I have had a very busy week. Amongst the usual of baking new treats, learning new tricks, attempting French, eating…well, everything, walking everywhere and in general, loving life in Paris, I had a few new activities that I had to share about.
First of all, on Tuesday, I went to my medical exam for my French visa and was approved! Aside from how weird the entire process was (I and everyone else had to get a chest x-ray, give more copies of my lease and another picture, and wait in MANY lines, all just to talk to a doctor about how he wanted me to make him a cake…very odd), I’m healthy and can now spend my year in Paris without fear of being rejected when I return after Christmas. Which means I continue to get to look at this whenever I want.
Secondly, I had my first paid chef-ing gig! I worked with a woman named Rachel Khoo, who is a British lady who has spent the past 5 years in Paris, catering and writing cookbooks. She’s the best and I had a great time, learning a lot about the process of catering. We were working a gallery opening, where for 12 hours I made 250 black sesame seed crackers, helped with the alpine herb infused crème fraiche, and then formed approximately 7 million bite-sized black sesame seed paste dumplings, that were served with raspberry sauce. Exhausting in the best way possible!
More pictures to come in a separate post about the specifics, but a just a quick view of the chaos mid-cheese making:
This brings me to Thursday, where I was a chef again outside of the classroom, making a mushroom risotto for some of my new friends in Paris. Not the most gourmet, but a much needed home cooked meal for all of us, not to mention a lovely chance for all of us to get out of our apartments, where we live by ourselves, and dance to Billy Joel. Necessary.
So, in conclusion, I’m an official expat with my stamped visa, a paid pastry chef, and I attend dinner parties in Paris. Can’t believe what a year changes!
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