtails and tartan skirts. She is incredibly helpful and will tell you anything you want to know about the high quality/rare French confections in her shop. I've never paid so much for a bar of chocolate before(10 Euros!) but when I tasted it, I understood what real chocolate is supposed to taste like.


One of the best chocolate bars I've ever eaten! Dark chocolate filled with salted caramel




A fabulous find


Gerard Mulot - A reputed pastry/bakery/chocolate shop. I tried their macarons and was overpowered by the thickness and sweetness of the filling. I'll have to go back to try some of their desserts. 
Favela Chic (18 rue du Faubourg de Temple, 75011 Paris) - A Brazilian restaurant/bar/club that Laura and I went to on Saturday. The ambiance was great, the crowd was mixed, and the dance floor was tiny but that didn't stop us or the Madonna look alike who was really getting down.
Le Rétro République (23 rue du Faubourg de Temple) - My new favorite place in Paris! This is a dance club in an old theater and guess what kind of music they play on Saturday nights...Latin! When we walked in I was in pure heaven -  there was a crazy mix of people with different levels of experience and the dance floor was huge...will definitely be going back there as often as possible! 

Queen of tarts

After week two of pastry school and tart making, I feel like I'm starting to master the art of tarts. We made several more tarts this week but they were more intricate and detailed than the tarts we made previously. On this week's menu were 8 different tarts (lemon curd, lemon meringue, carmelized nut, orange, linzer, coffee, and two fruit tarts) plus an introduction to choux pastry. 

Lemon meringue and lemon curd tarts

A classic - fruit tart

I love the way our class is structured because even though we made tarts again this week, we learned several techniques that we will need throughout our course. There's nothing like taking granulated sugar and cream to make the most delicious caramel sauce you've ever tasted. Or learning that there are three different types of meringue with three different uses - who knew? The smell of a linzer torte straight from the oven is so delectable that you just want to immediately pick it up and bite into the cinnamon studded crust topped with almond cream and jam. I would have never thought to mix coffee infused whipped cream with gelatine and freeze it to get an ice cream like consistency that is the perfect contrast to coffee ganache, coffee soaked ladyfingers, and caramel/coffee glaze in a coffee tart. Needless to say, I spent the week tasting some of the best tarts I've ever had and this weekend walking them off. 

I also fell in love with choux pastry this week. It's a staple in French pastry, serving as a base for eclairs, religieuses, chouquettes, and gougeres. It's super simple to make (in my opinion) and the results are to die for. We mixed our choux pastry dough with Emmental cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg, piped it, put it in the oven and out came the lightest and tastiest bite-sized rounds of puffed dough you've ever tasted. The next time I have a party, these will be on the menu so you'll definitely get to taste them. 

Chef and his choux pastry piping skills

Tasting - on of the best parts of being a pastry chef

We started French, wine, drawing, and pastry technology class this week. French class will be a breeze since it's a conversation class but I get kind of frustrated when I make stupid mistakes and get corrected. Just goes to show that there's always room for improvement. Wine class should be interesting especially since it's something I know nothing about. We'll be learning about the process, how to taste and we'll do tastings (how many schools let you drink wine in the middle of the day as part of the curriculum?) plus learning to pair our desserts with wine. 

Drawing class is the one I'm least excited about because drawing stick figures is a stretch for me. We're incredibly fortunate to have this class though because our teacher, Mr. Niau is a renowned chef and artist. My favorite part of the class had nothing to do with drawing (go figure) but with each of us talking about our future goals and what we did before we came to ESCF. It was interesting to see all the different professions people left to come here and learn about pastry (construction, real estate, banking, law, etc) and all the endeavors each of us are hoping to start in the future (a dessert house, restaurant, bakery chain, culinary art therapy, etc). 

Pastry technology class is where our chef teaches us about the science behind baking and the ingredients we used. We learned about density, sugar syrup, what it means to bake and why Madeleines have a hump in the middle of them before we got off topic...hilarious! 

My weekends have become a time of exploration, walking off delicious food I've eaten throughout the week and eating even more delicious food I discover throughout Paris. I've done a lot of research online and in books about different areas of Paris and above all, about all of the well known and well hidden places to eat and buy fabulous food. I have a huge list (imagine that, me making a list ;)) of places I want to visit in the next year so I headed out on Saturday to do some culinary investigating and tasting. 

My first stop was a place called Les Bonbons (6, rue Bréa) , a quaint old-fashioned candy store specializing in regional candies of France. The walls were lined with glass jars full of candy and shelves full of chocolate, caramels, jams, teas and so much more. In one word...heaven. I looked around for awhile, bought a few things and began chatting with the current owner. She was an incredibly sweet women and talked with me for about 20 minutes about owning a bakery and apprenticing; her and her husband used to own a bakery. She had to attend to a customer who walked in but managed a "See you next time" before I left...can't wait to go back and not just because the candy is phenomenal. 

Les Bonbons - cutest candy store

Gloria, a fellow pastry student, and I met on Saturday afternoon at Breizh Café (109 Rue Vieille du Temple) We'd both heard great things about this organic Breton créperie and were very pleased with our galettes (savory crepes) but a little disappointed with our salted caramel sauce - the burnt sugar taste was a little more than we expected. It's funny because we learned about this exact thing this week when we made different caramel sauces with varying degrees of the burnt sugar taste that makes caramel caramel. 

I explored a little bit more on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon before having a cleaning dance party on Sunday night. If you're going to clean, you mine as well make it more enjoyable by putting on some good music and dancing! Now, it's off to bed so I'll be ready for a busy week of classes. 

The end of a fabulous week

My first week at ESCF-Ferrandi flew by! I had a fabulous week of baking and learning and am ready to start another week of classes tomorrow. Our director spoke with us on Friday telling us that the program was going to get a lot more intense and our first week was just an introduction. I'm ready...bring it on!

On Thursday, we finished four different tarts in class - an apple tart, a pear tart with almond cream, an almond cream tart topped with slivered almonds and an apple and custard tart. The tarts turned out beautifully but we didn't get to taste them because we were running short on time, hopefully we'll get to taste them and bring them home tomorrow. My tart dough and I weren't getting along so great this week; my tart shell never looked as good as the chef's although that's to be expected, we have a vast difference in experience. Anyways, I went out this weekend to several cooking supply stores (it was like being in paradise!) and bought tools to practice. The only thing I haven't bought yet is a scale because they're so expensive! I'm going to hunt for a reasonably priced one this week because tart dough and I have a date this weekend. 

Me and my tarts

Kind of can't believe that I actually made all of these

Thursday afternoon, we were introduced to our bakery chef, the one who will teach us all about one of the things I and most French people and visitors love about this country...Bread! Bread is like an accessory here - you always see people carrying a baguette or two in their hands. Something that tickles me about seeing people with baguettes is that usually, they've ripped off the end to snack on - you just can't resist good, crusty bread. 

We learned about the 5 different types of flour that are used to make breads in France and tasted all types of yummy bread. My favorite was the olive and herbes de provence bread - incredibly delicious and probably one of the best foods on the planet. My classmates can attest to how much I love this bread - I did a little dance while eating it ;) 

We were in the bakery kitchen at 6:30am on Friday to make our first batch of baguettes. I had no idea how involved and technical a process baking bread is. You have to factor in so many elements like humidity, weather, etc. We started making the bread around 7 and guess what time we finally pulled it out of the oven...11am! Good bread takes time which is why bakers are so patient...there's no rushing the bread making process. It was amazing to take 4 simple ingredients (flour, yeast, salt, water) and have such a tasty end product. We all got to take home bread at the end of the day and the other 100 loaves/baguettes we made went to the school cafeteria and we got to eat the bread we had made with our own hands for lunch. 

Weighing the dough - baguette standards call for the dough to weigh 350 grams

Chef showing us how to transfer our bread to the oven

Bread coming out of the oven

Yummy goodness

Our school also took us to visit a well known hotel in the neighborhood, Hotel Lutetia, on Friday. We were given a tour of the brasserie designed by Sonia Rykiel, the one Michelin star restaurant and the kitchen. We were each given handmade chocolate marshmallows and pistachio spice caramels on the way out - a girl could get used to this! 

Spent the weekend shopping, exploring, and dancing. Came across a great bookstore that focuses solely on food, La Librarie Gourmande. Ran into three pastry students who are studying at Lenôtre and we talked a bit about our experiences so far. Saturday night, Laura and I tried a new music/dance place in the trendy Oberkampf area called Satellit Cafe. We had so much fun dancing to all different kinds of world music and just letting loose. When we were getting ready to leave, everyone kept asking us why we were going. The metro stops running at 2am so unless we wanted to hoof it home or pay an exorbitant amount of money for a taxi, we had to leave early. The place is open until dawn so as were were leaving at 1:15am, the party was just getting started. 

Off to get some sleep before a busy day tomorrow...

Sinus infections and pastry crust don't go well together

Monday, February 9th was my first day at ESCF-Ferrandi. All of the pastry and cuisine students, the chefs and the administrators met together and it was really interesting to see the mix of people in the international program. We were quickly separated into pastry and cuisine students and were given a tour of the school by our chef, Didier Averty. He's hilarious and is always cracking jokes about something or making fun of us. During our tour, we kept commenting about how big the school is and how we need a GPS just to find our classroom. After the tour, we were treated to a four course meal complete with kir royale (champagne with red current cream) and wine. Listening to our conversation at lunch, you could tell that we were in cooking school and very interested in food. As each dish came out, we analyzed it in minute detail...hilarious! The food was fabulous and by the end we were stuffed. 

Dessert - Wildberry Charlotte 

First meal at ESCF-Ferrandi

After lunch, our class (pastry) went to be fitted for our uniforms. Our uniforms consist of white caps, white chef jackets with our school name and our name embroidered on it, black and white checkered pants, orthopedic looking white shoes, and a long apron...pretty snazzy. 

Our pastry class has 10 people in it and none of us are from the same country. Germany, Kazakhstan, USA, Austria, Philippines, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and Scotland/Ireland are all represented and we range in ages from 20-34. 

Yesterday, we spent the day learning about safety practices, getting our tool kit (so cool!), getting familiar with the lab and trying out our first recipe, pate foncer (pastry crust). It was great to be in the kitchen and since we have such a small class, it's a great learning environment. 

Chef beating the dough into submission

Today was a busy day in the kitchen. We made tart shells, applesauce, apple tarts, and poached pears. Our chef is very particular and spent about 30 minutes explaining the most efficient way to peel and core the fruit and watched us to make sure we stuck to the method. At times, class gets frustrating because whatever you're working on doesn't turn out exactly right or like everyone else's or it's taking you longer, but luckily, everyone is incredibly helpful and we're always helping each other out. 

Chef working on his apple tart

My unbaked apple tart w/ homemade applesauce on the bottom...can't wait to taste it

I better turn in...we were in the kitchen until 7pm tonight and have to be back tomorrow at 7:45 and Friday morning at 6:30!! I also found out yesterday that I have a sinus infection (imagine starting culinary school with a fever, sore throat, headache, and a stuffed nose) which has made school even more fun. I'm learning early that even if you're sick, you're still in the kitchen. More to come soon...

Counting down to the beginning of buttery goodness...

This was my last week of "freedom" before I start class on Monday so I tried to take advantage of my free time. Went out for drinks and jazz music with Laura on Tuesday night and she introduced me to what she calls Paris' own "Daytona Beach," Rue de Lappe, in the Bastille area. It's a street lined with bars, restaurants, clubs, and people looking to have a good time. We talked about how we wish there was a French equivalent to the words "random" and "sketchy."

Guitar player in the bar

On my way home from "Daytona Beach," I saw the funniest thing on the metro. People tend to think that Americans eat a lot of fast food but let me tell you, here, there is always a line at McDonalds and KFC is pretty popular too, as evidenced by the photo. Nothing like seeing a well dressed French man eating fried chicken wings out of a KFC bag on the metro! 

I went walking around Paris on Wednesday night to take some pictures and get some fresh air. During my walk three people asked me for directions and I was able to help one of them. Kind of funny that people assume I know where I'm going when I just moved here and have to look at a map myself every 10 minutes. 

Sacre Coeur - Montmartre

Paris Opera Garnier

La Madeleine - Church

Eiffel tower from Place de la Concorde

I woke up Friday morning and thought I was dreaming when I checked my French bank account and saw money in it. Thank God for student loans! Most of you know this already, but when I arrived in France I found out that my student loans had been denied because the process my school told me to go through was all wrong. I freaked out because I had to start the whole loan process again and with mail between the US and France being temperamental on occasion, I wasn't sure when everything would be processed. Luckily, things went smoothly and I can stop worrying about that...Woohoo! 

Due to the fluctuating weather, my sinuses have decided to go on strike (much like the French recently). Enter the French pharmacy...you can walk in, tell them your symptoms and they'll give you drugs, just like that! Ok, maybe it doesn't work like this all the time and it probably depends on what type of medicine you need, but I was happy that I didn't have to sign my name and present my driver's license to get pseudoephedrine. So, I'm taking medicine and praying that my sinuses cooperate because tomorrow is....THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS! So exciting...will definitely give an update tomorrow.  

An American in Paris

Last night, I met a Pulitzer Prize winner. Well, I didn't actually meet him, I went to a book reading he did at an English bookstore called the Village Voice.  Junot Díaz is professor at MIT and the author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I've heard of the book and all the talk surrounding it and since it's on my list of must reads, I decided to get a taste of the book firsthand from the author. Junot Díaz is a very interesting character and not only did he bring life to the passage he read but had some interesting points to make about literature, language, and the experience of being an immigrant in America. One of the most interesting points he made was that if you want to learn about what America and its people are really like, don't look at mainstream literature, movies or media. Instead focus on the more obscure books, movies, etc. He said that Planet of the Apes is a perfect example - the movie is the epitome of the American high school experience. 

After I left, I was thinking about how people tend to enjoy, search for and partake in more cultural experiences when they're in a foreign country. Granted, this is just my opinion and it may apply more to me than other people ,but when I think about how many landmarks, museums, etc. I've visited in foreign countries compared to the United States, there is no comparison. Would I have known about or gone to a book reading by Junot Díaz if I was in the US? Maybe;I'm a book fiend, but probably not. The same thought came to my mind when I was in Rome during spring break my senior year at ND. I was standing in front of St. Peter's Basilica in awe of its beauty and its significance to Catholicism and around me people (mostly Romans) were just walking across the square on their way to work or school, focused on getting to their destination. It's almost as if monuments and historical places become a part of the background for the people who live around them. Just a thought...

Not much else going on right now. Although, I was glad to wake up to sunshine and a blue sky this morning instead of snow. The Parisians keep talking about how unusual snow is here - yesterday was the second snowfall of the winter.  This weekend I did end up finding and buying the shoes that I wanted and have a feeling I'll be buying a few more funky shoes while I'm here. I also had dinner with Leah, whose here for the semester, her mom and their French friend Jennifer. Jennifer lives across from Le Cordon Bleu and I mentioned this to her but she didn't know what it was! Kind of makes me glad I didn't choose to go there ;)

Going out for drinks with Laura tonight and hopefully meeting up with a fellow pastry student who just arrived in Paris sometime this week. I finally got my camera thanks to my mom and Mrs. Darkes so I'll be uploading a lot more pictures here and on Facebook.