Graduation Day

Three months after school was over, we have officially finished our obligations for the school and eligible to get our Diploma.  The diploma ceremony and cocktail party took place last Friday at school. Everyone showed up from all around and it was very emotional. We all met in the library to sign the cards for our chef’s presents, then went up to the first floor restaurant.... Read More

After 5 Month In Ferrandi

It seems like it was just last week when I first came into the school, sitting in a room full of strangers, waiting to be introduced to the kitchen and equipment and start a new episode of my life. But if I think about the first fish I have filetted or the first dough that I baked, first soup I made,  it seems like forever ago. I have learned so much in this short period of time.... Read More

Lunch At The Cafeteria December &January

Each month I published the school lunches sumup. See September October and November. This is gonna be the last post with pictures from school lunch. Two months put together because we had 2 weeks off in December and January we even had less days we had lunch at school. I’m not in the mood to rate the meal, mostly because I can hardly remember but enjoy the view + comments... Read More

Bordeaux Field Trip – All The Rest

The story about our trip to Bordeaux begins at the Paris Montparnass train station, waking up on 5am, taking a taxi that got confused on the way and rushing to the platform. After trying and failing to continue sleeping on the train because some hyperactive Anglo B students and after only 3 and a half hours with the very fast train TGV, we got to Bordeaux’s train station together... Read More

Bordeaux Field Trip – Five Main Meals

For our final trip the Ferrandi course we were taken to Bordeaux the capital of wine! Trip lasted three days which is a fair amount of time to go around the rural and country and find local produce and farms with the knowledge of our chefs. But! After all, we are cuisine students, and for me the cuisine comes first. This is why this post is dedicated for the fives meals we had out... Read More

Basket Case or “This is not a competition!”

Last day at our 139 kitchen in Ferrandi was a special day of “Panier” or Basket. Like in a cooking competition, all of us are receiving a selection of products that we can only use them to cook whatever we want! But we were told several times: this is not a competition. So why does it feel like one? We got a list of the products ahead of time so that we can come to the... Read More

Chef Christophe Girardot Demo Day

Just a minute before the Ferrandi program is over, we get a really nice “demo” day by Bordeaux chef: Christophe Girardot. His restaurant La table de Montesquieu in Bordeaux won its first Michelin star in 2010 not long after opening, very impressive. So just before our trip to Bordeaux where we are about to meet him and his food again, we had the pleasure of having... Read More

Pastry Class Buffet #2

Remember my post about the cocktail party cooked by the Anglo A pastry students? Well now it was time for Anglo B pastry students to do something similar and we got to enjoy the results. Table full of small bite size delights Pork belly Waiting for someone to start the eating Swan crazy weird smoky carrot stuff The beloved crab lasana is back salmon and tuna sandwich Scallops langoustine... Read More

Last Menu Regional – Languedoc

Auhh! I’m falling behind again with writing posts. Well, yesterday was the final school trip-day but I still have more than a week worth of posts to write about. And a lot went by this week. Luckily I have a whole next week off before I start my stage (internship). Our last regional meal was of the region Languedoc, in the south of France, which is also known for its wine.... Read More

Exams – Session 2: Cuisine

The second most important part of our practical exam is our cuisine exam. Finished with the pastry exam in the beginning of the week, I knew the cuisine exam is a whole more serious than the pastry one. No clues were given as to what recipe we’ll have to do. Meaning I had about 40 recipes to learn this week. These were the “rules” of the exam: 1. four groups... Read More

Steaks and Fries

The steak class was the last official Ferrandi kitchen lesson and last recipe learned from the book. Steak takes almost no time to sear, this is why we cooked vegetables and fries as well. The vegetables were really nice, carrot, turnip and green beans cut to stripes and cooked with some butter. The french fries were blanched in hot oil to precook then last minute thrown to higher... Read More

Exams – Session 1: Pastry

13:45  in the Pastry lab, all 13 of us ready to begin with our pastry exam. Taking out all the tools we need from our mallets. Chef Antoine enters the lab with an unfamiliar chef to his side. Both of them will judge our work and results today. We are handed a sheet of paper with the amounts and ingredients of all of the different elements of two recipes: Choux Chantilly and... Read More