All posts filed under: Travel

Yam’tcha Lunch

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Have you ever watched Chef’s Table or the more recent Chef’s Table France on Netflix? Well, then you may very well recognize the chef to the right of this photo: That’s right, while on an epic pastry tour in Paris, Babette and I were more than fortunate enough to get a reservation one day during lunch hours at Yam’tcha, Adeline Grattard’s Michelin starred restaurant. And from start to finish, it was one of the most beautiful lunch experiences of my life. If you read my last michelin restaurant related post, I have some criteria that I will tell you about before getting into all the pictures and specifics of what we ate–so feel free to keep scrolling til you get to that, or keep reading as you like. Ambiance: 4.5/5 It was a lovely and comfortable space, with beautiful walls, decorations and seating. However it was still within the bounds of an ‘expected’ level of comfort for me, which is why I didn’t give it the full marks. Taste: 5/5 Constantly amazed and unexpectedly the …

La Bottega del Buon Caffe

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What better way to explore the world and expand your horizons than through food? After some intensive research and frantic emails and phone calls exchanged in order to try to get a table for one at some of the most exciting looking locations, I ended up going to four different Michelin starred restaurants in four different cities within 10 days. I know–what more could a person ask for in life? La Bottega del Buon Caffe came up again and again as I researched things to do in Florence, Italy, and they were able to squeeze me in one of the nights I was in the area. I was already excited based on what I saw on the website before going, but oh my lord was it ever worth it. When I go to a restaurant (particularly a nicer restaurant) there are a handful of things I am looking for in order to determine whether it is a good destination or not. I’m going to give you a little overall review, but feel free to keep …

Family in France: A Weekend with My Brother

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I attempted to set an alarm to drag myself out of bed and be productive Saturday morning, but in the end I woke up early enough only to eat lunch and work on an email in French before jetting off to the train station to head over to Nice. I made it to Nice and soon after found the airbnb where my brother was staying. Of course, being the only one of us with a working phone, I sat on the curb for about 15 minutes before he got my message and came and found me. And as he walked down the sidewalk it was as if nothing had changed—that it hadn’t been 9 months since we had last seen each other, that we were’t meeting in France instead of the US, that our lives hadn’t been completely turned upside down since we had last met. After briefly gathering our thoughts in the apartment that smelled like five grandmas took up residence there, I brought them along the beach towards old town, where we caught …

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 …

Coupe de Feu & Meilleur que Hier: Week Eight in the Kitchen

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I got a text message from Nans on Saturday night, telling me that he had a message for me from my Chef. He told me to come in at 9am on Monday morning—and while I thanked him and I know that he is serious about his job, he is also a complete goof and I had no small amount of doubt that he was joking and was trying to trick me into waking up way earlier than I had to. That said, I prepared myself—bracing myself for Chef having permanently changed my hours and I was quite disappointed all of Sunday thinking that I was going to have to start working Coupe de Feu (9am-2pm + 6pm-11:30pm) instead of my beautiful schedule of starting at 2:00pm every day. It didn’t help that when I showed up Monday morning, Diego and Clarisse were already there and working. Oh God, I thought, What is going on?! Turns out there was a buffet for 120 people at the beach for lunch that day, and the three of us …

Diner à Le Ciste

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It should be no surprise that I went on another food adventure this past weekend. But what makes this adventure more exciting than any of the others is that it was at the restaurant where the lovely Babette works–and I had the great pleasure of dining at the restaurant with her husband and sister while she was slaving away in the kitchen creating pastry masterpieces. Johan was nice enough to come pick me up in Juan les Pins, and we arrived at le Château de la Bégude just before 7:00pm. While Johan and Antonia went to change out of their beach clothes and into something more multi-course-dinner appropriate, I snuck into the kitchen. Actually, I basically just waltzed right in and nobody even questioned it. It was beautiful. Even though I’ve only been in the kitchen once before, it almost feels like its my kitchen too. I was able to chat with Babette for a bit while she ran around her kitchen making all the final preparations for the service. A part of me wanted …