Superior Cuisine - The Next Step, I've booked !

Yes, I've already booked for the next step - superior cuisine. I'll be back in Paris from 22nd March until 4th June 2010. That's a long time....
I found out that about a month ago, there were already 42 people on this list (max 60 students), so I decided to act quickly. I've reserved my place and paid...
I'm sure I'll meet some people I already know from basic cuisine and maybe James and Raffaele will be there as well. Hope so!

I have to sort out an (other?) apartment soon; they're already filling up. So, if you readers have any ideas/weblinks/hints/contacts etc, please let me know! (sjoerd.servaas@hetnet.nl)

And don't even think about visiting already......
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The program for next year will be: Paris Campus  -  Cuisine Supérieure

Description  Haute Cuisine: classique et contemporaine Précision et rapidité du travail en cuisine Maîtrise des techniques et des méthodes Elaboration de recettes avec des produits rares et raffinés Maîtrise de la planification des menus classiques et contemporains Adaptation des menus selon les disponibilités des produits et les saisons Maîtrise de la décoration et de la présentation Développement de la créativité personnelle Programme totalement en Français et Anglais (!) Pré-requis  Certificat de Cuisine Intermédiaire Conditions  Les candidates doivent être âgés d’au moins 18 ans au moment du début du cours .

The last two days in Paris...

Friday and Saturday morning; The last hours in Paris.... I'm glad to go home now. I've done lots of cooking and I want to leave now. Time to go back to Amsterdam! I've missed it.

On Friday, it was cold and windy. So we we went to the museum of 'maison des cultures du monde', Le Musee du Quai Branly, and then to Mark and Beth to have a few drinks and say our goodbyes. We also went to the market to do some weekend-shopping and on Saturday morning we checked out of the apartment; Thank you Ann, my landlady,  for the nice bottle of wine, my graduation present.

One final picture of the two 'Le Cordon Bleu' bloggers.

Saturday: Heavy snowfall, frozen train tracks between Paris and Amsterdam, a man with a knife in the tunnel near Amsterdam, long delays - but after 6 hours on the (high speed?) Thalys train we finally got home! (The Thalys stopped at the airport and didn't go any further... so we took a taxi home.)

Xmas is near - rabbit for exam! I did it.... I think!

Let me tell you a bit about the intermediate exam;
We have to 'learn' 10 recipes by heart, and in the end the chefs pick only two. We don't know which ones that will be....
So, you can imagine that on the day of the exam, we are asking around what those dishes will be! First rumour came to us in the local cafe on the corner - rabbit had been spotted, and it wasn't on the 'basic cuisine' list. So that was clear: it was ours!
The biggest challenge came later: what would be the other dish? So you ask everybody who has access to the downstairs prep-kitchen: assistants, cleaners, even chefs! We even contacted assistants who were at home.... In the end we found out that our second challenge would be a guinea fowl (pintade) dish.

After our demonstration class (lesson 30!), we had some time to prepare for the exam.

Damien and Levi helping out chef Patrick in the last demo; joking around a bit, as usual!

Last demo - champagne!

I can't explain it, but I was nervous. Drank lots (and I mean lots!) of coffee in the cafe. Our group was doing the exam in the 2PS (second floor, petit salle) kitchen. You go upstairs in pairs, and you have exactly 2.5 hrs to finish and plate-up for 4 'judges' (external chefs). The latter wasn't clear to everybody, some of us didn't know to the last minute, right before plating up, that we had to produce food for 4 people!

I went into the kitchen together with Mr. Liu, our Chinese guy. Rabbit was on the menu! That meant lots of deboning, filleting, chopping etc. In by 16.30 and finished at 19.00 hrs - I was exhausted. I did it !! including my technical dish, a bearnaise sauce. Yes, I forgot a few things, but who cares? (forgot my breadcrumbs in the stupid stuffing and in the end I produced a very nice jus - without the cream...) - but I plated on time. ('Chef' Liu was more than 15 minutes late...)

Guinea fowl pie.

Rabbit.
After the exam we downed a few beers and I went home. Some others did go out for dinner or parties, but I just didn't feel like joining them. Sorry about that. I was just knackered!