Work work work...

This week we worked 5 double shifts and a single on our 6th day.
Here is the jardin at the restaurant where we pick flowers, herbs, and salad


Making canapés


It was like surgery putting the lil garniture on top


After service, Denny, the Italian making us pasta. Delicious


In the garage eating after service. Chiho (Japan), Thea (Palo Alto, CA), Mikael (France), Masa (Japan)


Chef and his femme


It was the sous-chef, Davide's late birthday soirée. We had pasta, chocolate cake, and champagne... at midnight. Good times.

La Montagne

Work has been okay - a bit slow but good. I am on the garde manger station doing the canapés. Yesterday, we went to the garden to pick flowers for the dishes. Interesting to learn about the different plants/flowers. Most fun thing I have done so far is filet some mackeral.

Today we went to "La Montagne" or "The Mountain" as they call it. ahhhaha

On the way to the Mountain ... one step away from Italy !


Pretty neat huh? I'm gonna try to go to Italy on my days off


La Montagne is on this big property up the hill. It has a big rundown house/building and tons of land.



Thea (from Palo Alto of all places) picking plants




Gorgeous view




Unfortunately it has been pretty slow here. Nothing much but picking herbs. Still working double shifts but we might switch to 6 days/week single shift.

Overall, everyone here is really nice. It's a very family-oriented (or university-ish) environment since most people live in the restaurant. There are three girls (stagiaires - Me and Thea), and another Japanese girl who does the meat station. The rest are guys - roughly 7 just in the kitchen. It's really fun too - a more relaxed environment with a lot of singing and joking around. (The guys refer to everyone as "mi amoré" or "mon amour." They are quite entertaining to say the least.) Not to say the chef doesn't yell, scream, or shake people. But I feel less like a machine and more human here.

My "dorm" in Southern France

Moved to the South of France today for work. I had been sleeping 4 hours a night the past 3 nights so I pretty much passed out the entire train ride.

Here I am


My dorm that I share with deux filles. Pretty sweet setup, huh?




Check out our terrace. This photo doesn't do it justice. It extends all the way to the right - we share it with two other studios.


The view. Competely gorgeous


I feel so lucky. First day tomorrow.

Crepes and stuff

Long day of errands and rdvs. Went to school to take care of all my visa shit. Timo came with me so he could check out my school. Then met up with Nina for lunch (we were oh ~ only an hour late…). She made a fabulous meal for us. Later I ran some more errands, and then met up with CCN folks and food people for drinks. Good times. THEN to dinner ! Ummm, we were going to go to a French bistro but we (well me and TImo) were really craving crepes. We went to Josselin but it was closed. We went to another place called “Le Petite Josselin” which turned out to not be affiliated at all. But all good, it was still good (but of course not as good as Josselin). Very satisfying. Regarde !



Timo is happy to be back in Paris


Crepe Martiniquaise - bananas + dark chocolate + coconut ice-cream + rum


Nina's eyes are ALWAYS closed in photos


Oh I started packing at around 11pm since I am moving to Southern France tomorrow...

Gastronomie by the Seine: Day 3 + Amanda's Birthday

All I did today was snack on the boat. Chilled with Sophie, her son Ben, the “coffee guys”, and Amanda. Good times.















The other "coffee guys" from the Netherlands.


I left around 4pm and witnessed a rollerblading parade in Paris. HAH! Something is always going on.



Timo arrived last night too. Later, we went to Naniwa-ya for Amanda’s birthday. The restaurant sucked in both food and service. At least the stuff that a few of us ordered. So yes, don’t go there. After dinner, we got some wine and sat by the St Martin canal and drank some wine. Eldar asked a random guy sitting on a bench making out with his girl if he could take a photo of us. Turned out the guy was in the army with Eldar in Israel for three years. WTF! AHHAHAH small world.

Gastronomie by the Seine: Day 2

Today we just helped out a demo on « Irish Beef ». Grilled some skewers “saignant” and plated some carpaccio. Pretty easy day. Afterwards we enjoyed the hors d'œuvres and just hung out.













Cappuccinos by Malongo - really good shit


Rudy and Stephanie - Malongo folks








Around 10pm, we received the results of the competition. The rules were to produce a cold or warm salmon dish, and also a dessert with Valrhona chocolate. They gave the contestants a list of the extra ingredients they would have available. A Belgian girl received 2nd place for both salmon and dessert. Ryan from Manchester/London won first place for salmon and 3rd place for dessert. And Canadia won 1st place dessert, and 3rd place salmon. WOO HOO ! Felicitations! The prizes consisted of a nice amount of Euro, champagne, knife set, 3-day trip, etc. Very cool stuff =)







Me and Ryan from Manchester/London


After we just chilled and enjoyed the boat party a bit more.

Gastronomy by the Seine + Chef David Kinch/Manresa

Today I started at 7am - the Anglos at Ferrandi were invited to this awesome event to help out for the competition and demos. Originally I was asked to enter the competition because they needed a token Chinese girl but since I am American by nationality, didn't work out. No worries though. I was a commi for one of the contestants.







Then we were given these cute little box lunches which were pretty good.






The competition was split in two groups - 4 in the morning, and 4 in the afternoon. Canadia was in the 2nd half. Go Ferrandi!













Happy Bang-me, the commis. haha




Chris was quite happy to be finished




And Chef came for the afternoon portion to watch Chris and his other children/pupils put to work post-schooling. Chef - what did you used to say about not shaving?! ahahahh jk.


In the afternoon, I was fortunate to be Chef David Kinch of Manresa assistant for his demonstration. I was also able to meet his gf, foodie, and food writer, Pim! I am a big fan of her blog as well. They are seriously some of the sweetest people I have met. What a small world to meet them in Paris !

I was put in charge of chopping toasted nori really really fine, julienne-ing radish, and ciseler-ing chives. Who knew that it was a bit tedious to julienne toasted nori? I made a big batch the first time which was cut too big. I kept chopping and chopping until I got it right.





Chef David Kinch took care of the fish




So I am not the best at taking videos...


Isn't Pim the cutest ??






He let me practice slicing the fish scraps with his cool Japanese knife. Then I plated my own - too much sauce otherwise it was ok.





Me and Pim


Me and Sophie


F'in delicious tapioca with coco milk and pineapple by Sophie.


Their Chinese tea and dessert setup








Valrhona chocolate as well as other vendors were there


We finished around 11pm and sat down for a drink. Called it a night around 12. What a long day but it was so much fun! I was very happy to meet and hang out with everyone today.