Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

Yesterday was a quick welcome talk by the director then tests for people taking French classes. That gave me time to sort out a few useful things for the apartment, not least an eSim data plan so I can use my phone as a router since the WiFi system here allows for two devices only and I have at least six, not forgetting J.’s when she’s here.

Anyway, what did I learn from my first day? First and foremost, that I’m glad I’m doing this for pleasure, not as a career plan! We are being taught about kitchen organisation as much as cooking or patisserie per se, and that we have to leave everything spotless at the end of the lesson. And if it isn’t we don’t leave until it is, apparently! There’s a thankless role as “chef of the week” to keep us in order and make sure the necessary tasks are all done. Luckily for me, I’m with a returning student, M., who gets lumbered with that role for both classes as he knows the ropes. But he is helpful and friendly, so all is well. Moreover, M. is like me in that he’s following the course for pleasure, not for any professional reason, so his coming back to do the course again suggests that I’ll be well taught in the next 3 months.

The other bit of organisation is that we’re put in teams of two in each class; some of the time we’ll be working on a common recipe, sometimes on our own. Again I’m lucky with my partners in both classes: R. for patisserie—who is delighted to be with me as she’ll be visiting the CERN Science Gateway over our Easter break—and A. for cooking.

But what about the actual cooking? I’m doing patisserie in the mornings and it’s bread week. We start by preparing a brioche dough. R. and I finish last because I, fearful of over kneading the dough whilst something is being explained to us, turn off our machine needlessly! But things turn out OK in the end.

Whilst that dough is proving at room temperature we prepare baguette dough by hand. Which means I actually have to make the circle of flour, pour in the water and bring it together with two fingers—which I’m supposed to do when making pasta dough but never bother doing. Maybe I will from now on as water doesn’t spill everywhere. The hand kneading method, though, is nothing like what you read in a home cookery book. We have to slap the dough down on the bench, fold up a third or so then roll and stretch it. Then we pick it up, slap the smooth side down and repeat. For 15 minutes!

Both doughs are then left in a fridge to prove overnight. So maybe I’ll have handmade baguette for dinner tomorrow!

The afternoon cooking class is a little less stressful. Partly because some of the organisation, the mise en place and cleaning routine are similar to the morning. A., though, is taking French so this is all new to her. Also, though, because we are preparing base ingredients—dried tomatoes, dried tomato skin, lemon peel powder and “strong lemon with peppercorn”, a jam-like concoction made with the juice of six lemons, brunoise’d peel of three and some sugar. A. and I are opposite O. who works in a professional kitchen in London; I learn just from watching him julienne his lemon peel…

It’s been exhausting. And it looks like things will get harder tomorrow!