United Nations

Today I felt really tired and not at 100% speed. It was evident this morning as we were a bit behind schedule but I think it’s also because Yan wasn’t really doing much. At one point I had to do the epis, dejeunettes, fiscelles, Florentines and pain aux noix and he was only doing pain viennoise and wanted me to shape the petit miches...I was like are you f***ing serious man..

Alexandre also mentioned that Yan was even talking to him as if he was Yan's assistant...wtf...my bosses are Alexandre or Mr Pozzoli, not yan. At one point I wanted to just deck him as he kept telling me to do this and do that... even Mr Pozzoli commented later in the day that it must be difficulty working with “chef Yan”.

My scoring wasn’t that great today but it’s weird as Alexandre said that the reason my scores were opening up so aggressively was because it was proved too much which goes against convention thinking. If there’s too much activity then once loaded, usually the bread will flatten but I think with predominantly levain breads if it proves too much then once loaded there is an increase in steam production due to so much yeast being active and it just rips open from all the force.

I think that its maybe the length of my scores need to be bigger and the spacing needs to improve. Just scoring deeper doesn’t help as it would flatten the bread.

After work I stopped at a shop called Lyon tandoori and bought a tandoori chicken wrap in naan bread which was super tasty and cheap. I stopped in a park on the way to Croix Rousse to just chill and eat for a bit. It's beautiful being able to take time out to just enjoy the nature and the sun and just everything.

Once I got home I slept for a bit before prepping for the meeting I had planned with some friends to celebrate braai day!!! I got some baguettes from the bakery and cooked up some caramelised onions, some pork sausages (not the short fatty ones from South Africa, but a normal sausage, just with pork meat. I also used some fig chutney which Fatiha gave me as I couldn’t find any in the shops.

When I got to the pente to vue with the big rock in Croix Rousse I bumped into Cat who is the last person who will be staying at Fatihas place for a while and she joined us in our picnic. It was myself, cat, Ana, Marie, Marion and Chris. 

Chris & Marion

Cat

Ana & Marie

Awesome View

I had a blanket and we all sat down, ate our ‘boerie’ rolls [Boerewors Rolls ], had beer and wine, cheese and biscuits and snacks and just talked and chilled. Later Natalie, a German who actually spent time in Durban joined and it was so cool as we had a swede, a German, a Canadian, a Spaniard, 2 French and myself all speaking French (ok I wasn’t speaking as much as everyone else but anyway). It was really a great way to spend the evening.