Bon jour Le Cordon Bleu!

Finally!, I have dreamed for so long with this, that I have to pinch myself from time to time to remind me that I'm not dreaming. This is my reality now, I'm a current Pâtisserie student at "Le Cordon Bleu, Paris"... Never, not even in my wildest dream, would I have imagined how amazing this experience would be. I have met so many interesting people; I have been in demonstrations from renowned Chefs, and to get to spend three hours listening to an expert in pastries, and see him doing magic with puff pastry, (which according to Chef Cotte, is the most difficult dough to work with), is heaven for me...

This was my first practical.  I was so proud to be finally wearing this gorgeous uniform!

My Tarte aux pommes...

Me & Chef Cote

My orange tartelletes...

My Dacquoise

This was the bakery right around the corner from my apartment... impossible to be on diet with this thing so

close to me...

Chouquettes...luv these babies!

I worked so hard on my Pâte feuilletée that it was hard for me to eat these guys, I just wanted to keep them as a trophy to perseverance!... in the end I was too hungry... yummmmm!

Want some big fat brioche???

Chef's Macarons

Petit fours

This was the tools kit they gave me at LCB... I was over the moon, no Louis Vuitton would have made me more happy than getting this!

In the middle of my stay in Paris, my two cousins came to visit me.  They were taking care of my two kids back in Switzerland while I was studying in Paris... Thank you guys!!!...Love u to pieces!!!

The original three...Catherine,Tracy & me with Chef Cote

That's a wrap!!!... Au revoir!!!

Le Grand Tour!!!

So we (my husband and I) decided that since this is a huge decision for me to make, I should go visit Le Cordon Bleu, to kind of feel the energy, and ultimately, to listen to what my heart had to say once I stepped into the school. I arranged a visit with Ms. Harbosin, who has been my contact and the person to whom I have made hundreds of question (I am sure she has hallucinations with me!), and she accepted to show me around, even though it was a Saturday.

I took a train at 6.00am, and by 11.30am I was in the French capital, armed with my maps, and a hundred more questions to ask… typical!.

At 12.45 I was in front of the doors of LCB. I cannot express with words what I felt at the precise moment when I crossed those doors. I felt like I was penetrating a bubble… I have dreamed for so long of this moment that it seemed to me like a fantasy. That door was like a bridge between my reality and my dreams... I have never had that feeling before.

Finally, I met Ms. Harbosin. I almost felt like it was a blind date, given that we have exchanged so many e-mails with questions and answers. She was very helpful and straightforward with her explanation about how are the schedules, how a class is divided, and so on. I got to see the kitchens and the demonstration rooms, and it felt quite familiar to me, I don’t know why, I didn’t feel like “wow, I’ve never seen this before”; I felt more like if I was entering a friend’s house, I was comfortable and even relaxed… I guess that’s the result of having read so much about the school. I felt like I already knew it.

Afterwards, I bought a book written by a former LCB student (…how predictable!), ate something and caught my train back to Switzerland…

Au revoir Paris!