Les gars

Made a bunch of stuff in the banquet today including these. So cute =)



Anthony cutting a bunch of truffles. We have a whole min-fridge of these.


Jeremy (from the gastro), Nizam, Anthony




Che Che playing air ham and looking to make sure no chefs are around.


Les Gars - Che Che, Anthony, Jean-Daniel, Mathieu, Cyril, Me, Nizam


Et deux filles - me, Julia


Still beautiful even on a dreary day

Thanksgiving gastro style

Potiron gratin

Mondays

I actually like Mondays at work... it's a bit more relaxed - actually every day is pretty relaxed at this job compared to other places I have worked but the gastro is closed today so there are only about 5+ cooks in the kitchen versus a million running around.

Here is Rodrigue and Lora (she is a serveuse but is required to do a month stage in cuisine for her school).


Rodrigue took a couple pictures of me but I look completely tired and hideous in them... but no worries, I will post some in my snazzy branded hotel whites and toque soon.

The poissonerie where I am usually working.


After work - Place de la Concorde is so gorgeous even when it's gloomy and raining.


Since I walk home, I don't have an enormous amount of time to cook, so I whipped up something quick and tasty tonight.

Tortilla


This is veal farce wrapped in cheese and bacon (from St. Quentin Marché)


I love Sorel's hair


Bon Appetit !

Le Banquet

I switched to the banquet today for various reasons. First and foremost, this is my first luxury hotel. I want to see how each division works in a glamorous hotel like this. I enjoyed working in the gastro very much, however, because the mise en place was enormous, I didn't get to see much besides the scallops and langoustines that I was preparing, as well as the sauces that were made for the fish plates. During service, I was unable to stay at the passe to see each dish in its finished state meaning garniture + sauces + proteins. In banquet, it is a smaller team, and I am able to see how the garniture, sauces, and proteins are prepared, as well as in it's finished state. The food served in the banquet is a simplified menu made by infamous 2** chef.

I haven't really been past the lobby at this hotel... but here's part of a hallway to one of the banquet rooms. Very traditional, wouldn't you say?

Julia, JD (Jean-Daniel), and "Che Che" (Or Thomas who has a Basque last name that I don't remember how to pronounce so people call him Che-Che - loves it!)

Les entrées

Foie gras with a compote and gelée of fruit (forgot the name), sauce is a reduction of sangria

Stupid me forgot to take a photo of the fish dish!!! It was daurade with parmesan croute on top (same garniture as the gastro), tomate compote, and sauce de poisson.

My first real service where I helped plate everything. =)

Photos of work

Jeremy - chef de partie, originally from Nice


Joaquin


I was moved to the sauce (for the fish) station this week. He switched to sauces from meat because the sauce guy is out.






And here's a very quick snippet during service


Walking to the metro after work. Gorgeous.


Metro Concorde. Did you know that the musicians in the subway have to go through interviews in order to be able to play there? You can see that they have RATP badges. And it also explains why they have amazing musicians (especially in Chatelet) there - a lot of them are professional and have their own CDs.

And then I am reminded that I am just a stagiaire

Today I was sent to the CAFETERIA in the morning to help make food for the staff. One of the cooks brought me to the "self" as they call it and said that they needed some help cutting tartes. Ok whatever. Then we arrive and he says "ok you can have her work just until 11h30" then he jets off.

WTF. The cook working there was really messy. There was shit everywhere. As I was cooking chicken, I was using one hand to put in the raw meat, then the tongs to pick up the cooked meat. He told me I had to use the tongs for both - um yah, cross contamination. I had previously gotten sick a couple times from eating there and now I know why.

There wasn't much to do afterwards so he had me vacuum. He wanted me to take the trash out but I didn't know where the poubelle was.

Then he was showing me how to use the register. He wanted me to stay during lunch service and ring people up. WTF.

I stood there for 1 minute, then said I had to put something away in the vestiaire and never came back.

I was fuming. I asked another cook if it's normal for them to send stagiaires there. He said no and it was an exception since one of the cooks was out. I finished doing some mise en place then had lunch a little after 12h00.

I saw the cafeteria cook again when I went to get lunch and he asked me why I just left. I told him I had mise en place to do. I literally sat down for 5 minutes to eat and the previous cook called the cafeteria and asked when I will be done eating. I shoved food down my throat, then went back to work. Another guy asked me why I don't cook in the cafeteria all day, I was like "UM I am working in the gastro!"

WHY WOULD I want to stage in the cafeteria? Waste of my time. I am not even getting paid here even though this hotel has loads of money to burn. If they ask me again, I am going to give them a big NO, and tell them to hire someone else to cook personal meal for the hotel staff.

ok /rant/

New job

First day at a big hotel with an infamous ** chef. It was tranquil today because the gastro was closed. I helped the banquet today - easy day cutting tomatoes, preparing garniture for stocks, etc. 9h00 - 17h30. What kind of schedule is that for a cook? I am not complaining. On profit quand on travaille pour un hôtel. Vraiment.

But today sucks because Raf went back to Cali!

Arai's last day

Today was Arai's last day. He was in charge of the meat station initially until Chiho took over. He is already a chef in Japan but came to France to work for about a year. Really really nice guy in and outside of work - and of course an awesome cook/chef.

Chef gave me the night off in exchange for helping the front of the house wipe some plates. I ended up cooking and cleaning on my "night off." HAHAHA But I still met up with everyone for dinner since it was Arai's last night. Chiho made a nice beef braise for our personal meal.

Look at Massa-san !


Later, I went for a nice 40 minute run to Centre Ville Menton, then to Italie, then back to France. (Yah I still love saying that). After service, we all met up in Enzo's room for some drinks to wish Arai Bon Voyage.

CHEE-ZU




Lucas' signature pink shoes


Arai, Chef, and Dani


Massa, Lucas, The Italian




Bon Voyage, Arai ! You will be missed.

Got my new knife today

I ordered a Gyutou 21 cm Glestain knife in California after some talk and recommendation from Steve/Manresa. There was a mix up in the shipping but luckily my wonderful boyfriend Rafael negotiated for them to send me the knife in France for $7 – and it only took less than a week. It was nice to receive a package in the middle of mise en place - like opening a present on Christmas. YAY. The feeling of a new knife.

And here is a random pic of Chiho working. I love this girl – I hope I can be like her a year from now. The cleanest, fastest, most precise cook here. Chiho is also really patient too, respectfully explains how to do things, and lets me prep and cut anything at the meat station.



And on a side rant (I just need to vent, skip if you want!) – I find it quite strange that I am the second person in the entire kitchen to have an eplucheur (peeler). And a relatively generic 3 Euro peeler that you can buy in the grocery store that works pretty well. In fact, I am the only one with an effectively useful peeler in the entire restaurant. Isn’t that BIZARRE? And some people here take it, use it, leave their shit ass dried up food on it and put it back on the wall. Whatever happened to asking before borrowing ?! And then washing it before putting it back?

There were so many times where my maryse/spatula has been misplaced too. And it often miraculously shows up at someone else’s station. Dirty and oily of course. Same goes with my knives. I have found my Santoku covered in dried fish crap on the wall plenty of times… or it being used to BREAK OPEN RAW ALMONDS !

AND I am the only with with a Sharpie. I am quite attached to my Sharpie because everyone keeps taking it and not giving it back.

Just been one of those weeks... Ok I feel a bit better now. /end rant/

And then she mopped

Today I mopped all the staircases as well as the hallway in the studios. And the laundry room and bathrooms during service. With another fille (girl), of course...

Girls were made for cleaning...

The female stagiaires were told to clean all three chambres froides (walk-in fridges) as well as the entire garde manger kitchen. That means EMPTYING out all the freezers (meats, drinks, vegetables, etc etc etc) as well as the shelves. Removing EVERYTHING from all the shelves in the garde. I mean EVERYTHING. We had to leave everything in the garage, scrub down all the tiles, wash the plastic shelves, the egouts during mise en place. This took a good 3 hours... And then be ready for mise en place. And the thing that gets me is that one of the male stagiaires says he has never been asked to clean like that. The most he has been asked to do was organize a fridge. Big deal, we all do that.

Btw, I have no problems with cleaning. In fact, I always volunteer to do the stoves (call me bizarre). And, I have done other big cleaning jobs like that before - except it was after service - with everyone else. I know it comes with the job - I just feel that it should be shared equally... I often hear:

"This needs to be cleaned."

"Oh - just ask one of the girls to do it." Demande une fille.

Blah.

Girls Day Out

My carte de sejour expires on 30/09/08 so Chiho kindly took me to the Prefecture in Nice to show me how to get there and to pick up the list of papers that are needed for the renewal. It took 1.5 hours to get there by public transportation – by the end of it, we were starving.

Thea ended up coming to Nice as well so it turned into a girls day out. We met up at McD’s (ummmm McDonald’s – one of those guilty pleasures where you like to indulge 3x a year ahhahaha). The McDonalds in Nice is SUPER nice, all decc’ed out in modern and simple design with painted walls, spiral staircases, and even a stone wall.



Then we went window shopping around Nice. We took a cappuccino at the Galleries Lafayette. It was really nice. Reminded me of life back home in Paris. A bit of “homesickness” ?





After we went to watch The Darkkk Knigghhhttt (2nd time for me). But it was well worth it. Ummm Christian Bale.

We ended back in Menton around 19h30. Thea is leaving in a few days (BOO HOO – my Californian counterpart here) so we met up with Lucas and David to eat dinner at a creperie. It was okay except for the fact it took 40 minutes to make 6 crepes. Were they in the shit ? Mise not ready ? Chopping all veg a la minute ? ahhahaha.

It was really refreshing to have a girls day out. I’m going to miss Thea!

Riptides

A bunch of us went to the beach during our break.

It's officially fall - weather is still beautiful for the most part. It gets cloudy sometimes and not as hot. And lots of waves and riptides. In the summer, the water is completely flat.





I got stuck in the riptides today but luckily someone helped me out.

Les nouveaux plats

Guess what I got to help Chiho make for repas personal ? Yaki Onigiri !


Salade de courgette purée avec des legumes cuit et cruditées


Le homard avec bisque et purée de pois


Fish sashimi style with a citron sauce (really good)


Another one of Mika's creations - dark chocolate mousse-cake with vanilla bean ice-cream. So f'in good.


It was Enzo's birthday ! Mika made him a little tarte.


LMAO @ this photo

The Jungle

We got off at 22h30 (!!!!!!) tonight !

Off to "The Jungle"

Les Argentains (Mati, Mia, Lucas)


Mes amours (Mika, Thea, Mia)


Et encore (Mati, Denny [is back from Italie !], Lucas)


Beaucoup d'amour