All posts filed under: Study Abroad

Diner à La Passagére

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“And for you Maddie, the menu is in French” Jerome says as he hands me a menu, smirking, after already having handed English menus to the rest of the table. Were they running out of English menus? Was this a test for my French reading level? A joke between coworkers?! I sit on the terrace of La Passàgere—the one michelin starred restaurant where I am doing my internship—next to my brother, sister-in-law and an amazing friend, and I couldn’t have been happier. It was the eve of my 24th birthday (which is only terrifying when you think about how I still am not sure what I’m doing with my life) and the stars had aligned to bring together some of my favorite people to share an amazing meal together. Let me go back to the beginning of the story, so you can understand exactly what state of mind I was in by the time I was sitting at this lovely table bordering the Mediterranean Sea on my birthday with my brother. So Alex and Caitlin …

Pokémon, Evolution and Friendship: Week Five in the Kitchen

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Chef turned to me and looked me in the eye. Normally if he did that I would be racking my brain, thinking of what I did wrong and mentally preparing myself for what was to come next. But this time, I knew what was coming. “Maddie….do you catch Pokemon?” Wednesday, in the middle of a service of 80 covers, Clarisse, Floriane, Chef and I took a pause during one of our quiet moments to have a serious conversation about Pokémon Go. Which Chef had previously known nothing about. And so we enlightened him. Apparently Hotel Belles Rives is a Poké-stop. (Also, I have to mention that all of my coworkers predicted that the pokemon conversation would make it into my blog. And they were all right. 😛 ) It is SO HARD to leave the American/Foreigner bubble when you are abroad. It is comfortable to stay in your safety zone with people who speak the same language as you and with people who are going through the same experiences—namely, living abroad. However, it is so …

Bisous, Wild Lavender and Air Vents: Week Four in the Kitchen

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This week my blog is dedicated Diego. For his soufflés, which have been magnificent this week. For his being comfortable enough to joke with me while we work together. For being patient enough to try to have conversations with me even though I know my French sucks. For mocking my French by repeating what I said in an American accent, even while respecting me for trying to speak French all day. For loudly telling my coworkers while I am around that it is hard to work with me because I don’t do anything and never improve–which I know is his way of giving me his stamp of approval. For hinting about all the things I should mention in my blog, even though I’m sure he doesn’t read it since I write entirely in English. Merci, Diego. (And merci to Clarisse, who I’m sure will be the one to translate this for him :P). I don’t know why (though if I had to put my finger on it I would say its probably due to my …

Anecdotes from the Kitchen

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If the first week of work in a kitchen was mentally exhausting, the second week was physically exhausting. Part of that—no most of that—was my fault, because I got it into my head that I was capable of jumping in head first after like two days. Oops. Was it wise to walk miles around Antibes on both of my days off, then spend all morning my first day back to work with a friend and stay out until 2:30am that same night after work? Nope. Was it worth it? Yes. My friend Babette (an intern over at Chateau de la Begude) is helping me get used to life here—in and out of the kitchen—and she warned me that in the beginning I will have to drag myself out to social things—that I will be conscious of the time and needing to get home and have alone time and rest. I think we might secretly be the same person, so sometimes looking at her life is looking at what my life will be like in three …

Gastronomicom Week 12: Final Plated Desserts and Cocktail Party

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Chef wanted to teach us how complicated it can be to thoroughly carry one single flavor or ingredient throughout all parts of a plated dessert—but also that it is possible if you set your mind to it. We started the day on Monday by pulling out the whiteboard and listing all the things that are important in a dish—color, texture, flavor, and emotion—and then the different kinds of recipes we could use to get all the textures we were looking for—since the other elements such as flavor were already decided (strawberry) and emotion comes from the chef as the dish is being made and plated. After we decided on eight elements for the dish, Chef divvied out the recipes to each of us and we set to work. One by one we finished our recipe and divided it between all the students, getting ready to combine everything. Chef demonstrated how to plate the dish…but then told us it was free plating and that we weren’t allowed to copy him. T_T My dish didn’t exactly end …

La Passagére: And So It Begins

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“Tu as l’oeil du tigre, Maddie?” What the hell is my chef talking about? I turned to my coworker who speaks English, and she thought for a moment before asking me, “Do you have the eye of the tiger?” and then she rephrased it and said, “Are you always hungry?” Equally confused, I said sure and laughed it off. But day two, when Chef asked me the question for the second and then third time, and then started singing the song Eye of the Tiger, I finally got it. Chef wanted to know if I was in it to win it. He wanted to know if I was dedicated enough to come out the champion on the other side. I’m still not sure if the battle at hand is the dinner service (during which time Chef seemed to take great pleasure in saying “Welcome to Belles Rives” and then laughing just as things started to heat up) or if it is more generally describing entire time at La Passagere, or even my path down the …