Week 2: Potage and more

Midway through week 2 and I can't believe it's already Wednesday! Time passes by so fast (I guess when you're super busy!)
On Monday, we got a first look at Pastry class, and though we did not plow through some recipes, Chef Jamard showed us exactly what we were going to make in the coming weeks! I was drooling at the end: macaroons, pate a choux, millefeuille, tarte aux pommes, moelleux au chocolat, eclairs....
We will also be doing a bread making class every other week so get ready for baguettes, all the viennoiserie (croissants, danish, you name it!) - I will definitely post pictures of these delights!
In Cuisine, we continued with our taillage (cutting) for soups and I believe I improved! We had to tackle la Paysanne, la Julienne and this afternoon we'll be doing it a la Mirepoix. 

Recipe for the Soupe au Pistou (Minestrone)...and that's just the beginning!

Yesterday morning, we made 2 soups at the same time: Vichyssoise (served cold) and Julienne Darblay served hot. Both have the same ingredients: leek, potatoes, butter, cream and then pureed and passed through a strainer but one is put in a blast freezer and served with thinly chopped chives and the other is served with cooked carrots, turnip and celery a la julienne in the center.

Final plating of the Vichyssoise before presenting it to Chef Stephane

We also had oenologie (wine tasting/pairing class) but no degustation (which I was looking forward to after a long day). Agnes, our teacher, is super nice, very bavarde, as she says so herself and she kept on giving us information about the basics of wine for 3 hours (with a break of course). It was actually a very interesting class, just a lot of information to handle: what makes a good wine (1. cepage (types of grapes, there are over 200, but 20 are the most used), 2. terroir (where they come from: soil, climate, surrounding a chateau, etc... so that they may get their appellation (name: ie. only vineyards in Champagne can be called Champagne, vineyards around the castle Lynch-Bages can be called Lynch-Bages, etc...), 3. Savoir-faire (tailored to whoever makes the wine, dependent on their traditions, the way they age the wine, etc...).
Every 2 weeks we'll meet with her, we will then discuss, try and talk about a wine from a specific province, (depending on the provincial menu we're cooking - next week we're doing la Provence, so she will bring in wine from Provence). Can't wait!


Today is an afternoon shift, so first technologie at 12pm (talking about recipes, etc...) then afternoon we're heading towards les fonds (stocks) and first up is fond blanc de veau (veal stock) from scratch...yes...from scratch...I've been spoilt with powdered (ie. already made chicken stock in a jar) and the last soup (St. Germain aux croutons I believe)! Hurrah!