Finished! I did it, plated on time and graduated!

Just a quick update; I graduated yesterday ! It was actually a nice 4 hr session, with only 5 of us the kitchen: Enzan, Hendrick, Liam, Miguel and me. The assistents helped us nicely with cleaning and taking care of extra ingredients.
The last hour went by so quickly, I can't even remember. I ran around the kitchen..... but I finished on time. The judges were happy with my plate I guess, because after a few minutes chef told me that ' it was OK' .
After finishing, Jayne came into the kitchen and gave me a nice beer! Thank you! What a way to finish the exam.

Finished! Time for a beer.

Here are some pictures of the final plates:more pictures later.

The three 'cuisine judges'.

Fighting for a beer...

I'll keep you posted on more news and pictures! A demain, Sj

Update Tuesday: Unfortunately, 2 people failed the exam, 1 in pastry and 1 in cuisine.

The weekend practicing a bit and 'le menu en Francais' !

It’s been a weekend of practicing a few garnishes. Making a puree, stuffed confit tomatoes and something with lettuce. I decided not to buy any fish because I know what to do with it anyway. So I bought HUGE steaks instead, yes, more than one! Nice.

The biggest struggle of this weekend was to write down the menu in French. In French ? Yes!!! Are they mad at LCB? I don’t know why we should do this, but it’s totally useless. I mean, all the lessons are translated into English, and all the chefs do understand some English. Maybe it’s ‘history’ because the superior class wasn’t always translated or maybe it’s because of the ‘old’ judges – they probably don’t speak English.... Anyway, it caused me some trouble, and Jayne helped me out big time!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you !

I also have to make a drawing of my final dish, so I went to the Monoprix supermarket to buy some pencils. That a job for this evening!

My menu for tomorrow’s final: Filet de turbot ‘artistique’ aux diamants avec une garniture de tomate confite remplie de ratatouille, une purée de pommes de terre et des petits pois, laitue farcie avec du poivron rouge et mini calamars farcis avec des bâtons de poivron rouge. Le plat sera accompagné avec un beurre blanc ‘herbes et Noilly Prat’.

Doesn’t that sound nice ?

On top of all this we have to make a soup, to be served in 4 shot glasses. I’ll be making an asparagus soup with a cheese foam on top and a dried thin slice of ventreche (pancetta).

I’ll be in class tomorrow from 13.20 – 17.20 hrs.

A demain, Sjoerd

Today and last week; Jayne in Paris! Lessons/market tour.

Let me start with today, and the things that happened last week;
We only had a 3 'o clock practical today - fish; cod with veggies. An easy dish to prepare and actually quite nice. I just finished that for dinner ! (after having a few beers with Levi from last year's intermediate class).
The practical went really well. I was first to plate and chef T. liked it. My gazpacho, French style, was really tasty. And the HUGE piece of fish was nice. I took most of it home (uncooked) to put it in the freezer. And I also found a few pieces of super-steak (beef) in the fridge from the group before us..... what can you do..... you just take it home! Right?
And this morning I met Audrey, from Amsterdam, whom I met at LCB Ams a while ago, with a few of her friends. They are in Paris for a few days and they booked a demo with the intermediate class. Thank God that chef Thivet was in charge and not chef Caals. Caals is great, but quite often he can be 'a bit hectic'..... to say the least. Afterwards we had a nice glass of wine in the local cafe near the school.

And finally Jayne was here for a few days! Yippee!! It took her a while to get here; 6 weeks.... She missed her birthday in Paris because she was stranded in Cork, Ireland, for a week because of some volcano... She arrived last Wednesday evening and left yesterday late afternoon. We had a great time together. Lots and lots to talk about, some nice restaurants, some good cafes, we cooked together, Jayne baked bread (with eggs in it and without... ha,ha). And we also went to the 'chef invite' at LCB together to follow a demonstration about catering. Chef Roger Raymond of 'Duval traiteur' (yes, click on the link please, it's nice!) did a demo about a 'smoothy de tomate' (please say out look in French...), scallops with a purple spud puree and a tuna and daikon 'thing'. It was very nice actually. In 3 weeks (on exam day) time, Jayne willl be back in Paris! 31st May. I'm looking forward to it already!

What did we do in school last week? Let me see - lesson 19-22. And we went to Rungis, the world famous biggest food market in ze world. That was a nice day out; Get on the bus at the school at 6.30 and be back at 13.00. Interesting tour.

Let me get back on the lessons we did some other time. It's a bit too much for now.... sorry.

Rungis;
some pictures; getting dressed for the freezer, beef, cheese, vegetables and flowers. Breakfast in one of the 21 restaurants on site.

Artichokes; the trauma of many in basic cuisine...

Until tomorrow.

Jayne still stuck in Ireland; no visit ! yet...flight cancelled again.

Jayne is still stuck in Ireland due to the Icelandic volcanic eruptions. (click on the link for a video!) Actually, most of the airports in western Europe are still closed down due to the ashes in the air.

Jayne is booked on Tuesday's afternoon flight to Paris now - l hope she can make it, I miss her! She's already stuck in Ireland since last Thursday, when she was supposed to fly to Paris... We'll see what happens in the next few days.

Update, Monday evening: It looks good... it seems that flights are going again tomorrow! The flight Cork - CdG (Paris) is still  'on time'.
Update, Tuesday afternoon: All flights from Ireland cancelled again. No Jayne in Paris! Tomorrow's flight to Paris is fully booked and Jayne is now on the late afternoon flight to Amsterdam tomorrow (the last seat!). This time it will work out perfectly to get back to mainland Europe, I'm sure. I guess...

To fly or not to fly - Iceland's revenche ?

To fly or not to fly... that's the question; Jayne's in Ireland at the moment and she was supposed to be on the Aer Lingus flight to Paris today, but.... due to overnight volcanic activity in Iceland, extensive flight disruptions are being experienced today throughout the UK and Ireland. So no Jayne in Paris today! %^*$! She has been booked on tomorrow's flight now (if it actually goes..).
And some people don't like these flight cancellations at all; click on this weblink. Well,  he's Scottish...

Some volcano news: click HERE.

Iceland - nice country - IceSave - bad management - money - volcano - no money - more volcano's - UK loan - Dutch loan - high interest rate - referendum - government Iceland gone - some Icelandic people blame UK and NL - eruption - lava - ash - more eruptions - no flights western Europe - no Jayne = Icelandic revenche !

Hopefully, Jayne will be here tomorrow, right after I had my first exam, the atelier that is all about squab, salmon and shrimp. A demain!
Sjoerd

Jayne going home, sushi and sweetbreads/quail practical

Today, Jayne went back to Amsterdam. Yes I know, somebody has to make some money; I understand who the breadwinner is at the moment! We went to the Gare du Nord together and I dropped Jayne off at the Thalys. It was a very easy-going trip for her; Paris-Amsterdam in 3.15 hrs. That's just great.

After I left the railway station, I walked around the city centre a bit and then I took the metro to Vaugirard, near the school. It was lunchtime, so I decided to have some sushi. I had a nice lunch with miso soup, a salad and 12 maki (with lots of wasabi) for only 8.80 euro (menu N) - no beer or wine yet...

Then to school, to do the quail and sweetcrap practical.

I cleaned the bird, chopped off its head, legs, toes,wings and tore the liver,lungs and heart out. Then I cut off the breast, and trimmed the meat before I schredded the carcass completely with my cleaver. What a great way to start a cooking session!

The end-result wasn't too bad. I actually took the leftovers (a whole pie) home and just had it for dinner with a glass of white wine. According to chef Clergue, that should have been a full bodied red wine, but who cares.....!?

My dish.

See you all tomorrow! Sj

(And I cut myself twice today; new knife....)