Graduating ESCF Ferrandi

First thing's first on graduation day. Come in at 8am to finish prepping the cocktails. hah! I was so tired and not hungry from tasting our cocktails so I went home to nap, then get ready for graduation.

We still had a bit to setup before graduation started (4pm) so we all came in with makeup, hair, dresses, and suits on, plus our chef whites to finish prepping. Since I got fat from school, my black slacks didn't fit.

I wasn't sure if I could wear skinny jeans plus my boots so I actually called Andrew first to see what he thought. He was like "Ummmm I don't think it's a big deal. That should be okay."

Then I called chef. HAHAHAHAHA. I warned him it was a silly question. At first he was like "What are skinny jeans? Oh skinny jeans! ahahah. As long as you wear your nice chef whites, it's fine." I guess it's the old fashionista in me coming out ! HAHAHAH Of course, later I was made fun of by my classmates.

Like my new kitchen shoes?


Andrew saying, "it's mine, all mine !"


Bang-me et moi !


Les Anglos 2007-2008


Monsieur Moeisel, the director of the program, and Chef Stéphane


Waigong! Or Louis, my mom's godfather who lives in Paris came to see me! =)


Shooting the shit with Chef Thierry


Rodrigo !


Madame Agnès Brugière- our wine teacher. She's so awesome and mentioned I progressed well in class. But I still don't think I know much about wine! It is so complicated - hopefully one day, I can know half as much as she does.


Here is Chef Sébastien's expression when we all gathered around him to present him gifts. Priceless !


First gift...


Chef Olivier Roellinger's book. He is a great chef*** from the same region my chef is from, Brittany.


And of course, our gorgeous wrapping job.




I think he was quite pleased with both gifts


Smile Anglo A !


Our pastry chef Thierry joined us for our group photo =). He's also super duper awesome




Chris HK, Berkeley/Dallas, and me


It was a really sweet and small ceremony. Family and friends all joined. Kat and Ulla were nice to come see me graduate as well. Really nice of them to do this for us. *Sniff*

C'est fini ! To be quite honest, even with a BS in Comp Sci and an MBA, this is my proudest achievement. =) I am very lucky to be given the opportunity to attend one of the best culinary schools in France (my bf calls me Ferrandi snob... hahaah!)


Afterwards, we went to a bar down the street to have a drink with les chefs. Thanks, chefs!


This is the ONLY normal photo I have of Eldar. Ah, so that's what you look like Eldar? hahahah


And look at my Screwdriver


We were pretty full from eating at graduation, but when 9:30pm hit, we were hungry. Amanda and Chris HK didn't have plans, we decided to get some light and yummy Japanese food.

Soba noodles


Tonkatsu-don


These vegetables were so good but I was too full to finish it.


Happy Graduation meal for 12,50 Euro!

Aki
11 bis, rue Sainte-Anne
75001, Paris
01.42.97.54.27

Pretty yummy Japanese restaurant - I believe it's owned by Japanese. Most, if not all of the staff are Japanese which is a good sign. We finished around 1130pm. We were so exhausted so we all went home.

We were supposed to go out tonight, but Andrew didn't call me until 1am. Of course I was already in my PJs and in bed. Sorry Andrew! We shall celebrate in Bordeaux. ;)

Food prep for Graduation

We spent a few mornings this week prepping the "cocktails" for graduation. This time we used all of Chef Stéphane's recipes for the savory snacks.

These, along with petits fours were made in Pastry class with Chef Thierry. I missed it because of my CAP exams.


Chef Stéphane cutting some country bread. Traditionally, the inside part of the bread (my favorite part!) is cut into slices, and mini sandwiches are made. It's supposed to be a surprise inside the crust.


A tidbit of moléculaire gastronomie! Those droplets were made of jus de raisin and agar agar. Then it was dropped into oil. Reaction caused them to coagulate and turn into little caviar/tapioca type balls. Pretty neat.




Aren't these cute???


Well, glucose or butter wasn't added to the sugar so we had to throw them out. The sugar was too hard to eat - it was funny watching people trying to eat it... and trying not to break their teeth at the same time. Here is Natalia eating it like a lollipop. hahahah




Chef Stéphane explaining the next technique.


This was a pois (pea) purée dropped into water with calcium or something added to it. It caused the pea purée to coagulate.




Andrew's dish - aren't the artichokes cute? They look like little Eiffel Towers!










I was in charge of the Gaspacho de Betterave et Fruits Rouges (Gaspacho made with beets and red fruit) because according to my chef, my lipstick was the same color. HAH! I wanted to do a Gaspacho anyway.


Il sera bientôt finir...

Un petit cadeau pour notre Grand Chef

Yesterday after school, Amanda, Julie and I went to Kodak, and also the art store to pick up paper and stationary to create a college for Le Grand Chef Sébastian. Today, we spent the entire afternoon putting it all together. Oh my god, we were laughing for hours. We glued some extremely politically incorrect and hilarious quotes made by some of us (including our chef LMAO!) during the school year. And the pix are priceless. We were really proud of it and really put our hearts into it. Ahhhhh so funny. Here are a few snippets of it.



Les Anglos 2007 - 2008


Le Grand Chef - we always liked this photo because he looks like he is 12 eating some sorbet




Remember this post? HAHAHAHAH - so funny.



Andrew - the official sabayon king this year. I don't know how many sabayon recipes he has had to do.




You gotta love the wrapping we did. Luckily I had kept the tissue paper that Andrew had gotten from Lenotre. HAHHHA.


Ah, the memories.

Coquelet

Today was another fun and relaxed day. And officially our last class in terms of learning new technique.

Coquelet cuit en croute de sel ...


Et voila !



Coquelet cuit en croute de sel condiment à la diable, pomme dauphine. This dish was sooo yummy. I loved it!


And cooking bar or sea bass in clay.


Hehe, mine died twice.


Le Grand Chef


Next couple days we prep the rest of the cocktails for graduation. *SNIFF*

CAP test 7

Last part of the series of written exams. This one was super important - Technologie of Cuisine. They tested us on a recipe that we haven't done in school before. However, with trial and error, I was able to figure it out. It's neat to see that if you have the basis of one recipe, you can figure out others.

This test was 12 pages long. I feel pretty good about all the questions regarding cuisine and techniques de cuisine, but there were some other random questions about bacteria, disenfectants, and TACT/PRONET which to this day, I still don't know.

On my way home, I decided to get off a couple stops before mine so I could walk around the Place de la Concorde, one of my favorite spots of Paris, and also through Jardin des Tuileries where I normally run. As I was crossing the Seine, I swear I saw this guy putting away his fishing line. Or was I just delirious? Who knows? But I still love living in Paris. So beautiful.



I was so exhausted by the time I got home that I just crashed. Napped, then laid in bed all day. I think my brain was fried after all these hours taking these exams all in French. Sometimes it's exhausting really focusing on translating the language so I can really understand the context of it all.

But I am glad the written part is over. Now just one more test for the CAP - the practical in cuisine. Aiy !

CAP tests 4, 5, and 6

I didn't realize until last night at 23h00 that the three exams for the CAP were today. Hence, you can imagine how much I was able to study. I am such a procrastinator!

So today's tests were the French test, Math/Physics test, and vie sociale et professionnelle. 5 hours total. I crammed mostly French grammar and some of the vie sociale info last night. Granted these tests are ridiculously easy for the average person fluent in French. A few things got lost in translation on the Physics part of the exam, as well as the vie sociale exam. But otherwise, the math/physics part was sooooo ridiculously easy. It was just adding and subtracting... maybe some dividing going on. hah!

The Vie Sociale et professionelle test had a diagram of a spine and asked to identify the parts in French. I don't even know them in English! I just left most of that blank, and then wrote "tailbone." ahhahaha. There were a few other parts I wasn't quite sure about either.

French test went okay. It was just a blurb out of a script about someone who sells souvenirs and knick-knacks. I actually had to write 15 lines for the last "essay" question. I just had to write another part of the script.

Not so bad. I think I did well enough to pass. I hope!

Oh and btw, Jessica and I ate at this really great Italian restaurant in Levallois (suburb just outside of northern Paris), where the exams were. I ordered a simple spaghetti with tomato/basil sauce, and she ordered a tiramisu. It was excellent! It's hard to find really good Italian places here in Paris, and this place was fresh, delicious, and not pricey. Funny because we initially sat at some brasserie, looked at the menu, and walked out. Never done that before, but Jessica has so I will follow the European.

Yes, I will make a trip to the suburbs for Italian food. hahahaha. The pizzas looked excellent also.

La Piazzetta
1, Pl Henri Barbusse
92300, Levallois Perret
01.47.57.12.86

Christophe and Nina come over for dinner.

Christophe and Nina have been really gracious to me for welcoming me into their home for a couple meals. I was finally able to make some time to cook dinner for them. Amanda supposedly knew this great market that is cheaper than all the other open markets in Paris. And it's apparently only open on Saturdays.

Turns out she took us on this HUGE detour to get there - it was an open market that I have been to on Sundays with Kat. And it was really close to the Bastille. HAHAHAHA.

I got a BUNCH of fresh vegetables and fruits for under 15 Euro. It was fantastic. Plus, when the market starts to close, they start giving away free veg and fruits. I got free radishes and berries today. Fabulous.

I had some tuna leftover from school so I made these little amuse bouche of seared tuna with a soy/honey/sriracha reduction, and also some mango and avocado.

I also had some duck legs from school. So I cooked them for about three hours with a mirepoix and fresh squeezed orange juice. It turned out to be tender and very light. I also had some fresh snow peas from school as well, so I served those with some turned carrots and asparagus.


Fruit salad we made in school.


And egg whites from school - so I made financiers! Ummmm. This was a hit tonight.


Smile !


After, we went to Berkeley's birthday party at his apartment.

Quick story - we met Berkeley at the Highlander bar in the 5th last year. He is a super cool and funny guy that's been living in Paris the past 5 years. He ended up hanging out with us that night. I recall chatting with him and him telling me that many times when he goes out, he ends up disappearing for the night after he's had enough drinks. So later on in the night, I wanted to get his contact info. I turn around and he's totally gone. Disappeared. Oh well ! Didn't think I would run into him again.

So Andrew saw him at the Moose a few weeks ago. He couldn't remember his name but knew it was a major city and remembered he was from Texas. So he was like "Hey Dallas!" HAHAHAHAHAHH. And that is how we all reconnected.

Annick (Dallas' er Berkeley's gf), Berkeley, Nina, me


That's Julie's sister in the middle. She is here visiting for a month. Throughout the night, Berkeley kept asking her if she was okay and/or needed some milk or some orange juice. It was hilarious. HAH!


It was a really funny night. Quite entertaining to say the least. And see Andrew's expression above? That's his "this shot is so disgusting" look... even though I am sure he enjoys the after-effects.

Later they all ended up going out. Me and Nina wanted to go home "early" since we had to study. It took us an hour to get a cab (we were in the 20th and it was around 3h30). By the time I got home and went to sleep it was 5am. Christophe ended up going back out with them. What a trooper! My "early" night turned out to be "early" morning.