it's already over!?!?

~Happy New Year~

So sorry for the huge delay in posting. I finished up my internship in the beginning of January and have spent the rest of the month taking advantage of my strategic central location here in Paris... posts about my travels on their way, but here are a few sweet peeks that I took at the end of my 6 months there.

Tarte ananas-citron vert: an almond dacquoise filled with our vanilla crème millefeuille and topped with pineapple bâtons sprinkled with lime zest

La Poire Belle Hélène: one of the many versions of this classic dessert. Pear bavaroise with an insert of pear purée... decorated with gold-dusted slivered almonds

cross-cut of La Poire Belle Hélène

Taken one evening after the morning shift was done for the day. Here is the night shift working the dinner service, Michalak in the foreground searching out ideas from Cartier magazines...

New Year's Brunch! Here are our little financiers fleur d'oranger, topped with toasted hazelnuts

Plain and chocolate-dipped madeleines

Guimauves fraises (strawberry marshmallows)

If you order room service, this tartelette framboise is on the menu. Because of this dessert, I learned and perfected the art of making a quenelle!

Tarte fraîcheur: biscuit with a layer of raspberry jam under a yogurt & lime mousse... and quenelles of coconut chantilly on top. Very festive for the Christmas season!

One would think that after Christmas and New Year's have passed, one would be done with holidays, at least for awhile. Well, apparently not here. Janvier - 'tis the month for the galettes des rois! In honor of the Epiphany, this frangipane-filled puff pastry is sold all month long. Tradition has it that whoever finds the fève ("bean"... or really a miniature collectible) in thegalette is king for the day! This year's fève for Plaza was a little chauffeur's cap.

the galettes for the day...

(photo courtesy of www.plaza-athenee-paris.fr)

My last day was spent molding frangipane (almond cream + pastry cream) into disks to put into the puff pastry... woot! I still cannot believe how quickly these last 6 months flew by. The first couple of weeks, I was counting down the days until my weekend. Now, it's just surreal that it's all over. I want to thank the whole équipe (team) in la pâtisserie centrale for welcoming and helping me. It was definitely tough at times, especially with some minor communication issues, but I did it!

some of the team on my last day... we were having a break to try some fresh pannetone from Italy!

Merci à tous! Vous allez me manquer :)

[p.s. next stop in my career path: working with Jérôme, 3rd from the left, in Cannes! more details when I find them out... and if my visa paperwork goes through.]

Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas to all around the world!

*Plaza Athénée's bûche for 2010 - layers of strawberry jam and violet/vanilla cream between thin layers of biscuit, atop an almond nougatine base

soupe à l'oignon

Soupe à l'oignon. French Onion Soup. Cheese. Onions. Bread. Salty broth. More cheese. Deliciousness to warm you up during a chilly Paris winter day.

Need I say more?

You, too, can partake in this tummy-warming experience at:

Au Pied de Cochon

6 rue Coquillière, 75001 PARIS

Les Galerie des Gobelins - Salon de Thé

I wish I was able to take more photos at work, and I think I'm allowed to, however, with all the hustle and bustle going on, I dare not. I mean, sure, I can go into the walk-in fridge and snap some shots, but everyone knows the lighting just isn't good and if someone comes in, it just kind of looks strange... if you know what I mean.

Anyway, everyday, one of us from the pâtisserie centrale has to prepare the chariot for tea time in the Galerie des Gobelins around 15h. Sometimes I'm given this task, and that's fine, however, the time to add the finishing touches to the desserts can be a disruption to the rest of my work. I hate being rushed, especially when it comes to presentation. Fortunately, one particular day when I had time to breathe, I remembered to get my camera and take advantage of this opportunity. Here is the selection of desserts for the Autumn/Winter 2010 collection:

Les Galeries des Gobelins (photo courtesy of linternaute.com)

the chariot for the Salon de Thé aux Galerie des Gobelins

in the background, there's the traditional millefeuille, while in the foreground, we have a tarte passion-framboise (biscuit, raspberry jam, and passionfruit/banana cream, all layered on a thin sablé crust)

Zuccotto: a biscuit with layers of caramel and café mousse on top. One of the best, I think.

Poire d'érable: maple syrup bavaroise with a pear purée filling, atop a pear-filled financier

Red Power: Soho litchi chantilly with a strawberry bavaroise/strawberry jam insert, resting on a strawberry filled financier

Mont Blanc: a ball of chestnut bavaroise filled with a mini baba au rhum, coated with vanilla whipped cream and dotted with meringues

Religieuse au caramel salé: pâte à choux filled with salted caramel pastry cream

selection of cakes: lemon, marble, and fruit... with "American" chocolate chip cookies on the right.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's finally winter here in Paris, and after a week of temps in the mid-20s during the day, it actually snowed on Wednesday! Apparently it was a record snowfall since 1987.

brrr!

0°C! I guess that's cold enough for it to snow, huh?

Even some of the buses had pertubations and were eventually shut down due to intempéries (bad weather) for the day.

I guess you could take a Velib instead?

Plaza!

I think going to school in Maine helped me deal with this a little bit, but I think I'm a true southern Californian at heart. Definitely warmed up with the help of a little stand attached to Le Comptoir at Odeon:

a buckwheat crêpe with ham, artichokes, mozzarella, marinated red peppers, and roquette salad

can you say anything but yum??

a few bites of plain crêpe can't hurt anyone before digging in...

...digging into this delicious goodness! Yup, you definitely saw me sit on the bus stop "waiting for the bus that would never come" just so I could enjoy my lunch during the snowy blizzard.

when it rains, it pours!

Salut! Just wanted to let you know that I haven't abandoned this blog! My computer has been HS (hors service = out of order) for the past month or so... apart from grieving this loss (and how rainy it's been and how COLD it's gotten), I'm astounded at how much I depend on a computer to function on a daily basis (or at least during my days off). Might be back in action by the end of the month though!

Other than that, I've been busy dealing with visa stuff as well as a leaking shower... causing the wall on the landing of my floor to suffer a little. Still working though and even staying late to practice making whatever I want (and whatever they want...). More on that later but below are some macarons I made after work one week:

chocolate-caramel ganache macarons

A bientôt, j'espère!

Happy Halloween!

~Happy Halloween~

Taken at the Salon Pari Fermier where all of the stalls were farmers who produced and marketed their own goods. I happened upon this pumpkin "patch" and decided to get some autumn decor for my apartment... as I was picking through the mini pumpkins, more than one elderly woman came up to me and asked if they were good to eat or not. Not ever having tried the minis before, I instead explained that I use them for decoration around the house in addition to pointing out how cute they were!

Their perplexed reaction tells me that the French aren't big fans of pumpkins used as decoration...