Day 1
Culinary
Appetizer (Realisation) Shrimp and salmon salad on salad
Entree – Veal stuffed Chicken with nut sauce
Pastry: Chocolate speculos choux, choux honore, crusty vanilla choux, paris brest, eclair

Day 2
Culinary
Appetizer – Tasty toast with red mullet pates and egg salad
Entree – Fillet of Duck with pear cooked in wine and croquettes potatoes
Pastry:Raspberry and Passionfruit Mille Feuille, napoleon 

Day 3
Culinary
Appetizer – Nem de saint jacques sur emince de poireaux salade d’ herbes vinaigrette balsamique au miel (scallops skewers wrapped in filo dough on top of a fresh salad dressed with balsamic honey vinaigrette)
Entree – Lamb in a parmenier crust (lamb with potatoes “Pommes Paille” served with a deglazed sauce and thicken with roux)
Pastry: Pink Praline Brioche, Tropezienne, Pain Perdue and Swiss Brioche

Day 4
Culinary
Appetizer -Warm salmon, pate de tete with seasonal vegetables
Entree – Fricassee de volaille legumes printaniers (chicken fricassee with wild rice pilaf and mushroom velouté)
Pastry: Salmon dill, foie gras, lemon, coconut macaroon

Paris is known for its romantic settings and landmarks. Did I mention the food? While in Paris we attended classes at Saint Pierre Institut where we split into groups and made a variety of culinary and pastry items. It was my first time being in an assembly line and it made me realize how every dish is made simple, through this process. Pastry class was a bit more difficult because everything was whipped or mixed by hand and it took more effort to complete a dish. Also in pastry class Yayun and Nasiayah and I were in charge of making the pan perdue in which Chef Sandrine taught us how to make caramel by simply heating up sugar and adding cream after it’s browned. I also learned that egg whites need to be aged in order to make better macaroons, ideally two weeks. Pastry class was the first time I used vanilla bean pods in a recipe, in NYCCT we used vanilla extract solution for recipes. While following the recipe for brioche, because of a mistranslated phrase most of the yeast got killed because it called for yeast in hot milk when it’s supposed to be cool and causing us remake the bread. This is because yeast dies at the temperature of 140 degrees.  Something that was intriguing to me was during the last day at Saint Pierre Institut when the pastry class made macaroons and inside were salmon dill and foie gras, I had never really imagined that they could be used as an appetizer and I was surprised that the concept has not been used elsewhere.

Upon our visit to Rungis international market I realized how big the wholesale stores were and how many different brands or varieties there are of one item. It was my first time seeing white strawberries and several of the students also were able to try a fresh nectarine. Fresh loaves of bread are common in bakeries and markets and I was a little obsessed with them in Paris because of how soft they were on the inside but the outside was still crisp. I searched bakeries upon arrival back in New York to reminisce but none of the breads I tried matched up to the ones in Paris.

While in Paris it was the first time I tried beignets. The beignet looked like a munchkin but was slightly softer and the ones I liked were the chocolate ones. I usually don’t like eating chocolate in the United States because its overly sweet, but the ones I tried were not as sweet and richer in flavor. Even though the chocolate was inside the beignet it was still melted and didn’t harden over time and temperature. Upon arrival back to New York I tried several beignets to compare the taste and found that they were a bit tougher and more chewy. They were also covered in a white sugar powder which made my hands dirty and it was messy eating it. The chocolate was sweet and combined with the powder on top I couldn’t eat more than one piece. I believe the ones in Paris are made with less sugar and fat because New Yorkers are known to have a sweet tooth and the bakeries might have adjusted their recipe to be more suited for Americans.