A new love, in Hell's Kitchen

Things have been going well here in Paris. After the first day of class, when I didn't understand a word of what the chef was saying, I think I've really improved in my comprehension and my speaking. At the demonstrations, where the chef is lecturing at us, I pick up about half of what he's saying. Granted it helps that there's a bit of help from contextual clues, but I can see it getting better and better. One of the chefs in practical spoke to me the whole time in French and even when giving me feedback on my dish, told it all to me in French, and I understood!

Also, I have finally figured out which milk is low-fat and which isn't....the hard way. I had been drinking whole milk because I didn't know what the word "entier" meant. One day, in class, I looked at a recipe and it said, "amandes, entier" translated to "almonds, whole." I thought to myself, "where have I read that word?" and then realized, "oh great, I've been drinking full fat milk this whole time."

A couple times I've been stopped on the street and asked for directions. I mostly assume that they're asking for directions because I don't understand a word of what they're asking, so I just say "Sorry, I don't know." (in french) The other day, I was running over to the Eiffel tower and a woman stopped me to ask me for directions. I was about to answer my usual "I don't know." but realized at the last second that I understood where she was asking directions to and that I actually knew how to get there. Luckily for me the directions were able to be pointed out, so I gestured to it, instead of trying to actually get the correct words out.

So, I have a new love. An unlikely candidate to grab my attention since he's known to be a complete jerk. Oh wait, maybe that's exactly why he's grabbed my attention. Anyway, the new love -- Gordon Ramsay. I started watching "Hell's Kitchen" which is a "Top Chef" kind of show except it's more Gordon-centric. Premise of the show is to get a group of 12 contestants to work together in two teams to run the kitchen of his restaurant, Hell's Kitchen. During this, Gordon doesn't hesitate to tear apart the contestants by swearing at them and not only identifying their incompetency, but ranting loudly in the open kitchen so even guests can hear this.

In the first episode he tells each contestant to make him their 'signature dish'. He then proceeds to spit out many of them and say things like "This is dog shit." (pardon my French, lol.) Anyway, now you'd wonder why I like this guy, right? Well, I admire him for his perfection, and he has a mentality that if you push people to the utmost, you'll make them the best they will ever be. And he's not all criticism, every now and then he'll say something like, "this risotto is spot-on" and a small compliment like that will mean the world to you. Also, at his restaurants, if one dish has to be remade (before it's sent out, by the way), he has all the dishes for that table remade. It's the perfection that he demands and strives to bring out of these contestants that is so awe-inspiring to me.

Cinnamon Shots

With my recently renewed antisocialness, I ended up feeling bad that all I do is read and walk around Paris. My first practical made me realize how badly I needed to learn French. The chef would give us instructions on what to do or how to do something, and I'd always have to whisper to a fellow student, "What'd he say?" Plus, the chef was a really friendly guy and had I know the language, I coulda befriended him as well. So I asked some of the students what they did to learn and they all just said that I should talk to anyone and everyone. Thus, my realization that being a loner may not be the best way to capitalize on my time here.

So I set off to an area I had read about, a little market area about a 15 minute walk from my place and right next to the Eiffel Tower. I sat down at a small cafe that specialized in crepes and struck up conversation with the family that owned the place. They were really friendly and it turned out really great! (The lady forced me to have a dessert crepe after my savory one, and by forced means that she gave it to me for free!) We struggled to get our points across but we talked about percentages of cocoa in chocolate, so I'm sure something I said must have been getting across. I figure, if I keep up with this, 3 months later I may not be absolutely horrendous at French. I'm even trying to use different tenses!!

On Saturday, a friend from school (Merrie) and I decided to go to a farmer's market that is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We really were there just to look at it so we were chatting away, walking past the booths. All of a sudden, I stopped listening to her and started staring at this basket of little, dark brown, mound-like objects. Truffles!! We were both so shocked because we had never seen a truffle before. So we decided to buy it and decided to make dinner out of it and had a little dinner party. Since Merrie and I are both pastry students, we had our cuisine friend come over and handle dinner.

So what chef students do for fun at a dinner party? Well...apparently it's "impossible" to swallow a teaspoon full of cinnamon powder. Everyone was thinking, "how can something like that be impossible?" We got three of the kids to do these "cinnamon shots" of which 2 ran to the sink to spit it out and came back saying, "Oh my god, it really is impossible. Your mouth is immediately dry right when you put it in your mouth." One kid actually swallowed the whole thing after struggling, but can't really stand the sight or smell of cinnamon anymore. Traumatizing, to say the least. Try it sometime. Maybe as an icebreaker at a party?

The Meat Scare....Revisited.

I had my first day of classes today. Man, the Cordon Bleu Paris is so much nicer than the one in London. There are altogether 12 chefs, and the facility is really cute. There's a nice little area in the center with a skylight, where they've put little tables and chairs for you to go sit and eat lunch or mingle, or whatever. Anyway, if you've seen the London version, this is luxury.

So we had a demo, in which the chef spoke French the whole time, and this lady translated everything, including his JOKES. Clearly, some of the jokes lost their punch by the time they were translated. The problem is this though, although there's a translator in the demonstrations, there isn't one in the practical. Meaning, if he gives directions, he gives them in French, and if you ask a question, you should be asking in French and he will respond....in French.

But what's inspiring is that a lot of the kids, who had done the last course in Paris as well, have started understanding French just through the class. My problem is mostly that I can speak to get by, but when someone responds to my question, I have no idea what they said.

But you know, you'd be surprised how much you understand when someone is upset and ranting at you. The chef had been constantly complaining about the heat in the room for about the first hour of the class. Halfway through, some genius kid asks "can we turn off the A/C, we're all cold over here." The chef stops what he's doing and goes off about how he will turn it off today, but next time the students who are cold should come wearing their coats, scarves, hats, gloves, whatever. He then proceeded to tell the students that maybe they should come down to where he is and warm up, since he clearly was sweating under his chef's hat. Anyway, I caught all that by myself, because when the translator went at it, she definitely toned down his sarcasm and anger.

So, some of you avid readers of my blog may remember the first day of Cordon Bleu London, where I read the list of things we'll make and thought I was to make chicken. Clearly, it turned out I was and idiot and it was just a fake chicken made from marzipan. Well, this time around, I started flipping through the list of things to make and got to "Chorizo Puff Pastry" (or something of the sort). So my meat knowledge may be less than the average but that seems like sausage to me. So I turned to the recipe page to look at the ingredients, and turns out, that day is when we learn to make the "Petit Fours Sale", basically meaning a selection of salty "treats." (What is that saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure"?) Anyway, turns out we DO have to make meat. I'm still trying to figure out how to work with that one. Maybe I'll save that for my sick day?

Long time no blog

The blog went on a standstill while Antara and Rachana visited and then all through Christmas. In a nutshell, Prague, Dubai, loads of mall trips to do Christmas shopping, and a couple dessert making adventures at home.

But now, I'm in Paris! Happy New Year by the way. I'm actually really excited about this year cuz towards the end I'm gonna be in Seattle, starting a new phase in my life. It's so cliche sounding, but it really is true.

So first day in Paris. I woke up really early because of jetlag and decided I'd walk to the Eiffel tower since it's only 2.5 km away. I kinda got a bit lost and kept hoping the tower would show up and then boom, it was right in front of me! It totally sneaks up on you and then as I kept walking, it disappeared again. Then when I saw it again, I was almost underneath it. Some people say that it's overrated but I don't think so at all. So I just walked around for 4-5 hours, took the metro, got some groceries and made myself food. This sounds nice and boring I'm sure but it's kinda nice doing this all in a new city.

Anyway, the plan is to go jogging to the Eiffel tower a couple times a week or as much as I can.
I mean, if I'm not gonna go running to the Eiffel tower, when in my life am I ever gonna go running?

Then my stupid eye, the pink eye, has spread to the right eye as well. It's really annoying because if I sleep for even 10 minutes, my eye is glued shut. It causes me to sleep longer, so I don't have to deal with the waking up process of soaking my eye to unstick it.

Well clearly, day 1 hasn't been too eventful, but I'm excited for the next couple months. I've been trying to speak in French which is pretty fun, even though I could get away with speaking in English.