This week has proven to be a little more exciting than last week. On Monday I was in a cuisine practical when an admission’s person came to take me out of class. She told me that I was not enrolled in the next cycle, the last cycle to my nine month course. She told me that I never applied and that there was hardly any room left. I told her that I did apply for the spot, last year when I Fed-ex my application to them. I was in the middle of cooking and needed to get back to my stove. She told me to go see the admissions people after class. I finished cooking in a not so good mood.

So I went after class to talk to one of the women in the admissions office. She is the woman I have been dealing with since the beginning of all this nonsense of applying. She was the one who accepted me into the program and sent my letter of acceptance with the dates through the end of superior. She told me that I could get a seat in the patisserie course but not in the cuisine course. I would be on the waiting list. GREAT. Just great! If I could not get off the waiting list for the cuisine course I would have to stay here another three months to get my diploma. OR, I could try to transfer to the London school (the only school they will transfer my funds too). What I did not understand was why I was not already accepted into the superior courses. They have known I was coming for both intermediate and superior in cuisine and patisserie. The reason behind this mayhem: I did not send in another application with the fee for superior level. When applying to different schools or transferring, you have to apply for each level (I think that is just for Paris), sending in the application and application fee for each level, however if you are starting with basic through superior you just have to apply once. I was never told this, upon applying. I was pissed!

I got the woman to check with the London school if there are any openings. The next day I went back to check…the London school was full. So I asked her to put me on the waiting list, just in case. I was not going to know anything from the Paris school until Friday. This was only Tuesday. I had a lot of waiting to do. The waiting turned to thinking and the more I thought about it, the more I came to think that I would be better off in London, where they spoke English. Maybe then I would learn something.

LCB Paris is a wonderful school, but just like any school it has its pros and cons. One of the major cons is the language thing. Even though there is a translator you can’t communicate with the chef in the practical. This is because there isn’t a translator in the practical, only in the demos. Another thing they forgot to mention. I figured if I am going to go to culinary school I might as well try to learn something and make it worth my while. In superior I will be able to get by (if I have to stay), by watching the chefs in demo, but I will not be learning anything. I am not the only one who feels this way. Plenty of other students feel the same way I do; they learn nothing in class, even with the translator. The chefs never explain why they are doing something this way, or why add this to that sauce. They just do it. And it is so frustrating.

I love Paris, but it is not worth my time or money if I am not going to learn anything. The name of LCB will look fantastic on my resume, but what good will it do if I can’t hack it in the kitchen? The name of Le Cordon Bleu will help me get my foot in the door, but I would make a fool of myself and the school if I cannot perform when I get there. Perhaps I am just trying to justify my reasons for leaving, but I think they are solid reasons. I just have to pray I get into London….PLEASE GET ME OFF THE WAITING LIST AND INTO LONDON!!!! Think good thoughts!

What have I learned you might ask? Well…..this week I learned how to debone a whole chicken, by myself. When the chef did it in the demo, I could not see anything. He was too far away and was not really explaining how he did it. He just began cutting telling us he was deboning the chicken. So when we got into the practical everyone was just kind of cutting blind. The chefs do not really stay in the kitchen to help out. They come and go, more going than staying. Students help one other, but it’s hard to do that when no one could see anything and when no one knows what they are doing.

I have worked a lot with chicken, well cockerel, and fish. I have tasted and cooked squab, guinea fowl, lamb, lots of duck and on Thursday I got to cook and eat lobster. Cuisine in Australia was taught a little differently. There we did at least three dishes and presented them to the chef at different times. Cuisine in Paris, you cook the entrée (one of the three dishes the chef prepares in demo) and serve it to the chef at whatever time you get done. It is a slow pace here in the kitchens of Paris…not the running of the bulls for pots and pans, no eye gouging for a strainer or fights over produce. Paris is run much smoother. In my class, there is not competition, unless you make it for yourself. The atmosphere is quite, you hear the water boiling, smell the item cooking and you have time to get lost in your thoughts, kind of.

You are busy in the class, just not as busy as in Australia. I take my time. I decided to do things my way. I decided when I am in the real world; I will be on my own. I won’t have anyone looking over my shoulder, correcting my every move. I will have to fend for myself. Of course I will have to do it their way, but I also need to find my own voice within the crowd of chefs. Since the communication here is,well not there, I figured I could do it in the way I see fit. If they have a problem with it, they will just deduct points. I will still graduate and I will graduate doing it my way. Stubborn much? Yes and proud of it!

This next week I will be cooking fish, rooster and lamb. I will be playing with chocolate in patisserie, tempering chocolate. Tempering is making the chocolate pretty, in simple terms. I did this in basic for a week; They did not temper chocolate in basic. This should be interesting. Maybe I can work on coming out of the kitchen clean, not covered in chocolate for once. Doubtful, but perhaps.

Patisserie is completely different than cuisine and completely different then in Australia. Patisserie in Paris is run very quickly. There is hardly any time to think. You get in and go, running from the start. I am so concentrated on my work, I forget to smile. One of the chefs, chef Jean-Francois, always comes up to me and tells me to smile. It’s funny. Class here moves fast, gets slower in the middle and then speeds up towards the end. Patisserie class in Australia was slow paced…taking your time to enjoy making your cake or assembling your master piece. You never had to hurry. It’s all strange, very strange. If I could mix…the patisserie class from Australia and a mix of Paris’s cuisine with Australia’s cuisine, that would be ideal!

Well, I will keep ya’ll updated on the school situation. Pray that I get into London. I really want to go. Six more weeks and I am done with intermediate. Wooo-Hooo!