1st day at 'school'. The schedule, demo and practical.

Bonjour à tous!
Today we started our first superior demo at 12.30. Class was full with 53 people in 5 groups. There is one group of 13...  (but they're always in the 'grand salle' practical kitchen)
I'm in group B, together with Raffaele, who was also in intermediate cuisine when I was there last November/December. Actually, I was a bit nervous today. I arrived at school around 11 am, after I already had my daily stop at the local cafe for the usual espresso. It was busy in the school with all the new people, so I quickly found myself a good locker (or two) for my stuff.

The demo: Chef 'terroriste' Terrien was in charge.
After the introductions, hand-outs, schedule and 'recipes', chef explained his rules in demo. No walking around/leaving class, he will notice and punish you in practical, bring in coffee/beer/wine/rum before class - that's OK - don't even think about getting that during his demo. No talking during a demo. Lots of bla,bla, but we got the picture. By the way, 'terroriste' is chef T's favourite word. He is using that all the time: When you ruin a dish, when you're cutting wrongly, etc etc. Deborah was translating today.

So, today's menu was about couscous, shrimps, cauliflower and broccoli (Tabouleh), a nice summer dish, then John Dory, some rice, mango and papaya and for dessert baked banana's in its skin with banana sorbet with a hibiscus and rum sauce.

Actually, I kind of liked all of it - I'm sure I'll make all of these dishes at home. And guess what: you can be late in class or you can be LATE ! But showing up 10 minutes before the end of a demo.... some will never learn.

Straight after the demo we went into the practical; And yes, we ended up filleting fish and chopping up bones already. I liked my end-product, but some little (French? unknown, still don't know her name) chef gave me lots of comments and said 'très bien' in the end. Yeah right!

Raffaele plating the fish and rice.

When we started the practical everybody was kind of nervous or tense, but that changed during the lesson. at least we all smiled when it was over.... I think....

We also received our schedule for the coming months; more about that later!
Just had dinner at home; my leftover John Dory fillets with rice and sauce (not too much butter!!!) And I took all the trimmings of the papaya and mango home - nice breakfast for tomorrow morning. Next class is at 12.30 - 'just' a demo.
See you all back tomorrow,
Sjoerd
(pictures are not he best yet, I'm still playing with the camera to adjust some settings like white balance etc. and I still don't get it.)

1st class today; demo + practical et une petite bière..

1st class etc etc... more to follow later; just got in - a shower first please!