Susan went off to her first day at Pascal Pinaud's pastry shop on rue Monge early this morning (Friday) and frankly she was a bit nervous (OK pretty nervous). But just think about it: today is the first time since since her college days that she was going off to work in a place that didn't require any knowledge of anatomy, only a commitment to making something that people would buy to savor later that day. Naturally, then, for the past several days she's been like a cat, just waiting for something to happen. And now it has.
At a little before 6 a.m. she went off in the dark and quiet of an early Paris morning for the 10 minute-walk to the pastry shop, which she found equally dark and quiet and locked tight. Soon after she left I received a call from her asking for the phone number of the shop and then she called back a few minutes later saying there was no answer and that she was just standing out front waiting for someone, somewhere to let her in. She did report, however, that there were quite a few people setting up for the daily market -- the pastry shop sits right off of Place Monge and Friday is one of the big market days -- so at least she wasn't alone in the dark.
Well while we were chatting or rather Susie was filling me in on the market, along came a guy delivering sugar to the pastry shop so she decided to just follow him in and see what happens. More to follow later today.
21:20 (9:20 p.m. for nonmilitary types). We've just returned from a celebratory meal out at Cafe des Isles, the sister restaurant to Coco de Mer where we ate some months back. Both are in our neighborhood (the Cafe is on rue Monge and Coco is on Rue Saint Marcel) and both provide a wonderful gastronomic eye on the Seychelles ( off the northern coast of Madagascar). Outstanding seafood (fresh snapper from the Seychelles), very nice staff and reasonable prices; very highly recommended.
And why the celebration? Susan just finished her first (12 hour) shift in a Paris pastry shop of course! In general she walked away from the day with a very good feeling about both the people she is working with and the things she had to do.
Like what?
Well she had to make pastry cream to fill eclairs (which she also had to help do) and then pastry cream for a flan. (The cream fillings called for 6 liters of milk, 1500 grams of sugar, 36 egg yolks along with the flour etc. Now we're talking pastry cream.) After that she made chocolate ganache (cream and chocolate), then she helped work on bread doughs, topped chestnut barquettes (short pastry crust with an almond cream filling baked and then topped with chestnut cream which has to be formed into a specific smooth shape on the top), helped to make baguette sandwiches. At about 2:30 they stopped for a break and one of her co-workers (there are two other women working there, both from Japan, and of course Pascal) made noodles with salmon for lunch. It was then back to work! She also did her share of dishes as well.
At about 7 pm she left and walked home. A good day for her all around and one that was important to put behind her. She now has a sense of what is expected of her and what she will likely learn over the coming weeks and months. And she's working with some very nice people whose goal is to make very good food. What more could a pastry chef ask for?
Wish you were here,
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment