Day 1: A long day ends with short breads.

Well, after all these years, I finally completed "The First Day of School" all over again!  It was an extremely intense, informative, and all around exciting experience.  I'm not sure I was fully prepared to be at the school off an on for 12 hours, but even in the 11th hour I still caught myself smiling with joy over the fact that I was finally learning about and getting to do something I love.

Now that you know the day was a huge success let me take you back to 9:15am and my formal entrance into the world of Cordon Bleu Paris.  Entering the front foor of the school I was warmly greeted by three women aged about 35, all bilingual in French and English, sitting at a table handing out information packets and giving out stickers for everyone to wear.  The stickers were labeled 1, 2, or 3 and had either a red dot or a green dot on them.  I was given Green #1 and sent to the "Jardin d'Hiver" or Winter Garden to fill out my paperwork with approximately 25 other people.  Our numbers quickly rose until we were about 45 people ranging in age from 20ish-45.  While it would seem I'm right in the middle of the group age wise I'd be remiss not to mention the fact that it was like a dagger to the heart when I had to check the box for the 30-35 age group on the information form we all had to fill out.   

At 9:30am sharp a group of 4 adults in business attire and one woman in a chef's uniform began the day's presentation.  The first question asked was, "How many of you speak French?"  Only about 1/4 of the new students in the room raised their hands which seemed to bring immediate relief to many people in the room including me.  The entire presentation, and the rest of the day's activities, were consistently spoken in French and translated into English.  It was a very good way to learn and I gradually found myself understanding more and more French as the day went on.

Following the introductory presentation we were informed that the green dot on our identifying stickers denoted that we were all Basic Pastry students and the numbers were the three groups we'd be put it to complete the morning tasks of registration, tour of the school, and distribution of uniforms, knife kits and lockers. 

My group was first to receive uniforms, knife kits, and lockers.  The uniforms consist of 3 pairs black and white checkered chef pants, 3 white chef jackets, 3 neck ties, 2 small hats, 1 apron, and 3 utility towels.  There is a pocket on the left sleeve of the jacket where you are required to carry a tasting spoon, a pen, and your clip-on student ID at all times.  The knife kit I haven't even looked at yet, however it is a huge black case with a full set of Wusthof knives, several spoons, forks, and a nail cleaning brush for your hands.  The lockers are bright blue and about as old as the school which was founded in 1895.  We each had to provide our own lock with a key or combination.

The second activity for my group was a tour of the school.  We went back to the Jardin d'Hiver and learned that this is the main gathering place for students.  It is a two story room with a roof completely made of glass to let the light in.  It is full of bistro tables and chairs and students generally eat there, study there, or just hangout there while waiting for their next class.  Our next stop was the main Demonstration Room for Pastry students.  The DR is an ampitheater style room with seating for about 55 people.  It has a kitchen down in front with a huge island containing a sink, plenty of counter space, and 8 large burners.  Above the island is a slanted mirror and a downward pointing video camera running a live feed to 4 flat screen TVs, 2 on either side of the room, for student viewing.  The final part of our tour was a visit to one of the pastry kitchens.  It was a rectangular room with 14 work spaces.  This is where we will have our practical classes and recreate what we've seen the chef make in the DR.

At 11am all Pastry students entered the DR for a completion of the morning program.  We were given our very, very crazy and intense schedules for the next 5 weeks and our school binders complete with a syllabus, info on the chefs we'll be learning from, and all of the "recipes" we'll be learning in Basic Pastry.  I say "recipes" because what we really have are ingredient lists.  In the Demonstration classes it will be our job to take diligent notes and recreate the chef's recipe so that we can recreate the dish the chef prepared the next day in our Practical class in the kitchen.

At noon we were dismissed and told to be back in full chef gear at 3:30pm for our first demonstration class. I took this time to run out and buy chef shoes which are basically heinous looking black clogs with a steel toe.  After purchasing the shoes I also decided to eat a big lunch knowing I probably wouldn't be eating again before 9:30pm, unless it was a sample of some of the demonstration food from the afternoon's classes.

Our 3:30pm demonstration was purely informative and not something we're going to have to recreate.  The chef showed us how to make "simple" ingredients that are frequently used in pastries, but will be provided for us as opposed to us making them from scratch.  He demonstrated how to make Raw Almond Paste, Marzipan, Apricot Glaze, Coffee Extract, Praline, and Fondant (which I have clearly already mastered anyway).  It was very fun and interesting to watch him work.  He had a very nice and funny disposition.  When the presentation ended at 5:30pm he informed us that he was teaching our 6:30pm class as well and would begin at 6pm if we all preferred.  Obviously we were thrilled!

The 6pm class was all about shortbread.  We learned how to make Nantais Shortbread, shortbread sandwich cookies called Glasses, Chocolate Shortbread, Brittany Shortbread Biscuits, and Diamonds.  We will be recreating Diamonds tomorrow in our first Practical class at 8:30am.  The recipe calls for butter, flour, powdered sugar, a strip of orange peel grated, some powdered vanilla, and some salt.  The ingredients are to be combined, rolled, sliced, refrigerated, and then baked at for 25-30 minutes.  It sounds like I know what I'm talking about, so hopefully tomorrow will be my first official culinary success!

After the class ended around 8pm we were allowed to take pictures of all the cookies the chef had made and then his assistant plated the cookies so that we each had one, or a piece of one, of each of the cookies.  I'm not sure if it was not eating since 2pm or what, but they were the best shortbread (aka not soft) cookies I've ever had!  I can't wait to make them tomorrow.

After that we were dismissed and changed our clothes and filed out of the school around 8:30pm.  I got home at 9pm, changed, went for my first jog in Paris with my barefoot shoes on, and then came home to FINALLY post something on my blog.  I know it was more informative than creative, but as it's 11pm and I've got to be back at school by 8am, I don't have time to talk to anyone tonight.  I hope you guys found the beginning of my journey as exciting as I did.  I'll talk to everyone soon and post the results of my baking tomorrow.

Until then Bonsoir and Bon Appetit!