Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

There are classes on the last Friday morning and some 25 students, including yours truly, turn up. The rest aren’t all slacking though: a good number are leaving today to go to their internships in various restaurants and hotels across the country. I could have gone to either pastry or cooking but choose not to choose: I do pastry class in the morning, so I go to pastry class. Where we cook crêpes suzette. The atmosphere is very relaxed—chef brings in a large speaker and, as someone in the class goes by the name DJ, there’s an obvious pick for who should choose the music. The recipe isn’t very difficult either and I have plenty of time to chat to my partner, yet another S!, who is usually in the afternoon class. Another Californian native who signed up late to the course but will be coming back so she can take the internship option.

In parallel to our preparation of the pancake batter and cooking the pancakes, chef bakes cannelés de Bordeaux with the mix prepared on Tuesday (best if left to rest for two days, but needing to come to room temperature before baking), explaining that the best results come from the special copper moulds as these transmit the heat to the batter, ensuring a much crispier outside than is possible with silicon moulds. And after they’ve baked for fifty minutes or so and then cooled down for another hour, the difference is evident…

No pictures of those, but here are my crêpes suzettes, my final dish prepared at Gastronomicom.

There is, of course, the usual cleaning to do but fridges and store cupboards also need emptying before the long summer holiday so I leave with some poached rhubarb and fromage frais. Meanwhile, across in the cooking class, store cupboards have also been emptied in the preparation of a picnic eaten in the shade outside.

Then back to the residence where I’m sent to the office for the return of my deposit after a quick inspection of the apartment. J. and I are both en route to Valréas by 2:15. And I celebrate the end of the adventure with a glass of Elodie Balme’s carignan whilst floating in the pool.

But it’s also the start of an adventure putting what I’ve learnt into practice. Dinner is a fairly plain spaghetti dish, but I plate three individual spirals formed with tweezers rather than simply doling it out onto a plate… Maybe I have to start taking pictures of food I cook at home, not just the offerings at school!