In the zone

So I got to work and drank an energy drink and then slept for about 30min on top of the freezer before Alexandre woke me up when he got there. Got changed and onto the work...

We were banging out the bread like machines...Alexandre used the divider to do some rustically shaped baguettes while I did all the biological bread and misc. shapes. By the time Benjamin came in at 2 we were almost done with everything. I got onto mixing all the other dough’s like kamut and spelt, viennoise and seigle Auvergne. The seigle Auvergne came out flippen sexy, with beautiful colouration and cracks. And I divided and shaped the viennoise on my own as well, as Benjamin was pretty slow even though he only had the white dough to do.

I honestly was in the zone, not talking much, just kept my head down and got shit done. I love that feeling or over tired second wind energy where you just go with everything. Alexandre mixed a rye recipe with some orange juice and zest in it which is an interesting idea.

After cleaning we were done around 10:30 and I was exhausted as once the work slows down, fatigue starts to creep in, but still pushed on. Oh and Bonnie is pregnant!!! You can see her belly swelling up already. She’s so cute...and I feel very protective of her but she still runs around and chases things like normal.

Ah and the ginger beer I brewed was really good. It could’ve fermented a bit more but it’s so cold at night that it couldn’t be helped.

When I got home I passed out hard, but only after cooking and doing some washing J and I woke up late!!! I had set my alarm but I only woke up after the rugby test match between SA and France had started. Anyway, I rushed to King Arthur where Alex, Pierre, Hugo and a beer were already waiting for me. Was a bit shit because they had some chick singing so they had no volume on the game but then again the French are more into their soccer.

The game wasn’t that great but SA beat France so no worries...  I bought a round of 3 pints of that awesome banana bread beer for Alex, Hugo and myself and when I got my sms for the transaction I was shocked...20 plus euros came to R275 for 3 pints!!!! They must’ve upped the prices a bit as its December but still...for that price I could buy 2 cases of beer back home. Oh well. It was a good night.

Everyone was hungry so we decided to go to McDonalds which was the first time I was going to one in France. They have a really cool system where you put your order through on a touch screen and pay for it, then just wait with your ticket until its ready. It’s so efficient and would really be better for SA I think. They also give you an option of potato wedges which I thought was really cool.

We can DO IT

Today was a very productive day, Alexandre and I just pumped stuff out. I really feel like I’m more efficient and therefore faster now and I can still improve. Alexandre also has the same view about setting up and work flow, gets everything ready that you might need and then you work like a factory, with a system and just pump stuff out. My back also hasn’t been hurting as much so I think my body is getting used to the height as well.

I got to mix the ciabatta, pain viennoise and the kamut. All which were mixed a lot as is usual for the French methods. Yan was “un sac de merde” again today...he keeps telling me to clean or what to do but he’s also new and I just do it for now but soon I’m going to tell him to “mange un bite”. He’s just slow and forgets stuff and you can tell from his body language that he won’t last long.

Today I got to score and bake some baguettes. On about 65% of them my scoring/ “laminé” was ok, but on the rest it wasn’t very good and I was pissed off at myself. I am used to scoring more around the loaf and not down the length of it, with a larger angle between the start and end of my cut. Here, the scores are more done with withe end and tip being maybe 1.5cm apart, but all cuts straight down the middle. Also using the very edge of the lame as if you score too deep it opens up more aggressively.

French people like the baguettes to have a nice thin crispy crust and a soft interior, so the baking time is not too long and unlike larger loaves where you open a vent for steam to escape (well, quite a lot), here you just leave it in the oven like normal until it’s time to take out but you don’t “dry out” the baguettes as they become too hard then. Every day I will score and bake the last 120 baguettes that we do as practice.

After baguettes I watched Alexandre as he laminated the butter into the croissant doughs. They have a different what I’m used to but it actually incorporates the butter a lot more effectively with less intensive folds and also, after folding the dough and before starting with the next fold, the side where the dough folds over is cut so there is less tension in the dough when you roll it out again. Makes complete sense but I never thought about it.

While Alexandre and I were shaping the croissants and the pain au chocolat for the next day, we were discussing different traditional customs and holidays and recipes. We discussed work philosophies and difficulties of staying in the industry and how your life is changed and that the work isn’t just a job any more, it’s a lifestyle that not everyone understands. I dig these long mass prep sessions as they’re a great time to really get to know someone.

Alexandre told me of a trick his father told him about when deciding whether or not to employ someone. While talking about this Alexandre knocked a brush onto the floor which I just picked up and put back as a reaction. That was the test...his father would purposefully drop something to see whether or not a person would react and pick it up or just leave it there. If you think about it carefully this is a brilliant way to weed out the people who are just clocking in and who won’t put in effort.

After work I played with the cats again...vie decided on bonnie for the female, but I felt that Clyde just wouldn’t suit the males personality so I have to think about it some more. They really are so adorable and the male with force his head under my hand when he sees me.

Laundry

Today was normal, divided the baguettes with Alexandre and then prepared some stuff to be baked for viennoisserie. They prepare most viennoisserie a few days before like the croissants, quiches, chaussons and tarts (the croissants are done the day before) but it’s all frozen when its prepped and then they bake it just from frozen. For the quiches and chaussons they cook them for 45min at 160C and this way the pastry is cooked and isn’t soggy. It’s interesting because I’ve never seen things done that way before but it saves a lot of time, only thing is you need freezer and fridge space for all the shelves of your prepped stuff.

I then shaped the baguettes in the machine and afterwards I shaped the flutes. I used one of the manually operated dividers to divide the various pain aromatiques and after preshaping most into boules we did the final shaping. Each has a different shape or score and there are some cool cutters to make a visual difference. I can’t remember what all the different flavours were as there were about 10 or so and some were similar. These all get precooked and frozen once cool and 2 of each are baked in the morning for the “magasin” (shop).

I didn’t sleep very well last night so I was a bit mentally slow or “tête dans le cul” (head in the ass)...I’ve started from today though to sleep for a bit when I get home after work as its difficult to go to sleep until after 10 as at 7 or 8 its still light and quite hot.

We finished early with the bread so we prepped for the next day, I made the kamut, spelt and rye poolish...the normal T65 flour costs around 80Eurocents/kg, the cheaper flour for working with 45c/kg, the farine biologique (organic, no pesticides, additives, chemicals etc.) around 1.15/kg but kamut comes in at a whopping 3.45 Euros/kg (R45/kg...eureka flour works out to about R8/kg)

I cleaned out les chambres de fermentation and after that Alexandre and I took out the glass windows from the oven to clean. Mr Pozzoli was in the wash-up (la plonge) cleaning the sink and cleaned the windows himself. He’s definitely the kind of person that I can respect and look up to. Leading by example, doing prep and production as well as cleaning. Many people get egos when they rise and think some things are beneath them, but I’m a firm believer in a little humility going a long way. Reminds me of working with George Jardine. If he had to ask me to clean anything now I wouldn’t say no. If the chef is doing it, why wouldn’t you?

After putting the windows back in I got to have a bottle of that beautiful Badoit water with the fine carbonation...that stuff is like the champagne of water for me. It’s not aggressive and harsh on your palate but almost smooth.

There were some burgers left over as well as mille feuilles (lit means thousand leaves, stemming from the puff pastry usage) with crème pat mmmmm and a tarte chocolat...sadly I have a limited capacity for sweet things but they were good.

After work I missioned home and passed out. I found out that to fix just the little door on the washing machine, along with the call out fee and tax (in France, all the taxes are crazy high) will come to around 100Euros...fml. Oh well, c’est la vie.  Merde survenir.