July 10, 2013. 2:25.
Perk of working with Tibot in the patisserie instead of in
the kitchen: LOOK AT THE START TIME OF THIS POST! Yeah, it's 2:25 and I'm
already back from the my day shift! We NEVER finish that early in the kitchen.
In the evening too, I'm pretty sure Tibot leaves a whole lot earlier. He also
came like 30 minutes to an hour past 9:00am this morning. So when I came, I
thought I was supposed to be with him, but he wasn't there - so I started out
in the kitchen. Ollivier and I were actually the first ones there, so I started
setting up the kitchen and showing him how to (taking out the cutting boards,
putting out the spoons, etc. Then I grated broccoli into a couscous salad thing
and started peeling peas until Tibot arrived. I don't know if normally now I'm
supposed to arrive later, when he does, or if I should still come by 9:00am.
I'll probably come at 9:00am - then start helping out in the kitchen like today
until Tibot gets here.
Again, I'm still pleased about the other perk of being in
the patisserie - getting to do stuff. It's really, really nice that he gives me
real tasks and responsibilities. Today I again made the little chocolate cake
muffins, but was much more in the hang of it. Last time...well, you have to put
the batter in a plastic pouch and squeeze it out into the muffin molds -
aaaaaannndd let's just say...my first time I wasn't an EXPERT. I mean it was
fine, he just...laughed at me and made some joke about Americans being
disgusting and getting food all over themselves. He said the first time doing
it everyone gets messy because they try to put too much in. Anyway, this time I
kept much more tidy for awhile, and at least somewhat tidier the whole time.
Plus I made them much more efficiently. I'm getting the hang of where the
ingredients and the materials (trays, bowls, scale, etc) are, as well as
learning more and more French words, particularly all the necessary kitchen
vocabulary.
I also made the brioche dough and helped create the shapes
again - it's kind of tricky actually, and last time I sucked and it took me
forever, but I made about 1 for every 2 he made this time, so that was much
better! Then I made the bread dough, and also the 'batter' for the coconut
meringues. But while making that I did something that made me afraid I was
about to lose his faith in me and think he might bump me down in
responsibilities - I was supposed to weigh 500g of egg whites. Egg WHITES. I
clarified that with him a couple times (because at first I didn't know a word
he was saying so I wasn't positive whether he was saying use just the whites,
or remove the whites). And then I proceeded to weigh 500 grams of...eggs. Yeah.
Gooooodddddaammiiiit! Well, I started quickly using a shell to take separte out
the yolks (almost all were still whole, only a few had broken and spread out a
bit, but were still definitely removable). I was starting to hope that he
wouldn't even notice, until he looked in surprised and said "merdre!",
or "shit!" I looked embarrassed, said, "je sais...", or
"I know..." and then kind of laughed as I continued removing the
yolks. He laughed too, which made me quite relieved. :) Everything was still
okay!
When it's someone's birthday, he writes "Joyeux
Anniversaire" on the dessert plate with a tiny bag of chocolate. Of course
he's done it tons of times so he writes very elegantly and prettily. He gave me
that bag and told me to try writing. Uh oh. Why can't I have Maya's artistic
abilities?!?!?! Well, I had him write it on the counter first, and then I tried
mine on the counter next to his. Oh man. I was embarrassed and tried to wipe it
off before he could see, but he looked over and said, "mais non, c'est
mal!", or "but no, it's not bad!". He obviously meant like...for
a first time. It was certainly far from good enough for the real thing. But I
think I could improve pretty fast. I'll try again next time he has the
chocolate writing bag out.
But really, Maya, how come I didn't get your artsiness??? Come to think of it, it would also be kind of nice to have your French speaking skills.... :P
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