Chef Nicolas Magie* !

Remember my post about having guest chef, Chef Pascal Barbot*** come do a demonstration? Fortunately for us, our chefs setup another demonstration with Chef Nicolas Magie. He flew into Paris the morning of to show us a few of his recipes and to have lunch with us. Chef Magie is a very nice and humble chef - it was nice that he left his busy restaurant for one day to come see us.

We worked on the fourth (French) floor today. Usually are on the first.


Me, Eldar, and Jessica were prepping the gambas.


Here are me, Bengi (a.k.a. Bang-me), and Chris HK taking out the bignoreaux from the shells. Time consuming to say the least.


I don't think this was even a third of it.


End result


So after I finished some mise en place for the bigorneaux, I cleaned this plastic tray and asked Bang-Me where I needed to put it. She replied:

"Dans mon cu." (In my ass in French).

I was like: "Okay, turn around and bend over."

Right when I said that, my chef walked by and was like:

"Qu'est-ce que j'ai entendu?" (What did I just hear?)

HAHAHAHHAHAHAH. I swear whenever I happen to swear or say something perverted, my chef ends up walking by! But it was fine. He doesn't care - I'm sure he finds it somewhat entertaining. AHAAHHA. Ok, moving on to more serious issues - the courses.

Chef Magie in action for the first course - amuse bouche








This is the final product - the amuse bouche ! Thon rouge en deux textures. Really excellent - tuna with watermelon and various other herbs and condiments.


Now onto the 2nd course.


This was a type of plant from China that made your mouth a bit numb. Forgot the name of it. If anyone knows, let me know!


Gambas croustillante au gingembre, gelée de céleri branches. Croquante rafraîchi de céleri rave et jeunes pousses de salades. Delicious !


I love Gambas


Canadia playing with his food


Group effort


Cabillaud confit basse température compressées de petits pois aux algues beurre de bigorneaux citronné et feuille d'algues. The mini-snails we deshelled combined with the peas are underneath. The seaweed was a combination of nori and caramel. Yummy.


And in between courses, Canadia and Eldar took my camera to take self-portraits. I don't know how many random photos of Eldar I have found on my camera. So I feel it is my duty to post their photos. Yah, these are the PG photos.




Dessert! Mont d'or en émulsion, gelée de pommes verte acidulé


Regardes dedans! Really rich, but a good balance of savory and sweet. I couldn't finish all the cheese though.


And some photos of us for amusement. Me and Bang-me. Guess who gave her that name? (Hint: his name starts with E)


Ido, Eldar, Amanda


So I got a bit buzzed today during our meal. I didn't eat much for breakfast, and we had champagne as an apertif. Since school is coming to an end, I figured why not have some more celebratory wine? I was rosy and happy as usual... well, we have this thing in class where people spray other people's ass's with D10 - this disinfectant. Apparently, I got sprayed and I had no idea until later when I started walking around and felt cold damp pants. I figured out it was Alex (or Andrew!). So I took the hose in the garde manger where they were. I wanted to see if the water was on - I was like "does this work?" I pressed the lever and ended up spraying myself on the side.

Let's just say there was an uproar of laughter - then Alex and/or Andrew went into the kitchen to announce to everyone else that I just sprayed myself. And then more laughter.

Oops! hahahahahh Good times. =) I love school !



La Cape
Executive Chef: Nicolas Magie
9, Allée Morlette
33150 Cenon, France
05 57 80 24 25

Fruits fruits fruits !

Today was fruit day. We made the following:

Salade de Fruits


Soupe de Melon au Baume de Venise. I am not a huge melon fan so I thought this was okay. But I am sure melon-lovers would love this dish. It's just melon soaked in wine with some mint in it.


Gratin d'ananas Crème d'Amandes. This was sooooo good. We added peaches and bananas with the pineapple. The sabayon gratinée with the bananas was the best pairing. I didn't care for it with the other fruits.

*This is not mine, by the way. I think it's Canadia's. I overfilled my sabayon - then it inflated under the salamander. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Ananas Flambé


We finished really early so we all sat down, had a café and chatted for a bit. It was nice. =)

Smile! Anglo 2008 (sans Amanda)


Nice, relaxing day today.

CAP tests 2 & 3+ the Last Restaurant Service...

Today I had my second and third CAP tests. The first one was at 9am and for History and Geography. I had written my history paper on Molecular Gastronomy (progression of traditional cuisine to molecular), and the geography paper on the ban on foie gras in Chicago. I spent a bit of time on both papers (and so did Christophe for editing!) but malheureusement they didn't except my papers because the subjects were supposed to be more specific and on things like wars, etc. As for the history of cuisine, the lady interviewing me said it had to be more specific like on the history of a restaurant. Tant pis!. My papers were interesting.

Instead, she pulled out a diagram and photo about the increase in production of materials needed to build tanks and planes (Renault) during WWI. Since she knew that I couldn't speak French fluently, she cut me some slack and asked me really easy questions. She asked me to describe the diagram and photo, and also discuss why there was an increase of women working during this time. She was really nice. Only 15 minute oral test. So far so good.

My next exam was at 13h30, so I went home to study for that. It was for "Connaissance l'entreprise" or knowledge of the restaurant/hotel business in general - 10 minute written, 20 minute discussion.

When I arrived, I ended up seeing one of the French teachers, who is totally nuts by the way (she hates all the Anglo cuisiniers), but that is a completely long and different story. Since she knew me, she couldn't be my interviewer. Instead, I went to the next jury. He gave me a list of questions to answer. I heard the French teacher talking to him so I was afraid she put in a bad word for me. I never did anything to her, she really is crazy. But who knows?

So the first part of the exam had questions about working contracts in France and what papers were required. The second part was easy since it was about recipes and costs. The third part was about budgeting. After I wrote down answers to the questions, we discussed the material for 20 minutes. Generally, for someone who knows French really well, this test is ridiculously easy. But I did not know some of the technical vocabulary and acronyms in French, and some questions he asked me were lost in translation. When he was explaining it to me later, I was thinking "this is so easy!" Overall, I don't think I did well but I think I at least passed. I was feeling very frustrated afterwards because I do know how the business works in general, but couldn't express it in French.

After the oral exams (phew, so glad I got those over with), I went to school to begin prep for the last restaurant service. There were no recipes given, just some ingredients written on the board. I was originally assigned to the pigeon dish but those were finished by the time I got to school. Darn, still haven't worked with pigeon. I just helped with random things like turning artichokes and carrots. We had 65 covers tonight coming all at once as a big group. Everything was to be sent out at the same time.

We were in a different kitchen today because the other kitchens were reserved for CAP exams. This kitchen was fucking hot. Like sitting in a sauna with sweat dripping down your back for 8 hours, hot.

But it had a nice view of the school.


Me and Felipe


Amuse bouche to go with the pigeon - Compote d'abricots à l'amaretto


Poitrine de pigeon au réglisse


Mise en place for the veg. This was my station tonight.


Took a long time to plate all the veg


Table-side cut (wonder how that went for the waiters in training) of Train de cotes de beoufs. Look at the size of those things. I wish I saw what the meat looked like cut.


Service was fast tonight. Didn't feel like a typical restaurant service since a few of the other Anglos were in pastry. *Sniff Sniff Sniff* Last resto !

Le Menu Regional: Béarn (The last regional meal...)

Typically we start prep for regional meals at 8am, and then have lunch together. Instead we started prep after our wine class and lunch. That means we drink more wine from this morning paired with our dinner. Good times in culinary school !

Today we cooked a meal from the region Béarn, but according to our geographie teacher, Monsieur Le Poah, our menu wasn't really from the region Béarn but more from the Basque country in general. Our menu was extremely filling.

Amanda invited Samantha (Manhattan), and Enyo (Togo). Enchanté !

Piments pequillos farcis à la morue. Really good but the peppers had no spice. I kept piling it on. The farce is salted cod.




Self-portrait


Axoa de veau. This is pretty much fajita filling minus the cumin and chili pepper spices.


Nicely cut peppers and leeks


Millefeuille de Thon au poivrons et fromage de brebis. I loved this dish! Tuna and goat cheese - fabulous combination.


I love seared tuna.


Veau sautée, sauce béarnaise. This was originally supposed to be grilled salmon, but the order didn't come in. It was still fabulous though. I was so full by this point. But I was able to manage eating a third of this. I love béarnaise sauce. But it's not really from Béarn (but cerfeuil and estragon are!)


HAHHAAH, here is Canadia making fun with Andrew. For some reason, Andrew has always been stuck with recipes that require making a sabayon. A few times he had to do it over in the beginning because the eggs scrambled, but now he is a sabayon king! Look how intense he is - whisking away! Go Andrew!


Here is Monsieur Le Poah on the left, and Chef Sébastian. Monsieur Le Poah is an awesome teacher and is so knowledgable. Super nice too.


Poulet et poulpe basquaise. This was my dish. We were given this recipe for our final during Christmas (sans poulpe/octopus). Similar to fajita mix sans the spices too. I put so much garlic but couldn't taste any. (On top of hot spices, I have garlic withdrawal). I accidentally overcooked the potatoes so most people didn't get any. Oops! By this time, everyone was full and could barely eat any of this. Monsieur Le Poah really enjoyed this, and finished it all. So did Chef. Troopers!


Poulpe !


Gâteau Basque, Sorbet à l'Izarra. I really enjoyed this. It was simply a crème pâtissière filling with cerise (cherries).


Last regional meal group shot. (Andrew still working his sabayon). *Sniff Sniff*


Bon App !