Journal...day 12

Today was the last day for the semester at  Institut Paul Bocuse. Also, it being the last day of the week, which meant that the students were having their exam. Chef let me choose what bread they would have to make so I chose a variety of different shapes and techniques for them to do. I decided on Pain de tradition, petit boules and baguettes, pain de meteil, petit boules farinee and boules grande (which they had to flour seam side down) and pain bressan which had to be shaped into fusettes and batards and farineed.

I mixed all the doughs and then while I was doing that and waiting for the doughs to finish, the students started cleaning parts of the bakery.  After the primary fermentation, chef and I didn’t talk to the students at all except if they were going to do something very wrong. If they shaped, scored or baked anything incorrectly, they were penalised. Both the first and second groups started off well, but once it came to loading the bread, things went downhill. Both groups slowed down to the point where the secondary fermentation was too long and so the pain de meteil and bressan were so proved that they hardly opened up at all. Both groups also forgot to either score at all or scored bread incorrectly.

Subsequently, they were penalised for this. with both groups getting around 10 points out of a possible 20. Each individual was also scored on their technical execution of the methods, their understanding and listening to you, their work spirit within the team. In both groups there were one or two people who stepped up and took charge, making sure everyone was on the same page and what was being done was being done so correctly (well, kind of). 

 Lunch was weird today. Obviously the canteen was trying to use up any leftover stock but when we were served, at our table, some portion sizes were bigger than others and some were only partly garnished. This also fell to the service staff who almost had no clue wtf was going on.

Entree was a selection of small things, club sandwich, some roasted pepper stack, a grain dish, and a Caesar salad (mine didn’t get bacon, croutons or parmesan...it wasn’t even dressed). Mains was a disaster in my books. We got some sort of cured fish (later we saw them bring out salmon for other people) and it was with similar spices and veg as the day before, but it’s like they literally took every piece of prep and just chucked it together. Mange tout going brown...I think the chef couldn’t have been there. Possibly the students winged it for our service (there are usually 2 services, at 11:30 and 13:00...)

When I got home, Thierry and I went to a bouchon in Croix Rousse close to  Fatiha's place. Bouchons make traditional Lyonnaise food which is usually made from offal or less choice cuts of the animal. It started when the poorer carriage drivers wanted to stop for a cheap meal then they would have something at the bouchon and they would also get a bale of hay for their horse and it’s different from haute cuisine in that it doesn’t use as expensive ingredients and is more centred on meat and is usually fattier. You will generally find pork, duck, veal, beef and chicken on a menu in a bouchon.

Thierry ordered the confit duck leg cassoulet which was really good but the leg seemed to been quite dry as if it had only been roasted and not confit’d and I ordered some potatoes cooked in duck fat and the Andouillette, which I thought was a pork sausage with whole grain mustard and white wine (it sounded lovely on the menu) but it was actually a tripe sausage!!!! 

I immediately thought of the Mr Bean episode where he orders steak tartare in a restaurant, not knowing what it is and then spends the rest of the episode trying to hide it. I really could barely stomach the one mouthful I had. I just smelt and tasted farm and wanted to chunder... it was a painful experience having to sit with it in front of me and smell it all the time. The service was really slow at the restaurant... only 2 waiters, 1 manager and 1 chef....and it’s like a 40 pax place and there were around 25pax there incl us. Not smart at all. The chef was definitely spinning his ass off. At least my potatoes were ok. And it makes a fun story but next time I’m not going to order in French unless I’m 100% sure what it is I’m getting J

Thierry and I then walked around a bit and I finally bought some gin and agrum’ which was soooo good. We chilled a bit and then he had to leave around 11pm to catch his train.

Journal...day 11

Today we made pain aux cereals which is similar to the pain de tradition, but with the fermented spelt (d’epeautre), pain au mais which is a corn bread made with wheat flour, but with some of the kernels as well as some maize flour and sunflower seeds. It also contains a colourant as the maize flour would normally come out white so with the additive (ameliorant) it comes out a cool yellow colour with an amazing aroma. Chef reckons it’s good for a vegetarian sandwich, but I think a slab of that with some chilli con carne or some bacon and tomato chutney would definitely hit the spot.

We also made pain de tradition again and finished preparing the brioche for the next day. 1/3 plain, in the mavette shape, 1/3 au chocolat and 1/3 avec pralines Lyonnaise, which were shaped into boules.

The entree for lunch was a club sandwich...the bread of which was lightly toasted with some curry powder which reminded me of mom’s curries and making my curried butternut soup. It was good, very nicely presented as well with some sort of a tomato coulis and a mayo.

The main was fish, it must’ve been a smallish fish as the portion size was 2 smallish fillets, spiced with some aromatic spices including coriander, pepper, fennel and had a blob of marmalade on top which was surprisingly good with the other flavours and the fresh herbs. To accompany the fish there were potatoes with garlic and herbs, courgettes which had been cut in a way which looked like it would be a pain in the ass if you had to prep that for 100 odd pax and a tomato salsa/relish and basil pesto.

I met a guy named Thierry who stayed at Fatiha’s (the lady I’m staying with) place for the night. She apparently rents out her room as well and then she just crashes on the floor in the kitchen on a mattress. She’s really cool like this, her house is full of paintings that she’s done and has loads of bright colours and she seems like one of those free spirited people.
They invited me to go to some music event somewhere but I was still exhausted from the week so I declined.

Journal...day 10

Today I met with chef Berthemier at Maison Pozzoli and was introduced to Monsieur and Madame Pozzoli as well as their son, Alexander. Chef Berthemier and Monsieur Pozzoli are really good friends, both of them being MOF Boulangers as well. I got shown around the boulangerie and saw loads of machines that I’ve never even seen before, like machines that shape baguettes once the dough is divided as in terms of quantity alone, they produce 450 (quatre san cinquante) pain de tradition baguettes. They also produce a wide variety of small breads (I saw a fig and honey one) and various other loaves.

There is a separate section in the back where the patisserie is produced and there are also loads of proving boxes (chambre de fermentation) where the doughs are fermented overnight. They also have a machine that produces the levain that is used in almost all of their breads. It has a capacity for 45kg of levain....45kg. Each day they add more flour and water and the machine mixes it and regulates the temperature and humidity. I tasted some of the levain and it had a really smooth acidic flavour and a slightly sweet undertone.

The shop is in a really old building, it has these huge stone blocks in the wall and just feels old; there is even a wood fired oven but unfortunately they don’t use it as I think people complained about the smoke. They have a 5 deck oven for the breads and I watched Mr Pozzoli for a while as he loaded and scored the baguettes...that guy is insanely fast.  He comes from a family of 4 generations of chefs with himself and Alexander being 2 generations of bakers.

I start at 3am on Monday, so I will need to wake up before 2am as there is no public transport that runs at that time...back to the good old days!

Journal...day 9

C’est mon dernier jour en L’institut Paul Bocuse aujourd’hui. There was no “exam” for the class; however chef and I did make notes so we could give them feedback during a debriefing at the end of the day. The students made pain de tradition, pain de campagne and pain bio. The work was good, but the students’ concentration deteriorated as the day went on.  All in all chef and I were happy with their work but we just gave them some constructive criticism regarding respect and punctuality as well as discipline and maturity.

This morning I woke up in time but then fell asleep again and woke up at 6:20…I usually leave my place at 6am to get the bus but this time I just got dressed and brushed my teeth and was out of the house in less than 5 min.  I literally ran to the metro and got there just as the metro was departing. Luckily for me, all my following metros were departing as I got to the platforms so I got a bus at George de Loup at 6:40 and just got to the school at 7, so after getting dressed I was in the bakery only 10 min late; still... I hate being late.

For lunch today we had an onion tart and main was sole with some sort of herb moussoline which I didn’t really enjoy with steamed veg, brown rice and a sauce whose name I forget but tasted like it had caramelised onions and fish stock as well as cream.

Just chilled for the rest of the day.

Journal...day 8

Today we did pain aux multi cereals, pain au mais and pain de meule. Due to the large number of small rolls we had to make, we just did them in the petit boules shape. The class worked very well. After a few stern words, they really brought their side and worked quickly and efficiently. So much that we were done with all the production including the viennoiserie for the next day and cleaning by 12:30. Being hard, but fair ensures that they learn disciple and the sense of urgency that one needs when working in a kitchen.

Tomorrow, they won’t be having an exam but chef and I will still make notes about their work attitude and quality of their work.

For lunch we had a sweet melon, with some Parma ham, clove infused red berry coulis and crème Chantilly, balsamic reduction and some yellow sauce I couldn’t make out.

Main was beef stew with jus, tagliatelle and a tomato sauce. Perfect brasserie fare.

The group that I’m teaching this week is from Lebanon and Morocco so I’ve learnt some Arabic but its only vulgar things...naturally. I think that’s what everyone learns first when they learn a language. J

I had the tarte citron today...sweet short crust base, a creamy lemon curd type filling, glazed and garnished with a slice of candied lemon. Who doesn’t like lemon curd....?!

Journal...day 7

Today the class was a bit better and they worked a bit more efficiently.

We did pain bresan (with the “gaude”, roasted maize flour), pain complet (made with the T150 and butter...) I would eat this one with just some salted butter or schweinschmalz) and pain bio (made with bio flour and baguette concentrate which is roasted barley flour). Due to the class still being pretty slow, we have only done the shaping of small breads into boules and the larger ones into baguettes or batards.

For lunch we had a nicoise salad, but with tinned tuna, anchovies, thin slivers of tomato, slices of boiled potato, capers, olives, hard boiled eggs and  an awesome dressing. Main was some fish with beautifully cooked veg, potatoes, carrots and mange tout and some soft and extremely flavourful onions to garnish.

I ate some of the things that Marlene bought for me at Maison Pozzoli. The Framboisier was delishus!! A base of sponge cake, with an almond mousse with pieces of raspberry and dried coconut, topped by another layer of sponge and then a thin layer of pink marzipan which was ever so slightly brulee’d.

The “charlotte” was similar except it contained a vanilla mousse and no marzipan on top and also came with a small macaroon on top J

There was another small item that I don’t know the name of but it was in a quenelle like shape and had a base of some sort of cake with chestnuts in it, topped by the chestnut cream and then some icing... very simplistic but all you need really.

As I’m typing this I’m having one of the beers that Marlene bought at the blueberry festival outside of St. Etienne. Initially it tasted quite strong (its 8%) but after a while I can taste the slight acidity from the blueberries. In fact, since it was neither sweet nor dry, the acidity reminded me of a beer-ish wine if that’s easy to understand. Really pleasant once I was half way through...I think it needs to warm up in your mouth before you can get the full flavour of the blueberries. Definitely not a quaffing beer.

Journal...day 6

Vignt sept Juillet

J'ai dîné avec Pierre hier soir a la restaurant Le Grain de Folie.  So last night I went for dinner with Pierre in Croix Rousse.  We had to look quite a bit as we couldn’t decide on the menu at some places and others were a bit too expensive for our liking.  It’s amazing how many small restaurants are hidden away, its like a maze, with roads winding in all directions…we had no idea where we were going, so we just walked around, looked at menus and kept on going.  We came across some  cool places like a tapas bar, but Pierre didn’t like the menu even though I thought it was a good Spanish tapas selection.   Another restaurant was very brightly coloured and had an inside terrace (a lot of these places have a small seating area inside the restaurant and then a terrace on the inside which is the preferece of most people) and an awesome menu that had foie gras and escargot on the menu, but with unsual ingredients .  The kitchen was quite tiny (as I later discovered most are) maybe anywhere from 40-60m2.
Anyway, the place we settled on was close to where I will be living from August, its called Le Grain de Folie (the craziness). It looked quite smart from the  inside, but  that belied a more playful terrace. Brightly coloured placemats (it seems a lot of places use a thickish paper placemat that can be discarded after use), lights that changed colours and just a quirky but comfortable atmosphere.

After looking at the menu we decided to choose the set menu.  Most of the small restaurants and brasseries offer the dishes at a la carte prices, but then also offer a set menu of 3 entrees, 3 mains (plats) and a choice of dessert or cheese and is slightly cheaper than choosing individual dishes.

For wine I had un verre(glass) de chardonnay and Pierre had something fume (I can ‘t remember exactly).  Mine was good, slightly dry and fruity but it actually opened up after we had an amuse bouche of chilled cucumber and avo soup.  For entrees we both had froids veloute d'artichaut avec magret séché (cold artichoke veloute with dried magret).  This was fantastic, the subtle flavour of the artichoke coming through beautifully and with the flavour of the magret bursting through, with the rich creamy flavour of the fat and the saltiness of the cured meat.  The only downside with the dish was that they had what seemed like pickled mushrooms in the centre which completely did not work.  The acidity from the pickling process ran rampant across the velvety veloute.  Pierre commented that the veloute wasn’t thick enough, but I think he was just being overly critical. :P

For mains I had lamb shank with garden vegetables (Jarret d'agneau avec légumes du jardin) which was good but the shank could have been cooked for longer as the connective tissue hadn’t broken down completely yet.  The veggies were tasty too, baby potatoes (petit pomme de terre), batons of carrots (carottes), fine beans (haricot fine) and some white vegetable which was almost like a turnip, but Pierre didnt know the English word for it ; he said it was some long white vegetable that grows in the ground.  Pierre had the poisson d’epice (fish with spices).  The fish was cod and was beautifully cooked, and crusted with a devine combination of cardomom seeds, seschuan pepper, coriander and fennel seeds and served with the same garden veg and a beurre blanc.

For dessert we both chose noeville (spelling ?)chocolat avec coeur de caramel et glace fraise.  This was basically a chocolat fondant with a caramel centre and was served with a strawberry icecream. The menu cost 26euros and with my wine, my bill came to 29.5euros.

Afterwards, we walked around Croix Rousse and chilled for a bit by a vantage point that overlooked Lyon.

Saturday morning i met up with Mark-Anthony and his group of students from the States.  They have been doing a tour of France for a month and had been spending the week in Lyon while going to the Institut Paul Bocuse.  Mark does food anthropology and this particular course was focused on French gastronomy.  The students were all between 15-17.  We headed to a market in Vieux Lyon (old lyon)  and wow, this place is like a chefs wet dream...

First of all, I saw oysters that were the size of my hand !! and some smaller ones too but i have never seen oysters that big in my life, i didnt even know you could get them that big.  There was a guy cooking paella and rotisserie chickens, cooking some potatoes in all the collected fat.  The smell was like that of a Sunday roast. :D …the variety and quality of vegetables available was overwhelming, I can’t even start to name everything as i would go on forever.  I had noticed that in supermarkets you didnt find fish or chickens or steaks, mainly pre-sliced hams or smoked salmon….well at the market they had everything : onglet, hanger steaks, sweetbreads, brains, testicles, tonges from veal and lamb, rabbits, chickens and pheasants with the heads still on…terrine de campagne, fromage de tete !

As for fish,  there were whole fish, salmon, prawns, squid, mussels, trout, sea snails and many more fish that I don’t know…

Ok, I guess I have to tell you about the veggies….so the herbs for instance are kept in big crates in bunches and you choose how much of what you want and the seller packs it in paper for you.  Same with the salads : you choose a head of what you want and the seller packs it for you.   And they had like 10 different varieties as well as rocket, english spinach, mizuna.

The variety of berries available is completely stupifying :  I saw red currants, black currants, white currants (I had only ever seen these in a book before), raspberries, blueberries, black berrries, mulberries, strawberries).

Fresh mushrooms which looked like yellow pine rings, and some other kinds that I didnt recognise…
Melons, peaches, nectarines, apples, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes…more than 10 different kinds of tomatoes, plenty varieties of zucchini, onions and garlic, peppers, aubergine

OK, that’s all I’m willing to write in my lazy state…I could probably go on for another 2-3 pages. You guys will just have to look at the pics. :D

So after having a snack, we headed to the metro at Vieux Lyon and met our tour guide. Madam Deveaux, a 60-70 something lady who is originally from Austria ;  so I had a little chat with her in German.  She took us up to the cathedral that overlooks Lyon and gave us the history of the city : Lyon is over 2000 years old, having being founded in around 45BC. Cape town is only around 360 years old,  if Ii remember correctly.  This particular cathedral is dedicated to Mary after the city was under threat of attack from Barbarians from the North East (Germany/Austria area) ; the people of Lyon prayed and said that if they weren’t attacked they would build a big church to honour and worship Mary.

We went outside to see the panoramic view of Lyon, where you can see a solitary skyscraper called the pencil tower ( I dont need to explain why its called this !), and then we walked a short way to a Roman theatre that had been excavated and is now used for concerts and show.  Seeing the amphitheatre  made me realise how ingenious the Romans were in their time.  There was a band doing sound tests while we were there and all I could think about was what the acoustics would be like if there had to be some good old Drum ‘n Bass pumping. J

We walked back to the metro and were then treated to a tour of some of the houses in the area which still retain their original spiral staircases and wells.  The buildings are beautiful in their simplistic design and one really feels as if you are living in another time.  While walking around I found a small shop selling only absinthe so I bought a bottle of one which is made with a Lyonnaise recipe from 1883. The maze-like streets are lined with restaurants, brasseries and bouchons (bouchon is the name for traditional Lyonnaise food made from offal which was served to the working class as it was cheaper than using expensive cuts and back in the day, the driver of a carriage would get a bale of hay for his horse as well).

We then made our way to the tete d’or park (head of gold) and had lunch there.  I had bought a baguette with coppa, confit aubergine, tomato and rocket…flippen good).  We also had some strawberries and goats cheese as well as some confit garlic that we bought at the market and some gelee de fruits (gelified fruits) for dessert.  The students had some time to waste so Mark, Jess and I went to the botanical gardens of Lyon and then to the zoo where they had deer, ducks, pelicans, flamingos, bulls and even a giraffe.

Around 5 :30pm the park closed so we headed back to our hotel and everyone chilled and took a much welcomed shower.  I had an apéritif of rose that I bought at the market and then Mark and the students went for dinner at the Paul Bocuse brasserie Ouest while I met up with some guys from the institute for a burger at a cool place in Bellecour called Marcels.  I had a wicked beef burger with raclette, bacon, confit onions and fries.  Then we went for a drink near where the market was and chilled for a bit.  I had a Rio beer which was half grapefruit juice, half stella artois and a shot of grenadine.

It was almost 12 by the time we were done so I headed home and crashed..Long, busy day… J
a bientôt !

Journal...day 5

Today was the end of my première semaine (first week) at Institut Paul Bocuse. I was feeling quite tired today as I didn’t sleep very well. Since I had accumulated sleep deprivation I napped as soon as I got home yesterday and then while still feeling quite awake, I tried to go to sleep just after midnight but struggled. First waking up around 1am with the feeling like an small animal was trying to get to my head, like scratching on my pillow...it was almost like lucid dreaming as I wanted to “wake up” but I had to fight to do so....I suppose it’s also from lying on my back which is how you induce lucid dreaming. Then again waking up at 4am, thinking that someone was trying to climb onto my balcony, even though I’m on the septième étage (seventh floor).

Anyway, today was good…the brioche for the viennoiserie was baked off and we had some. Despite my doubts as to the texture, it was light and fluffy, similar to the recipe I use, except that since mine is bulk fermented overnight it has a more yeasty flavour, whereas chef Berthomier’s recipe has levain (almost all of the breads and viennoiserie has levain and then a small amount of fresh yeast) and a much more subtle flavour.
The brioche praline was good, but I’m not a big fan of sweet sticky things. The brioche chocolat is much more to my preference.

We made pain de campagne today (mix of T65 and seigle[rye]) and to la moitire de pate (half the dough) we added L’epeautre (I found out that this is spelt...the French refer to it as “grain l’accienne” or ancient grain) which is what we had with the duck for lunch yesterday. Pain de Tradition (1 bac de cinq cent cinq kilo (5.5kg) avec  multi-cereals, the fermented mixed seeds). And pain de meule (1 bac de cinq ans cing kilo avec de 275g de pesto (the pesto powder we used earlier in the week).
And for the viennoiserie for the next week we made croissants.

Every day, after we have baked off the viennoiserie for the day as well as made the doughs and folded most of them (rabat), everyone goes downstairs for a small break, usually a coffee and a cigarette to go with whatever goodies we baked that morning, and basically make small talk.
A LOT of people in France smoke (fumer, verb for smoke)...I’d say about 80% of the people at the school smoke. And its not cheap, about 6.5 euros a box of 20’s

Today chef pretty much left us alone after the dough had been made, to see if we remembered and understood what we had learned during the week. So we divided and shaped the boules and baguettes and I was in charge of making sure which ones were farinee and which weren’t (if the dough contains farine de seigle then we use that, otherwise we use T80 as T65 gets absorbed and then the dough will stick to the couche (baking linen).  Paul & I did the scoring and loading while the others made the croissants.
After baking, chef graded the baguettes on the crust (la croute), the colour, and the shaping (la faconnage) from 0-5, 5 being the best. Most were around 2-3, as most of the other students don’t have as much practise as me, but I still struggle with the softer dough that we work with. All in all, chef was happy with the bread. He reckons it takes about 6 months of baking every day to become a good baker.

After we were done, we cleaned down the kitchen: moving all the tables and equipment, sweeping up the flour, then hosing the floor and scrubbing it and then moving all the water into a drain in the floor with a “raclette” a big floor squeegee. Chef helps us clean as he believes it’s important to lead by example which I admire as it’s something I try to instil in students as well; that being hardworking and humble are good traits to have. My classmates say he’s the only chef who helps with the cleaning and for chef, he says that the students are more like his kids so since they’re only with him for 1 week at a time, he’s not as strict with them as he would be if they were working for a longer period. It’s like the “one team one dream” vibe...or as I like to say “ we ride together, we die together”. Bad boys for life” J so whether someone’s doing well or whether they’re having a bad day, the team sticks by them and conversely, if they’re hanging or having a crappy day, they still have to stick it out.

Lunch was “tacos a la Mexican” which was a taco with avo, beef, my favourite processed cheese slices that were cut into strips, some lettuce and tomato.
main was “saumon a l’italian”, oven roasted salmon with tagiatelle, roast broccoli and cauliflower and a delicious dill infused cream.

Some of the institute’s students are going away for vacation from this week and some from next and they all got their marks for the semester.

After getting off the bus, I saw that there was a produce market near my residence. The quality and variety of stuff they had was incroyable (incredible). I’m talking cherries, strawberries, nectarines, raspberries, all sorts of other fruits et legumes (fruit and veg) like haricot fine (fine/green beans), swiss chard, about 4 kinds of courgettes that I saw, spring onions WITH THE BULB STILL ATTACHED :D, lettuces, tubors...man I could go on...

There were also 2 stands selling various cheeses and a man selling some meats and sausages from a refrigerated unit. The market was placed in a line so as you get off from the bus/metro station, you can walk down and buy your things. There were lots of' tannies' (South African colloquialism for 'old ladies’) getting their shopping done for the weekend... btw, the cherries were selling for the equivalent of R45/kg so I nabbed a handful for 55Euro cents, about R7.

Tomorrow I’m meeting with some interns from America who are here just for a week at the institute and then head back on Monday. They want to go to a market and then they’re going on a tour of old Lyon so I won’t feel too bad about looking like a tourist if I’m in a group of them.

I’m going to meet up with Pierre and charlotte in a bit and go for dinner at a brasserie somewhere. Details to follow tomorrow.

Bonne weekend :D

Journal...day 4

Aujourd’hui est jeudi, le vingt cinq Juillet.

Today we made pain de tradition, pain de meule and pain de meteil and pate Fand B. Pate Fand B is enriched dough made with creamie (kre-a-mie) which is palm oil that is in a paste like state, which has some added sugar as well. Has a grainy, greasy texture.

For the pain de tradition we added some multi-cereals (mul-ti se-ri-als) to la moitie (moi-ti-er) [half] which is mixed seeds, sesame, poppy and linseed that contains levain as well. It also contains malted barley and has a fermented aroma, but you can still pick up a strong molasses like smell from the malted barley syrup. The dough was shaped into boules (bouls) and baguettes. Traditional French bread is never farinee(fa-ri-neh) [floured].

Pain de meule was shaped into batards (ba-tarr-ds)[ovals]

Pain de meteil was shaped into boules, la moitie pate avec citron (a dehydrated lemon product, not sure how it’s made). This particular bread has an incredible aroma while fermenting and after baking the smell of lemon wafts everywhere. This would be ideal with seafood according to chef Berthamier or with some salted butter. Citron 1% poids pate.

The brioche dough was divided into 3 parts, 1 part “nature”, 1 part chocolat (choc chips), and 1 part praline.

the croissants we made on Tuesday and baked yesterday had a light texture, owing to the extended mixing of the dough. It wasn’t as dense as the ones I used to make, but when you bite into it, it almost has the body of the frozen ones in that it doesn’t hold but collapses as you bite into it. Still, a very nice croissant. And quite easy to work with.

Today towards the end of class, I had a meeting with chef and Mme Reynard. From next week, there’ll be 2 classes, from 7-3 and from 4-8. I will be with chef in the class in the morning and in the evening I will lead the class, teaching a group of the alliance students as chef takes the class in the mornings, directing them and showing and explaining to them. Chef said that I am very sound technically even though I’m not used to working with dough this soft.
I borrowed a French, English, German, Spanish baking and patisserie dictionary which will help me improve my vocabulary and I will be able to buy one by next week as the librarian was kind enough to phone a store and order one for me.

I forgot to note the meals that I had at F&B, the brasserie style restaurant that is essentially the canteen. The entrees are preplated and then finished by 1 chef, while everyone else plates the mains in a line, (veg/starch, meat, sauce, garnish, wipe). You collect your entree and main from the kitchen and then sit down and eat and afterwards everyone sets the place for the next person. This shows how there is really an atmosphere of respect in the institute, as well as how everyone greets everyone, not just the chefs.

Monday /lundi: salad of bacon, confit red onions, radiccio, watercress and croutons
can’t remember main

Tuseday/mardi: tian of prawns(crevette) and peppers with small salad and what looked like a pomme maxime garnish
Cantonese chicken with egg-fried rice, jus rosti and sesame seeds

Wednesday/mercredi: Burger de Joue de boeuf (beef cheek burger) with mayo, some cooked julienne courgettes and carrots under the meat on the bun and some jus
Some line fish which had a firm white flesh, mild flavour. Almost like a firmer hake with smaller flakes, celeriac puree, fine beans, plantain chips and a creamy lemon sauce

Thursday/jeudi: “fishcakes” coarse fishcake mix that was shaped into small 4cm high dariole shapes, some fine battered onion rings and aioli with a small salad
Duck breast, some grain that was like barley (I can’t remember the name but it was brown) that was bound with some cream/parmesan, mange tout, courgettes and broad beans and roast white peaches with jus

• pain breson(gaude)

• pain viennoise aux choc chips

• ciabatta aux poudre chorizo

Journal...day 3

C’est la ving-quatre Juillet aujourd’hui.

Today we made Ciabatta, pain de Lodeve, pain Breisan, pain Viennois and brioche.

The ciabatta was different to the way I’m used to making it as chef mixed the dough and then added huile d’olive once it was hydrated, giving it a subtle flavour after baking. The ciabatta I make usually has no oil in it and as I said before, is mixed for a lot less and then has a longer fermentation process with more folds(rabat).  Another difference is that after the first hour of fermentation, the dough is then put onto a floured couche for the secondary fermentation, then patted out into a rectangle and then when it is about to be baked, its cut directly on the couche and then placed onto the conveyor belt to be loaded in the oven. We added chorizo powder to the dough which gave a beautiful smoked paprika flavour to the bread and a lovely russet colour. Once baked we ate some of this with Jambon extra sec, this looked and tasted like serano ham, with that lovely flavour that is imparted by the pig’s diet of acorns.

The pain de Lodeve is speciality bread from the Lodeve region/city, whereby once it’s cut into large ciabatta size loaves, it’s floured with farine T80 to form a nice crust once it’s baked. It’s made with farine T65 and farine 80 so has a slight nutty flavour and it develops a deep brown coloured crust.

The pain Breisan is made with farine T65 and gaude which is flour made from roasted barley. This we shaped into batards...the gaude gives the bread a very unique flavour, it’s hard to describe, but if you can smell roasted barley, that’s what the bread tastes like.

Pain viennois is enriched bread that contains farine T55, sel, sucre, beurre, levure, levain et l’eau. There is no South African product that I can compare it to, but it’s used as a base for viennoiserie with chocolate chips or praline or even sucre grave.

After class I went around Lyon with Pierre-Jean who is one of the students who is with me this week in the bakery.

We first went to his place in Saxe-Gambetta and on the way there we stopped at a few of the local bakeries in the area, he showed me his favourite one where he gets his pastries and breads. I noticed that the products with praline seem to all be red or rather the praline is red. This is a speciality of Lyon.

We went to a hotel in the Hotel de Ville area where students from the institute do some of their training in first year. It has an old world feeling to it, like an old French colony hotel somewhere.
Then we walked a short distance across the Rhone river; it was such a beautiful day, loads of people riding by on bicycles, we could see the Eiffel Tower (not the real one, just a smaller version J ) and this huge building which name I can’t remember which Pierre told me is going to be made into the gastronomic centre of Lyon with 9 restaurants servicing either 15000 or 17000 square metres... the place is massive, like a palace even.

After all this walking we went to a boat restaurant/bar call Ayers Rock(like the place in Australia) and had some rose with grapefruit syrup as it was Pierre's birthday. Here it’s quite common to have a beer or some wine with a flavoured syrup. A common drink is called a Monaco which is beer with mixed berry syrup which has a pink colour to it...I wonder what the Windhoek [ a popular local South  African beer ] marketing department would have to say about that :D

Around 7pm (it stays light here until around 10pm, sometimes even 11pm here) we walked to the Bellecour station so I could buy a monthly metro card (56euros). People are very polite here, greeting everyone as they enter or pass each other and saying thanks after any service is rendered and greeting when leaving as well. Everyone from cleaners to bouncers and civil/municipality workers.

I went home, did laundry, and got changed and went to meet Pierre shortly before 9 as he wanted to party a bit for his birthday  and for the fact that he had been accepted into a program with the alliance to spend six months in Shanghai,China. We went to a Lebanese restaurant which made awesome falafels and pitas with different toppings. For about 5euros we got either a falafel/salad box or I chose to have the La Greqe pita with falafels, tapenade, tomato and cucumber, a herbed yogurt and feta. It was so good but I was stuffed so couldn’t finish the last bit. The restaurant uses fresh ingredients that are prepared daily...the vibe and food reminded me of Lola’s in Long Street, Cape Town.

The restaurant was in the area near the opera house (can’t remember the name of the area) where there is a statue built by the famous French architect, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who also designed the statue of liberty.

We then went to a bar and had a few cocktails and then headed home...it seems that at night there are more foreigners out and about, as the locals don’t seem to be as active at night as Cape Town is. There are a lot more people using public transport late at night, even old people, right up to midnight as the metro runs until shortly after midnight and buses until 2am.