It's official.

Chouquette is incorporated.

Regina's Peonies

i love these flowers. they greet me every morning as i run out for more dessert supplies. they are so showy and remind me of my senior prom dress - which might not be a good thing, but i dont hold it against the peonies.

Tasting room. rocking reston town center. woooo.

Newest chocolate concoction before enrobing

Dark chocolate covering caramelized white choc ganache, almond crisp, and popping sugar. i love the combo. once i have five recipes perfected, i will start offering them for sale. need packaging ideas.

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Pleated shorts are IN????

Bringing back memories of high school summers spent on a dock on the severn river listening to songs they play on oldies radio now. oh, 1988, i cant wait to revisit at my 20th reunion next month. now if i can just find my guess jeans with the ankle zipper and my units belt.

New birthday cake

Switched to chocolate buttercream.

My grandmother's 90th birthday cake

Sponge cake, bavarian cream, strawberries, buttercream, with homemade fondant rose and plaque. i hope she likes it. it is similar to a french 'fraisier' cake.

My first paying job - Cupcakes for first communion

All vanilla cake. half with vanilla buttercream. other half chocolate buttercream w blue dots.

New york post home delivery.

How steph stays informed about world events.

True love.

Miller lite night with steph. just need some drunk texts to make the night complete.

Strawberries and sauteed pineapples with my blt for lunch.

Working on my designs for 'Berry Plate' orders.

Jeannie's Rent Payment

Dark chocolate filled with lghtly salted caramel and crunchy cereal pieces. i have eaten all the rejects and left the pretty ones for jeannie and the boys. hopefully they dont like dark choc.

Hairstyles of the lowly pastry assistant.

This is how high and tight i have to style my hair to fit under my toque (kitchen hat). my only break from 3 pm to midnight is when i sneak to the ladies room to fix this do and happily rest my feet while i blog. almost 6. gotta put my smile on for the customers peering in like zoo visitors. miss all of you. day off tomorrow!!!!!!! please call.

Memories of my 'Hood

My favorite blogger - David Lebovitz - just wrote a post about my neighborhood market, Barbes.  I have to iron my uniform and get ready for work, but please read it, and think of me hunting down the cheapest fingerling potatoes and munching on a hot 'brique' after my shopping is done.  I miss Paris.


David Lebovitz's Blog


His recipes are great, I have been making the salted caramels lately, and they are highly appreciated by everyone at Meadow Lane.  His Paris memoir is worth a read, especially before a trip to France.

Mon nouveau chapeau. (my new hat)

Of course i got chocolate on my new work hat before i even put it on my head. also i forget i have it on and bump into shelves with it. i think it is very sexy. especially with my sweaty head inside. dont be jealous -- I just made chocolate covered grapes.

amy hackett is a very bad influence.

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Hello washington dc.

Just a little something from paris.

Homeward bound.

Au revoir for now

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I have had guests and exams and graduation to celebrate.  Off to Berlin tonight, then Prague, Vienna, and Venice.  I have been taking notes and photos, so I will have lots of interesting things to share.


I have some photos from the sugar exam on facebook, here is the link for those of you who haven't seen them yet.  The sugar oranges are mine.  I have some good stories to tell about those days of hell, trust me!


Back in the US on April 7.   And MIGHT have an interview at my dream restaurant. 

Chocolate Frustrations

From before the chocolate exam, wow, I was frustrated!

Yesterday was our last conference - the session where the chef usually reads an essay on the production of flour, sugar or chocolate, which we hold an exact translation for in our notebooks.  Instead, Chef D asked us a few questions about tartaric acid, and other chemicals using in pastry, and got to work on a chocolate vase in preparation for his chocolate showpiece on Friday.   He asked us if we wanted to see his "Bible" and of course we begged, and he brought out a beautiful book by Stephane Leroux, it is only $439.93.   Chef D said he kept it on his bedside table for a year.  It is beautiful, and the techniques are innovative - chopping different chocolates in the food processor and gluing them together with cocoa butter grout to make a granite vase.  I was a little shocked to see the showpieces that the chefs have made in the professional sessions (like pastry graduate school), I thought they had designed them, but they are just copies.  I have to admit that I was disappointed, later the chef did Stephane credit for the granite idea.  I have been trying so hard to think of an original idea for my chocolate box, of course I have looked on the internet and in books for inspiration, but I wouldn't copy someone's idea exactly.  It just irritates me. 

Snow!

I forgot to post this two weeks ago, but decided to bring it back from blog-limbo. 


Ok, it was no Snowmeggedon, Snowcopolypse, or my favorite name of the Mid-Atlantic storm, Snowtorious BIG, but Paris has been getting some flurries.  Not enough to close anything down, but enough to have a little snowball fight outside of school and get some pretty pictures.  

Happy Birthday to Me

38th Birthday Checklist

1 - Eat three chocolate chip cookies for breakfast

2 - Watch Chef D make fruit jellies, marshmallows, jam and caramels

Read Steps 3-22 by clicking Read More below.

Blister Fascination

This is what I SHOULD be doing:

Memorizing this and 5 other recipes for my written exam tomorrow.  As well as sugar temps, wheat production and chocolate making. Click Read More to Read what I am doing.

Disappointing Dinner at Le Doyen

Sarah and Chef D.

Not so Fat Tuesday. I don't even know where to begin for our last class dinner at the three Michelin starred Le Doyen, located in a beautiful old building next to the Petit Palais off the Champs Elysees, but I will start at the so-called "Open Bar."  The bartender poured my glass of champagne perfectly and handed it to me on a little gold platter, and I was thinking, this is going to be an extraordinary dinner.  Smoked salmon on toast and a fois gras cube graced the table, I likedthe salmon, but didn't try the fois gras, since it had a weird looking jelly on top, and I prefer warm fois gras, so it melts on my tongue, and doesn't coat my mouth with what feels like cold grease.  After my first glass, the bartender informed us that we could have other drinks, but the champagne was finished, after only a 30 minute cocktail 'hour.'

Coming Home? April 7!

Ah, so when I couldn't get a work visa, I decided to come home (duh) but forgot to change my ticket.  Rookie mistake, but I called today, and US Air changed my ticket without charging me a thing!  Seriously.  Not one penny. Not one mile, and the mileage needed is now 15,000 miles more.  Thank you USAir!


I will miss Easter and my sister's birthday, but I feel good knowing that I have a departure date.  Now I need to get going on internship, I have no idea how to rewrite my resume to include Pastry, it is very financial services oriented.  I would like to work at Citronelle with the amazing Michel Richard, and when I told Chef D, his eyes lit up because he worked with him in the 80's!  So, maybe, just maybe, I will get an internship with a famous French chef without the hassles of a French visa.


Chef D has a website - http://www.jf-deguignet.com/crbst_0_en.html


So, April 7th is the date of my return.  I can't wait to get started.  I am dreading packing up 9 months of stuff.