Finished, very tired, rabbit, sleep, massage

Didn't blog yesterday - went out after class to 'study'... and have dinner. Didn't sleep well last night. Got up early, read my exam notes and went to school for the last demo by Patrick Caals and the exam itself. Iinteresting where all the info comes from, but we knew fairly quickly that we had to make guinea fowl pie or rabbit tournedos + a technical dish; a bearnaise sauce.
My exam started at 16.30 and finished by 19.00 hrs. I made it, barely. It was tough; I had to make the rabbit dish. More info on the day and the exam later.

After class, I had a few beers at the local cafe, then home for a shower and off to bed; I'm tired! (No party for me tonight!)
On top of that, I'm having computer problems; crash, utra slow computer etc. I'll try to solve it later.
Tomorrow at 13.30 I have booked a massage - I think I've earned that one!

Goodnight,
Sj
PS: I think I've done OK in the exam - it could have been better, but I'm not unhappy with the final result.

studygroup (dream on !), market, wine and a very nice meal

Thank you chef Damien, for cooking most of the meal tonight; duck, trout, pheasant. And thank you James for the VERY good champagne and wine and the rest. It was a very nice evening.
(Pictures tomorrow!)
This morning I studied a bit, oh yes, it's true! I did the first 5 recipes (out of 10...) At 13.00 hrs I picked up Cris at metro staion Emile Zola to go to the market at Dupleix, have something to eat, coffee, buy flowers  and a dessert, 'study', and go to James' place for a nice 'study' afternoon. Damien was in charge of most dishes, but everybody did a bit to help out (cutting, deboning, chopping, washing up, drinking...)
The wines were great; thank you James.
Just got home at 22.00 hrs, time to go to bed. Tomorrow, we have the morning off, but I still have to 'study' a bit. Then a demo at 12.30 and a practical - don't know what it will be about, yet... I'll find out tomorrow.

A demain!
Sj

Anti-burn present from Priska.

Since I'm stupid enough to burn my hands or fingers on a (too) regular basis, Priska, who's in intermediate pastry, had the wondelful idea to buy me a very useful present; a silicon pan holder !

Since all the pans at Le Cordon Bleu are Inox / metal, this is probably a very useful tool for me. Thank you very much and I'll try the handle out next week in our last practical on Monday and at the exam on Tuesday.

3100 hits on my blog in 4 weeks time! Thank you all !

Today I got my 3100 hit on my blog since I put that 'flag counter' up. Thank you all for visting! I've got people visting on both my blogs (basic intensive cuisine 2008 and this blog) from more than 25 different countries.

A demain!
Sjoerd

Weekend! Friday 2 classes, beer and dinner

Finally, it's the weekend. We had quite a week. Long hours, studying, written exam (no results yet, but that was to be expected), demo classes, cafe, more cafe and practicals, petite bierre.
This is my last weekend in Paris. Next Saturday I'll be going back home to Amsterdam again. Time flies when you're having fun!

Yesterday, Friday, we had the morning off and started off with a demo and then our last practical of the week.
Chef Philippe again - it's a delight to see him teach. What a difference compared to other chefs.
The menu:
starter - sea bass and shellfish with aromatic vegetables
mains: veal tenderloin (rose), creamy risotto, mushroom duxelles and asparagus sauce
dessert: warm raspberry tart

How's that for a dinner?

The sea bass would be sliced very thinly and eaten raw. Very refreshing dish! Chef made a super raspberry tart. I'll make that one again at home, that's for sure!
The veal is cooked pink, the risotto should be creamy (make your own stock), the duxelles dry and the sauce, based on a Mornay sauce, green. This dish was our practical; not difficult at all. (Petri took it all home! bon appetit.)

Li Gang Liu enjoying his plate.

Levi & Bruno

Cris & Bruno

Judging ze plate!

Finished by 18.00 hrs, change and run to the pub for a few beers. After the drinks I returned home, got showered quickly (oh yeah, Rafaele - I did shower!) and went out to dinner near Odeon in Rue de Seine at Pere et Fille (or something like that) with Rafaele and Cristina. Very nice evening.

Forgot to tell you: I think I forgot my shoulder bag in the locker room or computer room (?) today. I only missed it when I went home at the end of the day. (contained laptop etc) It was brought in by the LCB maintenance-man. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The plans for the weekend: Study a few exam recipes - we need to know all the ins-and-outs of 10 recipes by Tuesday afternoon. I'll go shopping (supermarket that is..), Sunday my local market, buy Champagne or wine for Sunday afternoon bacause we're going to James' place to cook some exam dishes. Maybe I'll go to Le Bon Marche to do some shopping; don't know yet. One thing is sure: I have to study recipes!

Buying your (cook)books CHEAP - The 'Bookdepository.co.uk ' and free worldwide delivery.

Recently, I have found a great company on the web that sells books at VERY cheap prices. This UK based company, 'The Bookdepository', also SHIPS all the books you buy FOR FREE, wordwide. I have ordered books a few times now, and have not experienced any problems.

Check it out at: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/

For example, they have a huge selection on Cordon Bleu books - click HERE for more information.
Not only do they sell cookbooks, but also :
Art & Photography, Audio Books, Biography, Business, Finance & Law,Children's Books, Computing, Crafts and Hobbies, Crime & Thriller, Dictionaries & Languages, Entertainment, Fiction, Food & Drink, Graphic Novels, Anime & Manga, Health, History & Archaeology,Home & Garden, Humour, Medical, Mind, Body & Spirit, Natural History, Personal Development, Poetry & Drama, Reference, Religion, Romance, Science & Geography, Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror, Society & Social Sciences, Sport, Stationery, Teaching Resources & Education, Technology & Engineering, Transport and Travel & Holiday Guides

In short, a 'normal'big bookstore!

LCB intermediate pictures from Picasa. UPDATE TODAY !

Free download of my LCB intermediate pictures from Picasa. UPDATE TODAY !

I put loads of good and bad pictures I made in school in Picasa. Feel free to download any pics you like. In general, the pictures are about 100-300 Kb, but if you want the Mb shots, just send me an email and I'll (try to) send them to you.

check it out at : http://picasaweb.google.nl/sjoerd.servaas

I'll try to be good and update it regularly...

Stuffed lamb, super demo by Philippe C.and fish practical

Today was a 3 lesson-day. Not too bad. At the moment, everybody is tired. You can see it in their eyes, the way they react to things, people skipping classes, etc.

The end is near... today was lesson 27 I think, only 2 more to go and on Tuesday our final practical exam.

In a way this course was more intensive compared to the first 'basic'one. the speed is much higher, although I di'dn't learn that much new things. 30 demo's and 30 practicals in just 5 weeks is pretty intensive indeed!

Well, today started off in the cafe - not a bad start, as ususal. 2 espresso's, a nice chat and off to school around the corner.

Part 1.
Practical: Big piece of lamb (cut it, debone it, trim it, fat off etc) we had to stuff with raisins, dades, dried fruit and season the thing with olive oil and herbs. Sounds good! As a sidedish we made couscous with fruits/nuts/tomatos. And a jus from the (lamb) bones of course.
When I took out the sautee pan from the oven at 200C and left it on the stove, I decided to wash my hands quickly.... when I returned, I moved the pan a bit to the side - oops, too late... that was hot! @%#*& !!
Chef Clergue was supervising our class. He's our superchef; He's honest about the results, whether it's edible or crap, he tells you how to improve and he actually gives you tips how you can change things. Nice man.

And we had to make our technical dish that we are also making at the exam. A Bearnaise sauce. Not difficult, but a tricky sauce. It consists of herbs, a reduction of vinegar/white wine, yolks, a bit of water and clarified butter. It can go wrong fairly quickly. The sauce can split or be overcooked easily. I think I did OK.

Levi working on the couscous.

Damien plating-up.

Then our demo at 12.30; Chef Philippe in charge again. Personally, I think he's the best chef in the whole school, I've already said that before.
Today, we were in for a fantastic demo. Very full program, and chef was working at full speed. And, when he had some sort of quiet moment during the demo (stirring in a pot or so) he would discuss the wines that would go with these dishes. Great guy!

Starter: Salmon (forgot the details.. sorry)
Mains: Fish in a salt/bread crust with beurre blanc and vegetable 'pizza'
dessert: walnut tart and icecream

The main course was a lot (and I mean a lot) of chopping vegetables. And making dough for the crust and for the side dish, some sort of vegetable pizza. I've never seen a fish being baked in this dough/salt combination. I always do it in only a course salt/eggwhite mixture. The advantage of this new mixture is that it seals off the fish completely - no air can get in or out during cooking in the oven. He did a SUPER demo and his presentation of the dishes was fabulous.
Just the pictures:

seabream still in the salt/bread crust.

Fillet of seabream

starter with salmon/salad part1

dessert

starter with salmon/salad part2

encore dessert

After this, we had our fish practical. We could work in pairs, so that saved us a lot of time with all the vegetables chopping , gutting fish, making dough etc.

Chef Xavier was in charge during the practical. Two of us were knackered and didn't show for this pretty exhausting practical (but I wished the never smiling always whining bitchy agressive atmosphere spoiling and probable very unsuccesful ex-cagefighter and kicked-out-of-the-army bitch with a shit attitude wouldn't show, but no, unfortunately she was there... sucking-up to chef again; oops,sorry!). In the end the practical was not that bad....

The results:

Rafaele with his bread/salt crust fish. And James' fish also.

good job, I think.

My fish plate.

Chef Xavier Cotte discussing the results with petit chef Damien. Chef always gave us good and honest feedback - very nice. That's exactly what we want to hear.

Oops, I did it again - je suis stupide.... !

Oops, I did it again...... ! Yes, another burn. This time on my left hand, 3 fingers. I was pretty shaken after it happened and was sent outside to get some fresh air. Merde! It hurts.
Mark helped me to put some 'Biogaze'on it, and that is just super stuff. It cools down the blister/burn and relaxes the skin.

Two petite pictures....

I'm OK now, it doesn't really hurt any more. Thank you.

I'll update the burn counter on the blog.... 1 burn on the thumb, 3 on the index finger and 3 on my middle finger (one really long one!) = score of 7 for the counter.

Back on track, 'study', ze butcher is here, written exam today, beer

This blog update is about today, yes, I'm back on track again!
Today, Wednesday, we had the morning off (to study for the written exam), we had the butcher visiting chopping up a lamb, then the written exam and FINALLY beer.

I studied a bit this morning and went to the cafe, eh, to school at 11.00 hrs. Had a few coffee's with ze locals, changed into my smelly uniform and went upstairs to go to class;

Demo by Mr.Bean. Great chef. Seriously, I think he might well be the best chef in the whole school! Very precise, dedicated, knowledgeable, always willing to explain etc etc.

First, chef showed us how to make a good bearnaise sauce. We did this before in Basic Cuisine, but he showed us again because this will be our technical dish for our exam next Tuesday. Not that difficult, I think.
Then we had a visit of the butcher. He showed us how to chop-up a (big) lamb. Very interesting and an impressive performance!
some pictures:

After the butcher was finished chopping up the thing, chef made a dish with lamb and a Catalan dessert.

Then directly after this class, we did the written exam.

It wasn't that difficult and most people were ready within 30 minutes. I think I did OK, results may be in on Friday.

After the exam we went straight to the cafe and had a few pints...

Part 2; This week - Terrien's saucage, present, crayfish killing

Chef Terrien made saucages on Tuesday. They tasted good.
In the big pan: Chef T's big suacage.... oh yeah! Then a picture with the final dish and on the plate is Marc Thivet's little saucage..... Terrien made that litt;e one especially for him.

Chef also made me a small birthday dish: fritters something.

Chef doing origami for plating his creation.

Then a class with the crayfish killing and the mousselline. Levi is about to kill and Monsieur Liu made a creative mousselline..... don't know what happened here!

part1; This week - white (Texan) beenstew, Lesourd, ready for prison, new translator

An update of the week so far.
Today is Wednesday evening, just got in and I thought I'd give you an update of the last 3 days. (Part 1 and 2)

Monday: As I already wrote - a loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggg day.
Starting with a practical; White (farty) stuff with sauce, saucages, confit duck and pork. Chef Lesourd was running the show, joking around a bit too much. When it came to judging ze dishes he yelled at K: 'Let me sjust taste ze Texzas beanz, iz it like ze food of all yeur 'orses?' - no smiles there from the maker of the dish....
Good job!

.Le petit thinks he made a great dish...

And as usual there always time to joke around..... fill in the number youself and we go straight to prison!

What's that thing behind us?

Kissing chef's hand for good grades...., 'Look at me, yes, that's how you do that!'

Later that day we had a new translator in the demo - well, according to us she did a very good job and she can stay!

After the last class we all left knackered. How stupid can it get: weaving a 'carpet' with slices of boiled leek? Come on, that's some kind of therapy they do in mental institutions....

To cut a long story short: Last lesson was way too long and I'm not going to this practical on Tuesday morning.

birthday - alone in Paris..! present from Finland and chef

Thank you for all your best wishes, emails, sms messages, phone calls and kisses! 46 already...
And Jayne is not here..... #@! I'm all alone......
This morning I was so tired, I skipped (the wrong) class. Wrong, because the meat I should have been preparing was super stuff. But I just couldn't. (Cristina saved me a few pieces of the raw meat for tomorrow - thank you! nice birthday present...)
I went straight to the cafe this morning (11 'o clock) for coffee.
After that I got a very nice bithday cake (2) from Petri, who is from Finland. He bought two very nice pastry things on his way to the school - thank you! (The strawberry one was the best.) Most of the time he eats the dinners I make; He's still alive, so I must be doing something right somewhere.......

Today's demo and practical was about Lyon sausages, quenelles (fish) and we had to KILL crayfish (but only after we took the intestinal vain(?) out by pulling by it's tail - it was still alive!), this was only for the sauce - and we also made monkfish quenelles with this sauce and some kind of fritters dessert.
Chef Terrien was in charge. He normally only does superior cuisine demo's, but because most of the intermediate chefs are out, he had to do an intermediate demo. (Patrick is at the Nobel prize summit in Stockholm to cook, Franck is in Switzerland for work, so that only leaves Marc to teach - so chef Terrien helped out!)

Chef also made me a birthday dessert ! Fritters something - thank you chef!

Tonight I have to study - tomorrow we have our written exam. Don't know what to expect.

See you all again tomorrow!
Sjoerd

looooooonnnnng day, tired, wine, raining, beer, skipping class?

Just got in (it rains a lot right now/I'm soaked) : 23.15 hrs... Got up at 7 this morning, started class at 8.15, and had 4 (!) classes with chef Thivet.
Tonight he finished VERY late again, as usual - although I liked his meat dish..... But his planning sucks big time! Looks like he wants a demo to be 3 hours instead of the normal 2.5...
Today's first practical (white bean dish, prrrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttt !), then a demo, practical again (monkfish wrapped in bacon with broccoli and cauliflower, prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttttttttttttttt ! another fart, sorry. yes, I really am!) and a late demo by chef T.
During the last demo we had a few (4?) glasses of wine (thank you James/Damien) and after that I had 2 'petite' pints in ze local cafe avec Damien.....
just got in, I smell like a ...... whatever - I just stink (fish, bacon, meat, fois gras and the $%#! beans!) Shower, and then to bed.
And I'm thinking of skipping class tomorrow morning - this practical is too much work, I'm tired and the written exam is coming up on Wednesday .... we'll see. And I also have to study....

A demain,
Sjoerd
(in half an hour it's my birthday - thank God I'm not in the pub right now!)

Weekend; relaxing, shopping, studying and sightseeing

Saturday was a nice day. After a bit of rain in the morning it got better quickly, so I decided to get some fresh air (after studying a bit) and walk towards the Seine river. It was quite a walk from Dupleix, via Motte P. to the Eiffel Tower and Ecole Militair and then towards Museum Rodin. (Still no coffee...). Rue du Bac - did a bit of window shopping - and finally a belated breakfast with lots of coffee, eggs etc and a glass of vin blanc somewhere in the 6th arrondisement ! Yes, life sucks, I know....

I took the metro back from Mabillon (X-mas market has started again) because I just didn't feel like walking again. Got home to study a bit again. Reading recipes, recipes, more recipes and all the regional stuff we have to learn. Haven't got a clue what they are going to ask next Wednesday at the written exam, we'll just have to wait and see.

Sunday; Got up fairly early, read a bit in the Cordon Bleu binder and went to the local market at Dupleix metro station.

Fruit, flowers, fish, vegetables, bread, cheese, local protesters, homeless people, rich people, lots of 60+ people and occasionally a tourist. This market at Dupleix is twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. Very nice!

It was quite busy at the market and the weather was great!

Bought some fruit, had a chat with a local (oh yeah!) in fluent Franglais, but it was just nice.

Then breakfast in the local cafe on the corner of the market. I brought my LCB books and stayed for about 1.5 hrs.... Lots of gooooooooooodddddd coffee!

These three shops are my local boulangerie, fish monger and cheese shop.

Home now; Put the iPod on random play and turned up the volume, cleaned the apartment a bit, played on the internet, had a glass of vin blanc, studied a bit (encore) and did some ironing (LCB stuff).

Dinner: Bought a coquelet (mini chicken) with a baguette and a bottle of wine.
Tomorrow will be a long day - practical-demo-practical and finally an evening demo.... we'll finish by 21.00 hrs....

A demain!
Sjoerd