10/10/2013
09/10/2013
Lunch with the BOSS
Standard day today. I’m happy with my work and my
improvement.
For the past week we’ve had a Lebanese book writer and her
son with us in the bakery. She wants to write a book on bread next and was
trying to get some pictures and info while she and Albert (the son) spent the
week observing and helping with some things.
Alexandre started making a levain with apple and one with
grapes but contrary to what I learnt before, he actually just leaves the fruit
in some water for about 3 days until it starts to ferment and then removes the
fruit and makes the levain with the water. This way you have more activity
sooner and after making the levain on the morning, he leaves it for about 2-3
hours until it’s about 50% fermented and then uses it as it has more boost or
energy for the bread and gives it a lovely cell structure and flavour.
Barbara (the lady) brought a liqueur from Lebanon which is
similar to Greece’s Ouzo or the French Pastis...it’s called Arak. Very nice flavour
and like most aniseed flavours, would go well with something orange
flavoured...the last few days we’ve been having an apero
after work and its strong but pretty good.
After work, Mr and Mrs Pozzoli, Alexandre and Pauline along
with Gabriel and Martin their 19 and 3 month old boys and Barbara and Albert
and I all went for lunch at a nearby cafe called “Perl”. It still amazes me how
here in France the food is served in less than 10 min...It’s like people don’t
like waiting and everywhere it’s the same.
Food pumps! Except for the “fast
food” places which I really find ironic and a pain in the ass.
I had beef
tartare a l’italienne which was ok. Tartare was mixed with herbs, semi dried
tomatoes and mozzarella served with mesculin and chips.
Everyone else had
fiocchetti which is some form of pasta with loads of veggies and salad and
looked awesome.
Afterwards everyone was going to see some architecture in Croix
Rousse but I was so exhausted I declined to join and went home and slept from
about 4:30pm all the way until 1am.
Feeling Good Today
Had a much better day today. Slept well, considering I woke
up at 10pm and then had to try to fall asleep again. Stayed away from coffee
and sugar this morning...just water and pain au chocolat: p felt good, worked
well, scoring and baking was good. Made me feel really good today.
After work I wanted to try out a pub called King Arthur Pub
which is just down the road from the bakery but I think they’re closed for
holidays which sucks ass.
So we ended up going to vieux Lyon for ice cream
because Alex loves ice cream and even makes at home every week (his ex-left a
churner...). We went to Amorino where
I had the chocolat chaud with Marie....I had a cone with ciocolatto and caramel beurre sale, Alex had
one with raspberry, mango and coconut I think. They present it really nicely
with all the different colours making it look like a flower.
08/10/2013
Lady from Lebanon...
Standard day today, flew through the diving and
preshaping...really comfortable with it now. Myself, Alex and Alexandre just
knocked stuff out.
I did a lot more “fourné”
(loading bread into the oven) today, loading pain complet, florentain, flute
campagne, miche campagne, flute tradition and a crapload of baguette tradition.
My “lamé” (scoring) is much better, spacing and length are good, and it’s just
my angle and incline I need to fine tune. Also, here, they load bread at about
50-60% proved as if you load it later, the yeast is more active before it goes
into the oven and by the yeast consuming the sugars in the bread it breaks down
the gluten and causes the “mie” (crumb, or interior of the loaf) to be very
fine and spongy and lacks the beautiful “alveolation” (cell structure) that is
expected of a levain bread.
Today we had a Lebanese
food writer and her son with us in the bakery. She has already written 3 books
and is looking to write a 4th one, but more focused on bread. She
even told me that she had been in contact with a chef involved in the slow food movement in the Magalies area in South Africa.
Finished nice and early
and just been chilling.
The BIG DAY...Mondial du Pain
Today was a pretty standard Saturday. The cleaning ended a
bit earlier than usual because Mr Pozzoli came around at 10am with the Chinese
team from the “mondial du pain” competition. They had a video interview, with a
Chinese-French translator of course and they just checked out the bakery and
talked about some stuff like the countries’ different flours and mixing times
and friction values of mixers etc.
The mondial
du pain is a baking completion held every 2 years and at the moment has
teams from about 14 countries ranging from Algeria, Germany, Canada, Taiwan, and
Japan, France, Italy and America. Teams consist of a candidate of a minimum age
of 25 years and 5 years baking experience, a commis under the age of 21 and a
coach. They have to produce a variety of viennoiserie, breads as well as an
artistic piece. They have 1 hour the day before and 8 hours on the day of
production. Seriously insane level of knowledge and experience there.
Mondial Du Pain 2013 St Etienne France
Mondial Du Pain 2013 St Etienne France
After work and sleeping for a bit, I met up with Alexandre
and we drove with his family to St Etienne. I was in the back between their 3
month and 19month old sons...that’s not easy. I had to entertain the 3 month
old...and I was pretty good at it. But I told Alexandre and Pauline that no way
was I going to babysit for them J
Once in St. Etienne we went to the expo where the
competition was happening to see all the countries’ presentations and then we
went to the venue for the gala dinner with all the teams and people involved in
the organisation. I got pulled into the kitchen to help plate the entree which
was fine as the kitchen is always the most comfortable place for me at those kinds
of events. It wasn’t easy though as we were given some punch which was flippen
strong...cane, white rum and juice... myself and Loic Pozzoli who is the oldest
Pozzoli brother, in charge of the bakery in Vaise and the sales and marketing
department.
While we were plating, we got to snack on the canapés which
were circulating. The samoosas weren’t that great as I felt they needed some
seasoning and maybe a touch of spice. The courgette ones were nice, the lil'
pies of rabbit and liver were good too. Unfortunately I didn’t get to try the
escargot and pasties which sucks as I still haven’t tried that. The “cake aux
pieds porc” was really good with a nice porky flavour...def want to try to
modify that for a South African twist. But there were also some canapés which
were made at the Vaise bakery as they also do catering “traiteur”.
Starter was a foie gras terrine with rocket, a mango and
pineapple chutney jelly, pistachio crumble and pine nuts and a bread crisp. It
was really tasty and nicely seasoned and I actually ate half which is a lot
considering I don’t eat much foie gras.
Main was beef fillet, potato rosti, mini button and morelle
mushrooms, roast vine tomato and a cream based sauce.
They had lots of dancing in between and I even joined in. We
ended up going all the way around the stage with that one where people make a
tunnel and you run through. They did the Macarena and Gangnam style and Congo
as well. French people REALLY love their classics even people my age...I’m
talking Barry White, Gypsy Kings and Earth Wind and Fire...oh shit. I don’t
think I can ever escape that music that my parents and family always seem to
play. They also know a lot of Spanish songs too.
Everyone got together and waved and sang “we are the world”
but I think I was part of maybe 5% who actually knew more than 2 lines of the
chorus...was quite funny to hear everyone mumbling after the “we are the
children” line.
They then had a cool display where all the MOFs and people
on the organising board for the mondial du pain got on stage and presented a
cool artistic piece with the symbol for mondial du pain, an oven and peel and
breads (all baked of course) while singing “we are the champions”. Again, I
think most only knew about 2 lines of the chorus.
While that was happening we were served dessert (it was
about 00:30 at this time) which was a chocolate base, with chocolate croquant,
chocolat mousse and vanilla cream. And after that a coffee which was the
standard plunger coffee which everyone drinks here. I really miss having a
proper espresso or latte.
We only left after 2am and then it was another hour drive
back to Lyon. A very cool evening but I was just bummed that I didn’t get to
see the production as that would’ve been 1st prize for me.
Big Day Tomorrow
Nothing noteworthy today. From next week I won’t be doing the
dividing of the dough and shaping of the baguettes, but the shaping of the bio
bread and the week after that I’ll be at the oven with Alexandre in the
morning...I definitely need more hands on experience with that.
Pretty stoked about going to the mondial du pain tomorrow.
Bought myself a Monster to have for breakfast as a lil' special treat: p
Dream Team
Today was great with Alexandre, Alex, Yan and I all
working....knocked that shit out nice and fast.
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| one for all & all for one |
Bonnie has been acting strangely this week, meowing all the
time for no reason and at first I thought maybe she needed her litter changed
or wanted food etc. but now I think maybe she’s just in heat. It was funny
watching her this morning playing/fighting with herself and I even saw her
climb up 1m on the corner of a stone wall and doing flips and stuff. I almost
thought she had ingested something that she was tripping on for a minute.
Gazuese as usual just gives me his usual dumb stare. Shame but he’s cute, this
morning while we were waiting for the shop to be opened she saw me at the
window and was trying to catch and bite my finger as I ran it along the glass. He’s
kinda like the sweet retarded kid you always see in movies. But he really makes
me laugh a lot. Lately, I’ve been playing with them with some string and I run
it along some bags of flour and bonnie just jumps on top and chases it but Gazuese
sits behind the bags of flour and jumps out from behind them like a jack in the
box when the string comes near...
Bonnie always has a very serious, predatory look when she’s
stalking the string and Gazuese is just big eyes and fluffy tail. Sometimes I
think he thinks he’s a dog because sometimes when I play with him and get him
to run around a lot he literally pants like a dog which is so funny to watch.
Or when he sees me he rubs his head against my hand so hard and is so happy to
see me and bonnie has more of the “I will allow you to pet me now” attitude.
My favourite/funniest thing about Gazuese is that when he’s
chasing the string, if he’s about to run into a wall (because he runs straight
for things) instead of stopping or changing direction he does a sort of parkour wall jump and just
keeps going...cracks me up every time.
After the breads I
helped Pierre and Alex with the shaping of brioche for the tresse, brioche a
tete, galette sucre, navette, boule aux chocolat noir, blanc et pralines,base
de tarte pralines. I then helped Jean-Luc and Alexandre with the “foncé” which
is the term for lining a mould or base for the tarte abricot and tarte flan and
tarte aux poires.
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| making tarte abricot |
We had a great chat
about packaging, food styling and photography, presentation and costings...I
really enjoy my conversations with him in English and French...
After work I stopped by
the Bartholdi statue in place des terreaux and had a sandwich while I did some
people watching...always fun. J
Domestic Bliss
Just stayed in today, did laundry, tidied my room and
cleaned the kitchen and also had my favourite day of the week...grocery
shopping day!!! J Was
in bed by 6:30pm so I could get plenty rest for tomorrow.
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.
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| Chris & Marion |
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| Cat |
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| Ana & Marie |
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| 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.
Samoosas & Escargot
Today was pretty standard and we knocked out things pretty
quickly and naturally le sac a merde claimed it was because of him.
But today was special in that Mr Pozzoli as well as 3 other MOF bakers
were prepping today for the “mondial
du pain” which is going to be held in St Etienne on the weekend. I got to
help with some of the prep, namely help roll samoosas....at first I thought
they were saying “ca mousse” as in “that mousse” but it was really samoosas!
Chef made some beef mince with peas and boiled potatoes...reminded me of mom’s
savoury mince. We had to do about 260 of those at 10g of filling so it took a
LOOOONG time.
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| Samoosa Factory |
They also prepped some courgette chunks hollowed out with a
parissiene scoop and blanched and then stuffed with a fricassee of mince, red
peppers and onions cooked in cream.
Escargot
cooked in pureed garlic and cubed potato and deglazed with Pastis and mixed
with loads of fresh herbs, served inside 2 triangles of pate feulletage
(similar to puff pastry) kinda like a sandwich.
Minced rabbit, liver and pork that were made into little
pies with pate feulletage as well.
Side of salmon en croute (salmon covered in pate feulltage
and decorated)
Cake aux pieds porc (a savoury cake with pork trotters, just
the meat) and chopped up pig nose and ears as well for some crunch as well as
gruyere and herbs.
Terrine of seared foie gras and red figs.
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| foie gras |
I only left work at 18:00 so I was at work for 16 hours but I
had a fun time talking with the chefs and joking about and we had a sandwich
and a beer later as well, but when I got home I was so exhausted I just
collapsed and passed out.
Ah my scoring (lamé) was really good today. While I was scoring I could just feel like
it was good. I had a nice angle and incline, length of score, depth and spacing
as well. That really made my day to see it come out so well.
Chef said
that the next mondial du pain is in 2 years and
then I should compete with a team from SA...who knows, we’ll have to see but I
think it would be an awesome thing to do.
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