Today marked the fourth and final day in the kitchen, the very last time we stepped inside running around looking for chef or Alban. The last day we recreated traditional French cuisine in a French kitchen in Brunoy. In my eyes, today will be marked as a bittersweet moment. This morning wasn’t like any other previous morning, Europe was going through an extreme heat wave since the beginning of the weekend and today we woke up to a nice cool breeze. Our commute remained the same, we arrived at 8:45am and changed into our chef uniform. After we all came out, we walked into the kitchen to begin the todays production.

Group A went straight to Chef Nicolas and were given their daily production sheet while group B made their way into the pastry lab with Chef Sandrine. Group A menu consisted of an entrée and a plaque principale. The entrée was a smoked salmon and a warm salmon along side mashed potatoes, vegetables and a summer green salad. The plaque principale was made up of lamb wrapped around a sheet of brick which was wrapped around a shredded potatoes sheet alongside a lamb sauce. Sounds yummy right? It was and here are the pictures to prove it was!

Entrée- Smoked Salmon, Warm Salmon, Mashed Potatoes, and summer salad

Group B did an outstanding job today, they were in charge of making desserts for the day and when it was time to eat dessert they looked truly amazing and trust me they all tasted amazing too. Today it was all about the puffs! They made eclairs, cream puffs, profiteroles, what looked like a flat croquembouche sitting on top of puff pastry. Both teams did an amazing job today in the kitchen and I would like to applauded everyone since we pushed through and persevered regardless of how hot its been the past couple of days, the kitchen often felt like we were stuck in a steamer that was inside an oven. I will never take for granted the AC in NYC as well as ice!

When both teams finished we all walked over to the dining room and greeted our professors and some of the school faculty. We were ready to sit down since we always did that once we came out of the kitchen but this time we stood in front of the chefs and faculty for some final words and to be presented with our “diplomas”. Bittersweet. This was the moment where it seemed to hit us, were are going home in two days. Unlimited ice, AC everywhere from public transportation to public buildings to our very own homes, it is time to go back home. This moment will be cherished. After that we took group pictures and ate amazing food! We cleaned up the kitchen and took some more pictures and then we were dismissed for the day. We all changed and headed towards the door where the heat of the afternoon hit us full force. We all made our way to the bus stop carrying our diplomas proudly with a full heart and stomach. C’etait le moment d’y aller maison.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your “last” day tomorrow!!

Sincerely, Citlalli Martinez