Phew! 10 weeks went by so fast.. The classes from sunrise 'til sundown, the many cuts, bruises and burns that went with them.. all the time and strength I garnered up to get adjusted to cooking and delivering under pressure, was definitely worth it when I held my basic diplomas last wednesday morning.
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| Chef de Cuisine Bruno Stril, Chef Patissier Xavier Cotte and a happy me. |
Though, I'd be the first to admit, I am not the coolest, calmest and most confident person when placed under the pressure of achieving perfection under strict time constraints.. (I think I had several near melt-down moments during both my pastry and cuisine exams..) It did feel really good being called up as the fifth place getter in cuisine. It was a massive surprise! I did not expect to get a placement at all in the cuisine side, as most of my time goes into practicing patisserie techniques. Getting a placement in cuisine, though some students may think is trivial and a silly thing to get caught up about, has given me confidence that I can also cook savory stuff. Next term I will spend an even amount of time practicing both disciplines and hopefully achieve better results for the two of them.
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| Chef de Cuisine Bruno Stril, Chef Patissier Xavier Cotte, Chef de Cuisine Patrick Terrien, Chef de Cuisine Philippe Clergue, the director and 3 of the top 5 cuisine students. |
So I hope I have made you proud dear friends in New Zealand! Thinking of you and missing you lots... now. To escape the fast approaching european winter, I'm off to Jakarta! But first New York chill for 2 weeks. Yikers!
bisous x
