Day 4

We did not have cooking labs today, instead we had 3 hours of research and discussion time for our entremets project, 2 hours of French, and then we finally moved in to our bungalows.

The entremets research time was a surprising amount of fun. We sat around and discussed flavor combinations, structural issues, and personal dessert preferences with other aspiring pastry chefs who have all been professionally trained. You get great ideas and run down a rabbit trail with a malt themed entremets, then joke about making a ham bacon entremets (or one with marshmallow fluff which the French find particularly repugnant) and all while refining your own desires. I know there are cut-thought awful chefs out there, but was nice to simply talk like like-minded people.

French was fine. I’ve had enough languages that I can read along at a basic level and get the idea, and my pronunciation isn’t bad. However, I have absolutely no idea what people are saying when they are talking. I rarely recognize a word-all of the sounds run together and I just say, “I don’t understand” in French. I like learning languages though, so it’s fun.

We moved into the “bungalows” or apartments we will be living in until we leave. It is so nice to finally have two rooms and a kitchen and an ounce more personal space. Stephanie and I still share a bedroom, but she has a desk in the bedroom and I have a bookshelf with all of my stuff in the living room. We are living out of an IKEA catalog: everything is stark, black, sliver and orange. However, it is much more comfortable than living in a tiny hotel room.

This town in absolutely beautiful. I think I find it so mesmerizing because I have never lived anywhere with hills. Oklahoma is flat, Indiana and Illinois are flat, and Denver is flat and then abruptly upward. But here, undulating hills melt into a purple cloud on the horizon. Every morning I swing open our shutters and the light is different on the hills, and just a few more leaves hint of fall. Tile roofs, stucco farmhouses, beautiful gardens and steeples in the distance make every morning appear more like a vivid novel than my life. Apparently fall is generally cold, gray and rainy here, all our chefs are saying this is unnaturally beautiful. I never want the weather to change, but I know fall is coming. 

Day 3

We finished both our raspberry bonbons and our chocolate caramels. To finish the raspberry bonbons we simply painted them with luster dust-they look like a beautiful sunset in real life, but in these photos they just look brown. They are delicious, but I prefer raspberry ganache without butter, I think that the dairy obscures the flavor.
                               

                       

The chocolate caramels we dipped in chocolate and then covered in crunched up nougat. They are delicious!
                         
                      

                     

The nougat is caramel and almond, incredibly sticky, and we had to mold it for other decorations.  
                      

We also worked on our puff pastry dough which we will finish on Friday, but I have no photos to show for it! We are being fed both lunch and dinner for the next few days, so we are getting full, delicious french meals every day. We have had veal stews twice, steaks, lots of amazing potato dishes, etc. It's always at least three courses: an appetizer course, a main course, then a cheese/yogurt/fruit course. Here is our lunch from yesterday: a veal and carrot stew over buttered noodles, and then delicious local yogurt for dessert.
                       

                                   

Day 2 of Labs

This is the crest of the school.

All of the girls in my class (we made the two boys take the picture for us)

This is the view of the kitchen out the open window to the hills around. Sheep graze and bleat right below our window all class long.

Today we made chocolate candy, or bonbons. First, we made chocolate caramels. They have the texture of a chewy caramel, but the combination of chocolate and caramel together makes them taste divine. We started out by making a dry caramel, which always makes me nervous, and I had to make in on an induction stove where everything is way faster than usual. However, mine came out without a scorch, so I was quite relieved. Then, we had to temper in the butter and caramel and cook the whole mixture to 118 Celsius, which seemed to take forever. Making candy always puts me on edge, but I still really enjoy it. We still have to dip it in chocolate, so this is the unfinished product, but it looks like chocolate glass!

Here are some of the girls working on our chocolate caramels.

Next, we made Raspberry ganache bonbons. They hardly take any time to make with a tempering machine, it is amazing! In addition, there is no worry factor of hoping they will release, and be shiny enough, etc. They just pop out, all beautiful and uniform. If only all chocolate making was this easy. I chose a square mold with sharp edges, which is the most difficult to pour because you frequently get air bubbles in the corners. I was a bit out of practice, but they turned out pretty well overall. However, the chocolate is 3-5 degrees cooler than I am used to working with (which is a huge difference) and it sets so quickly so you have to work like lighting. Here they are unfinished-tomorrow we get to decorate them with ridiculously expensive luster dust, so I can’t wait. And who doesn’t love a raspberry dark chocolate truffle?

Day 1 of Labs

Chef Josh (his name is Jocelyn, but apparently Americans can never pronounce it correctly) is our chef and there are 11 students in the class. I am currently in labs from 1 pm to 8 pm with a 15 minute break. We had croissants and pain au chocolate with café for our break yesterday.

We made two cakes in class today, gateau au chocolate and cake agrume (which is a citrus cake). Both were made in small loaf pans and then once they were taken out of the oven we dip them in heavy syrup, which is like simple syrup with an invert sugar added. The syrup is to keep a crust from forming on the outside of the cake, in order for the cake to be a uniform texture throughout. We only tasted the chocolate cake, but it was delicious. It’s a drier, denser crumb, while still being very soft, and it had chopped up almonds and hazelnuts inside. It had a taste like a homemade brownie, but a cake texture. Chef spends a lot of time telling us to watch the consistency of the batter. I know if a batter is really off, but I certainly don’t have the abilities to tell minute differences in batter consistency, so it will be interesting to learn.

Finally we made pate a tartiner, which is an unusual mixture of hazelnut paste, hazelnut praline, cocoa butter, milk powder and a lot of sugar. It tastes sort of life a caramel/butterscotch pudding, but with hazelnuts. I don’t really know how to describe it. Then we made chocolate cups to serve the pate a tartiner in. Oh!!! We have a tempering machine…its heavenly. At only $30,000 euros or so I think it sounds like an excellent Christmas present! Chocolate constantly pours out of the mouth of the machine, and all you do is take what you want and pour it into molds. Then, voila! 10 minutes later or so you can remove your cups and you have perfectly tempered chocolate, shiny and crisp.

Today we are supposed to make bonbons…I have no idea how. Can’t wait!

Annecy

For out first weekend we decided we wanted to go to Annecy, a town on the edges of the Alps and a major sport-vacation area for the French and British. You can hike, bike, boat, scuba, stroll; eat fondue, and more in this charming city. Stephanie, and a guy from Providence named Matt and I left the rest of the group hanging out in Yessingeaux for the weekend and hoped on a number of trains. It was a very long journey to get to Annecy from Yessingeaux. The French countryside is truly beautiful. The first leg of our journey from Retrounac to St. Etienne was enchanting as the sun rose and burnt off the mist from the hills and valleys. White cliffs jutted out from thick underbrush and lined a quiet and slow river flowing along the valley floor. From Lyon to Aix de Bains our train hugged the rim of a long, narrow lake, dotted with fishing boats and sailboats. Across the water we could make out magnificent chateaus. One looked exactly like the town in the Little Mermaid when Ariel first becomes a human and is stranded on the beach. Obviously, I felt like I could be in a fairy tale.

Annecy is lovely and warm. We found our hotel, Hotel Central, easily from the train station. The room is small and quirky, but the price is right and its well located. We are on the third floor and the back alley out our window is actually one of the many canals running through Annecy. We left our window open to let in the beautiful day. Children played below and the café’s hummed busily. Real church bells sound the hour across the street and the room resonated with the noise of the day.

          

Annecy is at first glance a busy European city, full of narrow streets and cobbled side walks. Then it gives way to a series of canals and walkways in the center of town, overflowing with flowers reflected in the teal waters below. The canals look like Venice- there are doors and docks that open on the water, but I never saw any boats, so I don’t think they are used anymore. The canals all lead out to the lake, which is full of any amusement you could want. Paddle boats, river cruises, kayaks, scuba divers and more wait to take you on the water.

We grabbed lunch right outside our hotel, a brief bite of pizza and a bottle of water. We painfully hobble together our French. Then we made our way to the Ives Thuries chocolate shop. He is the co-owner of our school with Alain Ducasse. I bought a citron (lemon) tart and a milk chocolate and salted caramel with fleur de sel. Stephanie got the caramel as well and a tart noir (dark chocolate). Matt got dark chocolate framboise (raspberry) and a “sachet” of white chocolate macaroons. We walked to the park on the lakes’ edge and indulged ourselves. The caramel was incredibly soft without being runny, and each bite was the perfect texture. The filling of the chocolate framboise was decadent and fluffy. The tart noir, oh, the tart noir. The crust was a delicate, almost crystal-y crunchy short bread crust and it contained two layers of dark chocolate inside. It could not be better. The citron tart had the same delicious crust and the lemon filling was a perfect balance of sweet and tart. I love lemon tarts.

 

We hiked up, up, up and around a diocese trying to get into the church. After about a 30-minute hike up a mountain we finally arrived at the front of the church. I think I almost killed Matt and Stephanie with my Colorado pace, but we made it. Once at the church I realized if we had taken a right turn at the beginning, we only would have had to walk up 20 steps or so. Oh well, we needed to work off our lunch of chocolate. I don’t know much about the church, except silent nuns live there. Everything was in French so I am an uninformed American.

 

We ate dinner along the canal directly across from the famous women’s prison that is in every photo of Annecy. We ordered a prix fix meal of salad and cold cuts, delicious Swiss fondue, and chocolate fondue. All the French that passed by laughed at the chocolate fondue. Maybe only Americans eat chocolate fondue? I’m not sure, but apparently, something was funny. It was a slow, relaxing, delicious dinner, and we all went to bed fat and happy.

 

The next morning we all took an hour-long boat tour of lake Annecy, which is a sizable lake. We saw all the different towns that ring the lake, complete with major chateaus and castles. We learned some history, but the French guide would speak for 10 minutes, then the English guide would speak for maybe a minute. Either the French are excessively wordy, or the English passengers learned a whole lot less information. The water is an incredible teal color, and the cliffs and towns around were movie picturesque. The lighting wasn’t great for pictures, but it was a lovely ride. Para-gliders flew high above, wake boarders crashed by, and kayakers hugged the cliffs. There was a castle on a peninsula that looked absolutely fairly tale worthy.

 

 

 

             

We landed back in Annecy just in time to catch the end of the Sunday markets. There were freshly fallen chestnuts, a rainbow of green beans, beautiful garlic, and fresh flowers. There was also sausage, cheese, bread, and clothes. We bought cheap Paninis and wandered through the marked.

 

 

Then, before I could even finish my lunch we arrived at the most popular elaterid (there were hundreds in the town, it seemed) and ordered the first of our two ice cream cones of the day. I had a double (with a “free” third scoop) of framboise, citron, and almond. The second time around that day I had tiramisu and the most amazing dark chocolate. I’m in love with this dark chocolate gelato. In love. 

The town was full of lovely chocolate shops and here are some of my favorite arrangements.

Also, I experienced my first French lingerie shop. The window was covered with different underwear, and fake squirrels frolicked among the underwear. I’m really unsure what the marketing message is behind that. Anyone?

There weren’t many important historical sites the see in Annecy, and overall we simply enjoyed ourselves, delicious food, and took many walks. Lovely Annecy.