Phone eats first.
The other night, looking for a way to unwind, I found myself watching my king Anthony Bourdainās first-ever episode of No Reservations where he brought his bad boy energy to (of course): Paris. As Iām coming up on my 3-month anniversary of being here, Iād like to think Iāve already seen it all. Iām practically one of the locals. WRONG!! Even Tony was discovering parts unknown (haha) of Paris on his millionth visit, seeing new sights, eating new eats, encountering new surprises. Itās overwhelming to realize that Iāve only touched the tip of the iceberg of things to do here. And, being a foodie, I choose to document these experiences as I go along in the only way I know how: āphone eats first.ā
The way people eat has changed enormously since Bourdain first tackled the mean streets of the French capital back in 2005. I got a twang of jealousy seeing him plop into those cafĆ© wicker chairs and watch the city pass by - as I sit on my bed eating ramen I ordered through Deliveroo. Going to culinary school in this time of enormous change in cuisine, I feel like I have a pulse on the scene. I hear the discouragement in the chefsā voices, as they are unable to taste and teach as they normally would. But I also see no change in foodās ability to bring people together - and have found great joy in capturing this through my iPhone camera.
While I didnāt do a lot of research before coming here, my iPhone and I are making up for lost time - photographing and eating everything I can get my hands on in these times of crazy shifts in the food industry. So on yāallās next visit to good ole Paris, youāll have the first ever ā(post) COVID guide to eating in Parisā at your disposal š©š
Coffee/Chocolate duos
DREAMS DO COME TRUE. Mini? Check. Chocolate? Check. Coffee? CHECKā¼ļø This lilā cutie consisted of: appareil mi-cuit (essentially a French lava cake), crĆ©meux cafĆ© (flavored with this sugary, thick coffee syrup Trablit), a coffee macaron, whipped milk chocolate ganache, and a coffee glaze. Garnished with crushed, dried crĆŖpes and the adorable chocolate coffee bean.
You already know what Iām gonna sayā¦ āļøāļøāļøāļøāļø
Pillow framboise
Definitely one of the more ~mysterious~ looking things that weāve made. From the super close-up, pixilated picture provided on our recipe sheet, I thought we were going to be making a āpillowā the size of my head. Alas, more minis!!!
How itās done? SablĆ© Breton base, jellied raspberry coulis insert surrounded by chocolate mousse, and a bright red glaze. Decorated with silver powder and a little white chocolate āpillow feather.ā
Minis, while I love āem, offer up a challenge: making all 4/5/6 of your products look the exact same. No room for dudsš³ A solid āļøāļøāļø, no surprises taste-wise but loved the lewk.
Like I mentioned last week, I take a vested interest in what/how the chefs themselves eat on the day-to-day. Anthony Bourdain too! And, to put some of my random food photos to use, I wanted to include what the chefs (myself included now?) are grubbinā on before/during/after school.
We eat: Beef Bo Bun.
Belle HĆ©lĆØne
During every single practical, as soon as each of us is done, we rush to this window at the end of the room to hastily (and secretly) take our pics for the āGram, newsletter, what have you. Becaussseeee, depending on what chef we have that day, they will not hesitate to take out their aggressively large chefās knife and chop, dissect, and dismantle your entire entremet you just spent 3 hours creating, right before your very eyes.
Okay soā¦ Iām just going to cut right to the chase with this oneā¦ it tasted kind of strange. Listen to this and tell me your thoughts.
Contents (see below): cocoa streusel, topped with jellied pear and lime coulis, then a chocolate biscuit sponge, a chocolate cardamom mousse, chocolate glaze, and a crƩmeux chocolat spiral.
The flavor combos never cease to surprise me, and I loved trying this one (also thought the cross-section was cool š¤ ). But āļøāļø.
We eat: when we can.
Tarte Soleil
I heard Zac Brown Bandās āToesā playing in my head as I made this. The taste instantly transported me to a beach far far away, giving me the sensation of a sunburn and dehydration (but likeā¦ in a good way?). Definitely will be returning to this recipe for summertime.
Whatās in it? Sweet pastry dough, Savoie sponge imbibed with Malibu liquor, jellied pineapple compote (āananaā in French, love that word), coconut mousse, and Italian meringue.
The OpƩra Cake (duhn, duhn, duuuhhhnnn)
This is something you will see in the window of every patisserie, a staple if you will. With this one, itās all in the layers: (1) Joconde sponge (2) coffee buttercream (3) another sponge (4) chocolate ganache (5) another sponge (6) more butter cream (7) a chocolate glaze.
We eat: scraps.
Safe to say, the taste was out of this world. Chocolate and coffee, once again, has my heart. āļøāļøāļøāļøāļø
We eat: monster-sized steaks with no utensils.
Feuille dāautomne AKA āAutumn Leafā
The dreaded return of the chocolate mousse - one of the most finicky foes of Intermediate Pastry. This LenĆ“tre creation classically layers almond French meringue with a dark chocolate mousse, but our rendition substitutes the meringue for a dacquoise (a meringue-esque thing made out of almondsā¦ oh the diversity of French pastry).
The decoration was the real doozy in this practical, having to meticulously shave chocolate into the āleavesā to be dusted with an autumn snow (?) of powdered sugar. My journey with chocolate is long from being over, as Iāll be making sculptures out of it in Superior, but everybodyās gotta start somewhereš¤
We eat: Pinterest-aesthetic picnics in the park.
And we eat: a whole Rotisserie chicken out of a bag.
Thank you for tuning in!!! Love sharing these updates with yāall, and hope all is wellš
xoxo,
ChloƩ