Bonjour Everyone!

Today is going to be the second day of our lab classes. Group A and B are switching from pastry to culinary and I was excited to see what is going to happen today. We arrived at the institute at 8:40 am. We immediately got to work in the kitchen. Group A began prepping the ingredients for the duck breast, duchess potatoes, and poached pears. Group B was in charge of 5 different types of tarts. My team’s job was the preparation of the duchess potatoes.

Checking the doneness of the duck.

At the beginning of class, we were told that we would be having visitors in the morning, children from a school in the area. The menu items were bacon, hard-boiled eggs, orange juice, and mini croissants. The children were wonderful and well behaved we asked them their names and how old they were and if school was enjoyable to them. After about 30 minutes we returning to work and began preparing for our family meal.

The sauce that was prepared for the duck was amazing!

The children were very well behaved and understood English a little bit.

My team’s potatoes were already in the oven, thanks to Chef Nickolas. We scooped the flesh, passed it through a food mill, added melted butter, egg yolks, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. We piped the mashed potatoes into eclair shapes, breaded and fried them. While they were being fried, we cleaned up the kitchen. Both groups came together for lunch and we discussed what we liked and disliked. After, we completely cleaned the kitchen and were dismissed. Some of us went to the city for shopping or touring, others went to the hotel.

Group B preparing tart’s as our dessert.

The main course prepared by group A