Au Fils Des Saisons

Tonight Andrew, Chris, and his friend Tara from out of town, and I went to eat at Au Fils Des Saisons. A quaint little bistro with no sign in front on a quaint little street in the 3rd. We were all quite late but fortunately they were not mad at all (it was empty at that moment). The food there is fabulous ! I loved the little details they put into their dishes as well as the decor of the place.



Look how cute !




I ordered the seared foie gras with lentilles and sausage. This was heavenly. The foie was melt in your mouth perfect. The combination of the lentilles and sausage was delicious. Very rich so of course I had Andrew help me finish it.


Andrew's scallop dish. Good shit.



Chris ordered tortellini. Ummmm


Perfectly perfectly cooked magret de canard. I am getting hungry again just thinking about it. The tomatoes were so delicious. The pomme de terre was good but really rich - they could have reduced the size of it. Andrew helped me finish, of course.


Their signature "cooked for 7 hours" confit de canard dish. Andrew and Tara ordered it and said it was super bon.


Traditional Millefeuille. In school, we baked our millefeuille until it was golden brown, but traditionally, they are cooked this dark so it has a bit of that bitter, burned taste. I have yet to 100% acquire a taste for the burnt millefeuille (I am more at a 51%), I would say this was properly executed. The custard and fresh fruit was delicious. Not too sweet which is the way I like it.


The strawberry coulis served with it.


Overall, great place. Nice atmosphere, deliciously presented food, and great prices for the quality of the 3-course prix fixe - 31 Euro. I will definitely be back.

Au Fil des Saisons
6, Rue Fontaines du Temple
75003 Paris, France
01.42.74.16.60

Le Menu Regional: Bourgogne

Oeufs en meurette à l'os à moelle. This was fantastic.




Terrine de poireaux à la truffe de bourgogne, vinaigrette à la truffe. This was my dish. Simple - but I wasn't a big fan of it.




Escargots à la bourguignonne


Chèvre à la dijonnaise, ragoût de fèves. Goat meat. It tasted like chicken and rabbit.


Côtes de Beouf à la bourguignonne, pommes croquettes


Look at this big, honkin, piece o meat.


Tartes Bourdalouse aux poires pochées au cassis. Sorbet au cassis. Loved this tarte.


Chef Sébastien, Andrew, and Chef Stephane


Bon App !

Chef Pascal Barbot ! ***

Every year our school has a guest chef come to do a demonstration for our class, and to answer any questions we may have. This year, we were able to have Pascal Barbot from L'Astrance*** come ! How exciting ! He came last year as well. My chef and Pascal used to work together at L'Arpège. They were also both on Iron Chef Japan together a few years ago representing Alain Passard (which I still need to watch as it's sitting in my VCR player at home). My chef told us that when we see him, we wouldn't expect him to be a chef. He was right. Pascal is such a cute little man with a smile on his face all the time. He was super nice and demonstrated some fabulous dishes for us.





Fine lamelles d'avocat et tourteau à l'huile d'amande douce




Jus capucines




Petits pois, chorizo et capucines






Carré d'agneau grillé, choux "Duchy" et curry noir


Everything was so delicious. I loved the first dish since citrus, avocado, and crab are some of my favorite things, however, the last two dishes had a combination of flavors that were really different - I can't say that I have ever tasted anything similar. It was fantastic and definitely an unforgettable experience.

Pascal's restaurant L'Astrance*** only serves 28 covers a night and is open Tuesday - Friday for lunch and dinner. There is also no menu, and you have to book a couple months ahead of time. Having a restaurant like this has always been an amazing concept to me. Hopefully, I will have the pleasure to dine here this summer.

L'Astrance
Executive Chef: Pascal Barbot
4, Rue Beethoven
75016 Paris
01.40.50.84.40

Le Menu Regional: Languedoc Roussillon

Today, my friend Kat was able to join us as a guest. She is in the French pastry program at school, however she is American/Chinese. It was nice to have a friend join us.

Petits pâtes de Pézenas


Encornets farcis


Pélardons Marinés


Cassoulet. Me and Amanda's dish today. It was so rich since everything was pretty much cooked in duck fat. I took one or two bites and I was done.


However, I was able to eat all of this. =D
Crèmes Catalane. Sorbet de muscat de rivesaltes


Bon app !

Lasserre **

How amazing is it that as a class, our chefs and the director of our school bring us to dine at Lasserre, a two Michelin star restaurant serving traditional French food. Ok, so technically I paid for it since it is included in our tuition... but I have to say that life is good =). I have been looking forward to this moment!

It was really nice to get in a dress and put on some makeup for a change. And realize that when I am not in my whites sweating at school, I am actually a girl ! Unfortunately, I decided to wear one of my most uncomfortable dresses. But that's okay. I still had a good time.

When we arrived, they served us champage and delicious hor d'oeuvres of gougères, quail eggs, and foie gras. What a way to start a meal.

Who are these people? They are... cleaned up ?


Picture time !


Me and Rodrigo... er Felipe


And on to the menu.

Amuse bouche - this was a type of "flan" made with asparagus and fava beans. It was a fantastic starter.


Asperges de pertuis, sauce maltaise. I enjoyed this dish very much. I love asparagus, caramelized onions, and blood oranges.


Sole à la royale et aux morilles. This dish was fantastic. My fish could have been cooked a tad less though.



Pigeon farci André Malraux. I was so beyond full at this point because everything was so rich and tasty, but still managed to have a few bites. My pigeon was slightly overcooked. The farci was made of foie gras. Delicious but I had Andrew help me finish this plate (as usual).


Déclinaison de pommes au caramel. But of course I had room for dessert. I loved the ice-cream with the mousse on the left. The right dessert was good as well but a bit too sweet for me because of the caramel.




Café - look at the cute logo


Mignardises. No matter how full I am, I seem to always have room for dessert and mignardises ! After our meal, chef Jean-Louis Nomicos came out to say hello.


Looking sharp !


Happy and full, on our way home in the metro.


I gotta say that Lasserre does a really good job at serving traditional French food at it's best. The service is superb - they always serve the ladies first. The bathroom, however, reminds me of the 70s. Hah, but whatever, that is not important. Food comes first.

RESTAURANT LASSERRE
Executive chef: Jean-Louis Nomicos
17 avenue Franklin Roosevelt
75008, PARIS
01.43.59.02.13

Reality TV during restaurant service

Today was a typical night of restaurant service with the addition of a camera man. He was filming Natalia prepping and cooking, asking her questions etc etc. It's going to be aired on TV in Paris but not quite sure which channel.

Tortilla déstructurée


Tartare de daurade au wakamé. Me and Julie's dish. Today was continuous mise en place throughout the night. This was really good.


I spent something ridiculous like 1+ hours preparing the potatoes. If you didn't even notice them, they are the little circular things on the plate holding up the garniture. I think a lot of people don't realize how much time is put into the small details on a plate. I received a very big compliment from my chef today that made me happy. When I finished all the potatoes and lined them up in the marinade in a tray, I asked him to come take a look at it. He said "ah this is exactly how I expected it to turn out." I was like "Shit! Is there something wrong with them? What did I do?" Then he said, "non, c'est parfait." PHEW !!!

Many times in the kitchen, I have doubts about my technique. It's obviously a combination of being new to this, knowing that I have SO much to learn still, and so many years ahead of me. I want to learn how to do things perfectly - well almost perfectly, and find that I can be really hard on myself sometimes. Most of the time, I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome of my dishes because I always think something can be done better. But today, just that small comment about something so simple made me feel I was on the right track. =)

And now onto the MIGRAINE of the night of a dish:

Ris de veau braisé, parmesan, linguine


There were three people on this dish tonight and the mise en place was a big BORDEL. Andrew, Eldar, and Amanda were having a piss of a time trying to roll the sweetbread in pasta. I mean a serious fucking bad time with it. You had to line up the cooked pasta in perfect rows on saran wrap and made sure that they stuck together. Then roll the sweetbreads in it. Chef was helping them the whole time and getting really pissed off too. I think at one moment he told Andrew to shut up. The whole group was pissed off. Apparently, Andrew said it was IMPOSSIBLE and almost wanted to say 'fuck it' to the whole thing. Eldar was so frustrated that he was swearing in Hebrew. And Amanda was borderline talking back to the chef. Amanda is the most timid person in the kitchen ! That is how bad the pasta was driving everyone crazy. I wonder if the camera man got that on tape?!?!? But by the end of the night, all pasta was rolled and dishes sent out. Success !

And Anglo B


God this is the ultimate dream burger (made with duck). I wanted to eat it so bad but there was nothing left. But the camera guy got to eat one !


And here is one of the plongeurs (dishwasher), Samir. He insisted I take a photo of him. He doesn't speak English but he always says to us "You are my brutha! You are my sistah!" hahah. Or when he is really pissed off at us for finishing late, he tells me in French how he is so tired and that his wife doesn't like him to go home tired because then he "has no energy."


Anyway, hopefully, whatever was filmed tonight will be on YouTube.