Au revoir, French dream!

The last few days of class, we made food for our graduation buffet and savory pastry applications. However, there was not quite enough to keep us occupied, so both days we sent about 2 hours every morning making different elaborate breakfasts. Our chef requested American blueberry pancakes, because he was heard so much about them. So, we had a selection of blueberry pancakes, raspberry lemon pancakes, and valrhona chocolate pancakes (YEAH!).

We also made some muffins and the staple, scrambled eggs. All of the French TA’s came in to see what we were making, and let me tell you, they turned up their nose! Apparently, the French NEVER eat scrambled eggs, and the prospect of a big breakfast is enough to turn them sour. We greatly enjoyed our feast.

The next day I am far too much free time so I made almond cream and currant tarts, berry parfaits with pastry cream and Chantilly cream, and quiche. I did have help from three of my friends, and then we feasted with the class!

Friday was graduation, and we all received our tall chef caps with much excitement!

They handed out of all the diplomas in a very random order, and I realized with some shock near the end that the director was running out of diplomas! However, it was all surprisingly wonderful. They hand out three awards, and I received the award for being the most talented student in the program! I was shaking with excitement, and then I was handed a 10-pound (I weighed it) cookbook from Alain Ducasse as a present. I could not be more pleased.

After graduation we all took group photos, threw our chefs caps, and then devoured the buffet of food we made ourselves. We had one last kir, (although not a royal, it was sans champagne)

and consumed savory macaroons,

Pistachio, litchi, and cassis verrines,

Smoked duck and peach macaroon,

Pate a pate en croute

Goat cheese lollipops,

And last, but certainly not least, two kinds of AMAZING caramel ice cream.

I cannot believe I had the opportunity to study here, and it was a wonderful two months to be a kid again. Now we can all hope I can obtain employment very quickly!

What I will miss most about France

I have spent some time thinking about this, and these two items may seem strange to some, but they are things that are not easily come by, and give me lots of joy.

The first is croissants. Plain, perfect, buttery croissants are the most delicious things to consume always. And they simply do not exist (good ones at least) almost anywhere in the US, and they certainly are not as cheap. All of the fillings are interesting and delicious in the croissants, but I love the plain ones the most.

Second, I will miss the magic chocolate tempering machine. Yes, it takes out some of the magic of chocolate, but it also makes it such a painless process. I could make bonbons every day and never grow tired of it. If I could do anything, I think I would open a chocolate and candy shop, but unfortunately, those usually fail in the US. I guess it will have to be an expensive and space consuming hobby!

The Creation of an Entremet

So, you all have seen photos of my entremet along the way. It was our final project, and we had 3 test runs, one final, and 3 periods of research and comments. I do not really enjoy making entremets, but I do feel I learned more than I thought I would from this experience. In review, here are the first two practices. The fillings and techniques changed each time, and the décor some.

Here are all of the decorations for my final:

And, voila! Here is the final!

It has a base on an almond sugar cookie, orange Bavarian cream spiked with cointreau and orange zet, a spiced cranberry insert flavored with anise, clove, and cinnamon stick. It is covered in a white chocolate glaze and it is decorated with chocolate curls, candied oranges, cinnamon, ansie, and chocolate disks. The chocolate disks have a cocoa butter transfer sheet with cranberry colored leaves.

Geneva and Chamonix

This was our last weekend to travel before returning to the states. We had a three day weekend because Friday was Armistice Day, a national holiday in France.

Alas, the “grave” continues…otherwise known as the most pointless train strike in remote France, which messed up all of our travel plans last weekend. After checking and triple checking that we would have a train from Retournac to St Etienne on Thursday, we arrived at the train station to discover we would have to take the same ill-fated bus that caused us so many problems the week before. Also, that smelly bus would cause us to miss our next train, and the train after that, so we would be unable to get to Geneva that night. We decided to suck it up and call a taxi. St. Etienne is a 45-minute drive from Retournac. It costs 110 euros to get there. The train ticket is 8 euros. We paid the 110 euros, and barely got to St Etienne in time to catch our next train. After lots of little travel inconveniences, we finally arrived in Geneva, Switzerland around 9 at night.

The next morning we headed out to explore what Geneva had to offer the world besides the U.N. and tax sheltering banks. There are more diamonds in that city than I have every seen anywhere else in my life. If you live in Geneva, you clearly have too much money. Window shopping was better than seeing both the British crown jewels at the White Tower in London and the French crown jewels in the Louvre. I have never seen larger or more exquisite diamonds, sapphires, rubies, or emeralds set into rings, necklaces, bracelets, and even a tiara or two.

                                       

Geneva also has a lot of chocolate and we each spent a small fortune patronizing many different chocolatiers. A large portion of those chocolates we may have already consumed.

We saw the few “major” sites of Geneva, i.e. a famous cathedral, the flower clock, the water geyser, the reformation wall (Calvin and Knox, and a giant monument to Zwingli) and the outside of the reformation museum. And many gardens that are actually still lovely in November.

Then we ate lunch in a yurt. I spent around 2 hours trying to convince my friends who had never heard of a yurt, that eating in a dirty Mongolian teepee was a bad choice. But no, they found the novelty of the fondue yurt too much to resist. In the end, it was actually a very classy restaurant inside and I had the most delicious fondue I have ever consumed. I ate so much cheese that a single morsel has yet to pass my lips since then.

After more chocolate and window-shopping, we made our way to the sketchiest train station I have ever seen. There were no employees, no power, no schedule, however lots of graffiti and overgrown weeds. Apparently, there are fires, homeless people, and all sorts of awful things that occur there, and Geneva has been trying to close it for years. Alas, it was the only station where we could get to Chamonix from. We hopped on a random train, took advice from a kind passenger and then hopped off two stations later. We then proceeded to try to buy our tickets with Swiss francs only to discover we had somehow magically passed out of Switzerland in the darkness.

We arrived safely in beautiful Chamonix, checked in to our hotel and went to sleep. Here is the view out of our bedroom window…magic.

The next day we woke up bright and early to take the lift up to the top of Mont Blanc. Apparently, the lift closes for 20 days a year, and we were there right in the middle of those 20 days. I tried not to be heartbroken and instead we took a cogwheel train up to a glacier. It was a steep and thrilling ride in a lovely red train.

                                             
                                             

We putzed around for a while watching all of the serious climbers put on their harnesses, crampons, and ropes, and decided that my ill-equipped traveling partners should not hike onto the glacier.

Then, I needed to fulfill a life dream of going down a luge track. I did succeed in going down the luge, but it is a metal one, not the awesome death inflicting ones you see in the Olympics. Apparently, only professionals are allowed. Someday. It was kind of a weekend of broken dreams, but Chamonix was so beautiful and wonderful that I didn’t really mind. Back to the luge-ing. I was super excited.

                                     

Alice was forced to ride with me.

Matt took it all in stride.

Rachel appeared to be miserable.

Action shots!

Final story…Alice lost her camera someone down the luge course. I am sure you probably shouldn’t be taking pictures anyways, but we spent a lot of time after our 5 minutes of speed searching for her camera, but it never was found.

To compensate for the loss of camera, we hit up some candy stores, and had delicious hot chocolate.

For dinner, we had a recommendation to try this all organic, French Italian fusion restaurant in an old farmhouse. It was a 3-hour and expensive dinner, full of tiny fancy plates. It was wonderful, and quite a memory.

 I love Chamonix and I hope to return someday!