Journal...day 1

Journal de Lyon Lundi 22 Juliet

Today was my first day at the Institut Paul Bocuse; I got up at 6 am, showered, ate and got dressed and then headed down to the bus stop and waited for my bus, number 3, to the Ecully area in direction of Dardilly. Ecully has a beautiful country feeling to it, quaint, but familiar and “loyal” almost. Creepers making their way up beautiful old building, not much sound being made at all, the whole atmosphere was very serene and relaxing.

Soon after introductions I headed to the bakery where Chef Jean-Marc Berthamier is in charge. Along with 6 other students, we set about making the various breads for the day, pain de tradition (made with type 65 flour which has a beautiful crisp crust, even later in the evening), pain de meule (exact same recipe as pain de tradition except it’s made with type 80 flour which results in a much nuttier flavour and darker colour. I’m told that type 80 has more of the bran in it and is coarser than type 65). Both were shaped into baguettes and dinner rolls.

We also made pain de meteil which is a 50/50 rye and type 65 bread and pain au lait which is enriched bread with milk powder and butter, used for viennoiserie.

After class Chef Jean-Marc took me for a tour of the institute and the castle that houses the gastronomic restaurant of the institute which is open to the public.

Later, at 7:30pm I met with some “couch surfers” at Cafe de la Madeleine in the Saxe Gambetta area. It was really cool as there were about 50 odd people who showed up, there was a guy from Armenia, 2 Germans, a Canadian, a Belgian and loads of French...although I barely spoke to more than 10 people. They have this meeting every week so I think I’ll try to go as often as I can.

People in Lyon are very friendly and willing to try to help me, even with their sometimes limited English. I’m pretty much sorted with regards to the public transport and know which metro line or bus I need to take to get to certain areas. And there is a Schweppes “agrum’” here which is a grapefruit flavoured Schweppes which I am totally in love with and think would go awesome with gin.

A bientot