Practice, practice, practice...

I’m doing the dishes for my exam at the moment; As you know it’s turbot, a very nice flat-fish. So, yesterday evening I practiced my fake turbot. I went to the Sunday market at Dupleix, but they only sold HUGE turbot fish (at least 35-40 euro per fish). So I decided to buy a turbot look-a-like: Brill. Same texture, smaller and cheaper (yes Mark, cheaper!)

Cheap... I'm not like him, but Paris is soooooo expensive...

I tried two different cooking styles for the fish. Cooking it ‘on the bone’ and filleting first and then cook it with a special forcemeat/topping. Interesting results... I’ll explain in another blog-post.

I also tried two different garnishes, the simple ones; something with lettuce and something with the (mini) calamari.

Mon Calamari, different style (from Star Wars)

I still have to decide which one I’m going to use;

Tonight: practice evening for the Verrine in a shot-glass and two garnishes. The shot-glass has to be filled with a (drinkable, as in ‘liquid’) soup, served either cold or warm. I’m working on  asparagus soup at the moment. It’s asparagus soup because it is the season for it, but also because many people in class will do some kind of pea/lettuce soup, which is very French. And I want to do something else.... Regarding the garnishes, I’ll try to make some descent purees and combine the two (or maybe not).

A puree made from... little green 'pea kids'...

Tomorrow we have a double practical to practice our exam. I’ll try to aim for a 4 hour project to make two plates (different styles) and two shot-glasses with soup. I’ll also try to make some extra garnishes; just to see if it works with the fish. and it’s hot in Paris....and it's worse in ze kitchen..

Until tomorrow, Sjoerd

Update: My first attempt of the soup wasn’t that bad, but I’m not completely happy with the final result. Too ‘milky’ and too salty. I’ll try again!

Demo 28 & 29 on Saturday from 8.00 - 15.30....

Saturday – 2 demo’s ! Are they mad at Le Cordon Bleu? The first one started at 8.30... and after an hour’s break, we had the second one at 12.30 until 15.30.

It was quite a difficult morning in class because my neighbours, opposite my apartment, had a party until 5 ‘o clock this morning. Students...

Today, it was chef Philippe Clergue’s last demo. The final one, number 30, next week on Wednesday, will be given by chef Terrien.

Well, today’s recipes were:

Lesson 28, starter crabmeat in jelly with (molecular gastronomy style) pea pearls. For mains chef made filet de boeuf en gratin gourmand, aux champignons, croquettes de pommes de terre, asperges vertes et blanches au beurre – in short: beef with asparagus! And for dessert he made Tonka Bean panna cotta with cherries.

The most interesting bit was the molecular ‘cooking’, the pea pearls. Chef used Algin and Calcic to make these. Algin comes from brown algae and it can do magic tricks in/with water. Calcic is needed to perform a trick to make droplets; check out this link for making mango droplets; chef did the same with peas;

It was hot in class today; And everybody looked tired. I guess we all showed up just for some possible exam info....

Lesson 29;

·         Langoustine consommé with veggies

·         Semi-wild duckling with a parmentier

·         Watermelon jelly with melon, mint and Sauternes wine cocktail.

Not bad, not special. Allthough the consommé was nice, until chef put gelatine in it. What a waste of a nice soup, but he wanted to make a jelly, so you actually need to use the stuff. Today we got some ideas about plating dishes again, making a good pea puree and making a good potato puree. Exam stuff...

I went home knackered, did some shopping on the way (artichokes, fruit and wine) and fell asleep when I got home. At 7 ‘o clock I started to prepare the rabbit legs that I took home from school yesterday. Just finished dinner; not bad...

Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the market and buy some fish to practice for the exam. I’ll keep you posted!

Sjoerd

La petite chef - not bad at all.

The mini chef;

She's good, has a good pallet, she's only little - even with her chefs hat on - she's nice and she gives super feedback during the practicals. And she's the only female chef at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and certainly the youngest. She speaks French with us and sometimes a little bit of English. We call her a guest chef.

'La Petite' doesn't give demos, that's only for the Cordon Bleu staff. She's Korean and has done the Grand Diplome, did some other culinary stuff in Paris and worked for chef Robuchon (2* Michelin) - so she must be really good...

Yes, I do like her in the practicals; Especially the feedback she gives us. She sometimes stares at a plate for a minute or so, then wipes it completely clean and starts plating herself in a different way - just to give you some ideas. Wonderful ! I still write 'she', because nobody knows her name... even after all these months...

Making fun of Ms.'sweet sweet' David...

(pictures from Will's blog - check it out! )

Last normal practical (No27) today- one atelier and the exam to go!

Today, we had one practical, rabbit legs stuffed with minced veal, herbs and breadcrumbs. Chop, chop, chop, cut, trim, cut some more, remove some bones and push the forcemeat inside. And finally, my favourite – NOT - wrap the leg in caul fat.... (pigs stomach). Put in the oven and plate nicely. Served with endive and some slices of polenta. It wasn’t that bad actually.

We only used the legs this time ! (The rabbit's legs that is....)

Not everybody showed up in this practical today. The hours before, some us had a class in sugar pulling. They were very tired, had dirty clothes and just didn’t feel like showing up for just a rabbit’s-leg.

Tomorrow we have 2 demos in a row, no 28 and 29. The corresponding practical is next Tuesday, which is actually our ‘atelier’, or workshop, for the exam. In this double practical we can practice our final dishes that we want to prepare in the grand final. So, that means that today we had our LAST normal practical session. The rest is related to the final! Was did it all go quickly in the end!

Paris is nice these days; Lots of sunshine, 20+degC, everybody is smiling, people dress nicely (ha,ha). And lots of beautiful flowers in the parks. In the coming days I will not see much of all this – I will be practicing the final dish a few times at home. I’ll be going to the market this weekend and next week to buy some turbot and vegetables in order to practice.

For me, exam day is the Monday 31^st May. My session starts at 13.20 hrs and finishes at exactly 17.20 hrs. We’ll be with only 5 or 6 in the kitchen, which is nice. Normally it’s 10 people... More about the final later, including my menu and maybe the recipes as well...

Off to bed now, tomorrow class starts at 8.15 hrs...

A demain! Sjoerd

Today one demo and the written exam

Wednesday;

Chef Clergue is back from his ‘Down Under’ tour. He visited Adelaide and LCB Sydney. Chef was away for 3 weeks, and I kind of missed him in class. I missed his wine advice and his excellent demos. And in the practicals he’d give you lots of great advice,

unlike our always computer playing and shouting ‘mon ami, vous etes bien’ chef T. from Intermediate cuisine.

Today’s demo was about oysters, served hot or cold, a veal chop dish ‘en cocotte’- in a cast iron pot - (served pink) with a nice colourful vegetable mix and for dessert a cake with some soft chocolate inside. All nicely presented at the end of the demo.

Well, I’m studying again this early afternoon. I have a few hours off, before we start on our written exam at 15.30. That’s all about (6) ingredient lists, background information of setting up a restaurant business and all the terms and information the chefs gave us in class. Shouldn’t be that difficult.... I hope....

A demain! Sj

PS: update 23.30 hrs; I think I did sort of OK for the exam. Something has changed at LCB: the new director was keeping an eye on things during the exam, like a hawk - no cheating any more or... well, you get it ! We even had to change into our FULL uniform, including the safety shoes.

Studying, sleepless night(s), exam dishes and written exam.

There's a lot going on at the moment. The school schedule is not that bad, 1 or 2 sessions a day, even the odd day off, but we also have our written exam coming up this Wednesday and on the 31st May we have our MOST IMPORTANT practical exam. That last thing will give you sleepless nights! Oh yeah!
I have (too) many ideas and quite a few of you readers have given me some great input so far, but I'm still not sure what to make for my final exam.

As you know, we have to make a starter (soup, cold or hot) in a shot glass, and a main course with turbot. But it's quite difficult to come up with a balanced plate! Not too much, some colour, some height, some..... well, everything. So I'm struggling a bit and I don't sleep that well.....
Any 'exam input' is very welcome, thanks.

until tomorrow. Tuesday, I have a day off to study...I might even go to the hairdresser (not gay) .... or maybe not...

One of those dinners....

I went shopping at the Dupleix market last Sunday ; I mean, I do have to practice my exam dishes, but I just couln't resist...... the rest!

I bought some good fish, a dozen of oysters, asparagus and some wine. So..... that was a pretty good meal! And cheap!

A demain! moi

Verrines practicing evening

I tried two verrines (shot glasses/ starter/ amuse bouche / whatever) tonight, recipes thanks to Levi, who was in intermediate with me last year.

He doing an internship in Reims at the moment and I think he’s seen some pretty nice dishes in his restaurant until now. He had some good ideas and I prepared two nice verrines ‘my way’ !

I didn’t know what to do actually, so I just tried something. The result was not too bad. One of the dishes had a bit too many olives in it, so I’ll try to make that dish again soon.

And I actually put the pea/lettuce verrine stuff in the food processor.... don’t know if this was the original idea, but it tasted ‘damn nice’ , as Damien, my former classmate would say. And I seasoned it well; judiciously!

Then I prepared the lamb saddle I took from school today; I deboned it, trimmed it (fat off), made a stuffing of vegetables and finely chopped meat trimmings, sautéed it, put it in the oven, let it rest and thinly sliced it. Few glasses of wine later.... It was goooooooooooooood !

I also bought new batches of asparagus, brunoise (onion, leek, carrot) and some calamari and whiting. Tomorrow more practicing!

Sjoerd

the weekend

Not much blogging going on... sorry. I’m practicing a few dishes for the exam at the moment. Yesterday I tried something with an asparagus puree – well, that went straight into the bin! Another chance today, different method.

And I bought some fish to try that with the verrines. Let’s see how that goes.

I had a class today, but I didn’t go. Well, I did, but only to pick up the nice piece of lamb. That’s for dinner tonight! And I already paid for it.... I missed a demo the other day because I went to a lecture about marketing/branding your own business. That was held at the same time as my demo, unfortunately. To cut a long story short, I wish I had gone to the demo! Waste of time.

And, I’m studying. Shock!!! Yes, I have to read a bit about setting up a restaurant, recipes and general stuff the chefs told us in the demos. So yes, I’m studying. (With a glass of beer.... )

Until tomorrow, Sjoerd

(blogging via Email now; just to see if this also works)

Final Exam, FISH ! Turbot and calamari

Today, we received our ingredients list for the final exam on 31st May; It's fish ! Quite a surprise to me, but I'm happy with that. I do like fish a lot and this time we have to do something with turbot, calamari (squid), asparagus, fresh peas and lettuce. The rest on the list is optional.

We have to plate 4 identical plates, and 4 shot-glasses with a cold or warm soup (served separately). Total time available is 4 hours.
We have to make 3 garnishes, including a farce (stuffing) and a sauce or jus for the main dish. And, what's NOT on the list, is NOT available (like balsamic).

Please have a look at the ingredients list and the basic rules and if you have some nice ideas, please let me know! Email: sjoerd.servaas@hetnet.nl
And keep in mind the judges are OLD.... and very very French!
I hope to hear from you readers! Thanks a lot.

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.

I'm way behind with my blogging... the things I have to write about...

the things I have to write about in the coming days are:

• the recipes we did in demo and practical
• Jayne is back on mainland Europe after being stuck in Ireland for a week
• Paris in general - everything is green now
• class dinner at 'Le Doyen', a *** Michelin restaurant
• Rungis market - the biggest foodplace in the world !
• my 2nd Atelier (workshop) with sea bream, veal and sweetbreads
• class idiots; yes, they're back - the fat one and Ms.D.from Peru
• Jayne FINALLY arriving in Paris after 6 weeks
• dinner at the bar: oysters, shrimps and wine. Dessert in the back of a wine shop
• my (cheep) beer cafe is closed for 2 weeks; refurbishing / re-opened; nice!
• Chef Fred Lesourd; yes, he's back!
• my favourite US chef who ALREADY works in a * Michelin restaurant
• and probably much much more.........

Few days off, time to blog again.

I'm having a few days off now; Tuesday and Wednesday and this Friday as well. On Thursday I have my second 'exam',the atelier #2, so I've got some time to practice for that, and I've got some time to blog as well; Tomorrow, I'll post an update off my adventures of last week! promise....

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...

First 'exam' - the atelier, or workshop. Exciting stuff !

A few days ago I asked you for some ideas for my upcoming workshop. I received quite a few replies, thank you very much for that and it certainly gave me some good ideas. I did have a few sleepless nights over it... The chefs told us numerous times that we should keep it simple (and French probably) and respect the ingredients. Some things go together, some things don't.
I explained the rules before in an earlier blog entry; click here for those details.

On Wednesday, I went to Simon, the cookery shop, to have my knives sharpened. Just mention that you're from Cordon Bleu and mention the name of chef Terrien, and everything is for free. C'est formidable ! But..... the machine was 'en panne', broken down, so I had to go back the next day. So I brought 7 knives to sharpen.... ze man in ze shop was not 'appy....

So, to cut a long story short, I came up with the following menu:
My starter, two identical plates.
Chartreuse de saumon et gambas, mayonaise de poivron rouge, un salade aux herbs avec une vinaigrette de échalotes.
My main course:
Pigeonneau avec une glace de porto/miel, pommes de terre farci avec duxelles et cougette, oignons grelots glacée et tomate avec petit pois. Isn't that crappy French, or what!?

Yes, the bird is dead now!

Some details: I cooked the salmon (just put it in the oven at 150degC for some time, no oil, until done - don't overcook!), fry the shrimps and chop up (keep one for decoration). Mix the shrimp well with the salmon and cool off.
Make a mayonaise (egg yolk, mustard,salt/pepper, vegetable oil - no olive oil, that's too strong, whisk like hell, add lime juice and some 'jus' from the red bell pepper to give it some colour. Check seasoning all the time.
Use bit of mayonaise in the salmon/shrimp mixture to bind it properly and make it more smooth. Put all of it in a plastic piping bag.
The chartreuse: Using a mandolin (I bought one!) slice thin layers of carrot, red bell pepper (skin off) and leek. Blanch all separately, cool and pat dry. Then, cut into nice strips. Line a mould with clingfilm and 'coat' the inside with the strips of carrot / leek / red bell pepper all around. Finally, using a piping bag, fill the chartreuse with well seasoned salmon/shrimp/mayo mixture and keep cool in the fridge.
Presentation: Chartreuse, herb salad with a shallot vinaigrette and mayonaise on the side. Decorate the plate with some paprika powder.
I was ready with my starter at 10.15, which was bloody early, but I didn't want to plate first, so I waited a bit until 11.15 after 1 or 2 others presented their dishes to chef. I guess I was a bit scared.... don't know.

Chef really liked this one. It was colourful, I used different techniques and above all, the taste was good. I was really happy with it.

My main course was pan-fried pigeon breast, served pink, with a porto/honey glaze, a stuffed potato with duxelles and tiny sprigs of courgette sticking out, some glazed pearl onions and a (hollow) tomato with peas inside. And a nice pigeon sauce around the breasts. All well seasoned and served on a hot plate.
This one was OK, not really spectacular, but OK/good. My pigeon was slightly overcooked and I should have served the peas in the tomato as a puree inside it, not as whole peas. (And I did some therapy during the atelier - I shelled the peas AND I took the skin of the things.... )

All in all, quite an adventure. And please don't forget, this was the first time ever we've done it like this. So, next time the dishes will be more professional and colourfull etc., I hope! I really really liked doing it. Actually, if we can do this every other week or once every 3 weeks, I'd really like that. I've learnt a lot from this. And thank you chef Franck Poupard for supervising and helping us out to get more ingredients when needed!

One of the nicest things in class was that everyone did something completely different. Some did a starter with the pigeon, some made a carpaccio of the salmon, some deep-fried a lot. Well, there were so many different dishes, so here is a selection of the starters we've made in this atelier. (I will not post any names with the pictures and it's in random order. Nor will I put any comments with it.)

I'll post a few of the main courses on the next blog entry.
Sjoerd

Lesson 12; fish, veal and puff pastry.

Lesson 12, the last one before our first exam on Friday. On this Friday, we can sort of cook whatever we want within certain boundaries. I'll explain later in my next blog-post..
This lesson is all about fish 'a la plancha', with a méli-mélo de condiments (medley of condiments... dangerous, that could be anything!), a classic cuisine dish of sautéed veal grenadin with polenta and a stuffed artichoke and finally a puff pastry dish with all kinds of berries.

'A la plancha' means 'on the griddle', one of those FLAT grill plates. If you don't have that, just pan-fry the fish. And a trick chef did with this dish was to make thin slices of rhubarb using a mandolin, then blanch it in a 30 Baum syrup and then dry them in the oven at 90degC for a while. Candied lemon zest is also made in a syrup. Quite a few starters and desserts are made with these kind of techniques. Sometimes we even use the syrups in a main dish to candy lemon or lime zest.

Let me explain a bit about the syrup: 30 Baum syrup is a solution of 1.3 kg of sugar that has been dissolved in one liter of water. 18 Baum syrup is 700 grams of sugar per liter of water. It's all about the sweetness of the syrup you are looking for and the density of the sugar to make that.

The trick with the veal grenadin was to serve it pink, not red (undercooked), not brown (overcooked), but just pink. Mine was cooked to perfection as chef Bruno S. told me in the practical. I was really happy with that result! He even got others over to have a look at my dish. Yes, I did well... We served it with polenta; That's an easy one - you can shape that in every form you can imagine; French fries 'pont-neuf' style, flat, rounds, squares, even the shape of the Eiffel Tower...

Before I forget, a 'grenadin' is the same as a tournedos of beef (tenderloin). Because this is veal, it's called a grenadin. It's the name of the veal-cut.

My notes: Here are some details of the notes I make during a demo. Sorry that the pictures are not so good ! The first picture is the list of ingredients we receive, then it's all explained in the demo and the last two pictures are my notes. It's in 3 languages, all mixed up and messy... but at least I can read and reproduce it!

(click on the pictures for a 'blow-up')

Tomorrow, it's our atelier.....

See you all later!

Sjoerd

PS: the wines, how could I forget - with the starter we serve a Mediterranian wine, something like a rosé 'Ott', or something Spanish like Muscat d'Alexandria. With the main course we could serve a cabernet sauvignon, like Bouguoi from the Loire Valley. Don't serve a pinot noir or merlot. It's an acidic sauce with plain polenta. Medoc can be chosen. For dessert a sweet dessert wine, but when we have whipped cream, strawberries, we always go for....... ta,taaaaaa.... champagne!

We could even serve a creme de framboise or a Muscat wine from the Rhone valley with it. (This last one is tres parfumée and sticky.)

I'm back ! With food stuff. Nice food stuff.

Yes, I'm back on-line posting new stuff. Foodstuff. Sorry that is has been a bit quiet on the blog, but I've been rather busy, I was lazy, I just didn't feel like 'blogging' every day.
Right, where was I, a few days ago, regarding the food stuff? Lesson 9, on 11th April was my last food update, so here we go:

Lesson 10.
A demo on a Saturday. Bugger. But it wasn't that bad actually. Early afternoon class, run by chef Clergue.
starter: an artichoke salad with ricotta gnocchi and other stuff
mains: slowly cooked spicy lamb shanks with salsifi and spud-gnocchi (= practical)
and for dessert chef made pineapple and vanilla 'brochettes'with gingerbread and a coconut sauce with saffron. Not bad for a Saturday breakfast!

The Monday practical was by supervised by 'the liitle one' - chef Fred Lesourd.

Remember him from Basic and Intermediate cuisine? Well, he's back in town; he's been on a cruise ship for a few weeks (cooking, he says...) and now he's back at the school again. As usual, he was teaching us few tricks of the trade. Instead of adding spices ('spicy', as chef says) to the browned meat, he told us to grind it coursley in a pestle and mortar first, then rub it into the meat with a bit of force, and then fry it in oil. How right he was - much,much more flavour in the meat. The spices penetrated the meat much deeper. Nice one chef, thank you!

And he brought another gadget, a gnocchi board. We all liked it. It's just those little things that make a practical class much better. Lesourd is the perfect person to do all that!

And I've learnt how to cook salsify properly. I've done it at home before, but that went straight into the bin. I guess I overcooked that heavily when I made that some years ago.

A few things about salsify: use gloves when peeling them (stains) and put them immediately after peeling in milk (or water/lemon juice). To shape them nicely round, use those yellow scrup things you might have in your kitchen to clean the sink. The salsify will be perfectly white and nicely shaped. (Lesourd trick). Cook in a 'blanc' - water with flour, salt and lemon juice, until crunchy, cut into 5 cm sticks (cut at an angle) and finish off in the frying pan with a bit of butter and salt. Or just fry them in a bit of the jus you have from the lamb shanks. Even better!

My slowly cooked spicy lamb shank with a glaze and shitty shaped gnocchi. Good dish and I'm sure I'll make that again!

Then Tuesday, yes it goes really slow at the school, in general we have only one class a day - sometimes a day off and occasionally we have 2 sessions a day.

The 13th April, it's a demo AND the corresponding practical. Yippee!!! Chef Clergue again, he's a great chef, nice and explains everything very well I think. And he gives wine advice with every dish.

starter: a shotglass of guacamole and céviche (mirinated fish, like cod. White fish in general)

This can be served as an amuse bouche or as a starter. It certainly looks appetising!

The shot glass presentation is also part of our final exam in June. We have to present four of these (all the same) next to our main course. Also for four, and identical.

For mains chef made lightly pan-fried 'saint-jacques', a scallop parmentier and beurre de carotte. (Chefs plate and mine...)

Le dessert: Beet ravioli with berries (the ravioli is just the style of presentation)

Here are the wine suggestions for this menu that chef gave us;

With the starter, chef suggested a white fatty wine. It's a spicy dish with lime and raw marinated fish, so a Sancerre should go well with it. Or a nice sauvignon blanc from Chili.

For mains, the scallops, he suggested a Sancerre again (why not have the same wine with the starter and mains if that's possible) or a chardonnay from the Bourgogne. Something like Saint Aubain (spelled correctly??).

And with the dessert,the beetroot thing, which is also fruity, an acidic wine could be nice. Banyuls or a champagne rosé or a Madeira port is good! No vin rosé.

Sjoerd

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