l'année de beurre: Paris Cookbook Fair

The Paris Cookbook Fair was last weekend and being a culinary student at LCB I got the privilege of working at it! It was such a great experience. The fair was set up so all the stands with books were upstairs. Downstairs there were a bunch of tasting booths; wine, cheese, Italian food, and Malaysian food. There were also two show kitchens; International and French. I worked at the International kitchen helping the Chef's prep for their demonstrations. It was so much fun.

The first Chef that I got to help was Vefa Alexiadou from Greece. She made a potato dip and a Greek dish with chicken legs, potatoes, olive oil, garlic and oregano. She served the potato dip with fried fish sticks which I thought was pretty hilarious. They reminded me of elementary school! She told me the reason she was using them was because she couldn't bring the fish she usually serves with it all the way from Greece and she couldn't find any thing else that was dip-able in the French grocery stores. Sometimes you have to improvise!

The next Chef I assisted was Chef Suman Roy from Canada. He was so great to work with; extremely friendly and let me get very hands on. I made his Fiddlehead Muffins for him and they were delicious. Fiddleheads are young uncoiled ferns and are eaten as a vegetable. Suman also made an apple vichyssois that was amazing.

Another great Chef that I got to meet was KC Wallberg. He is from Sweden and is the owner of Restaurant Gubbhyllan. He was in the back at the show kitchen making sure everything ran smoothly. This was not an easy job considering the space we had to work in and the lack of supplies but we all managed to get by thanks to his direction! Although I didn't get to see KC cook or taste any of his food it was an honor to work with him and get to know him.

It's experiences like this that make me so grateful for the opportunities I have living here in France. It was incredible to be surrounded by and even working with some of the great Chefs from around the world.

Our supply rack

Ana and Samia prepping

The International Show Kitchen stage

Large audience!

Hard at work plating food for the audience

Upstairs with all the cookbooks

LCB's booth

Last week at school we had our first written exam. I don't know why I got so worried about it because it was really easy. Most of the things on the test I already knew so that was nice. I'm sure we'll find out our grades this week so I'll keep you posted.

Here's a list of things we made last week:

Poulet sauté á l'estragon, légumes pressés á l'italienne

(Chicken sauté with tarragon, Italian-style vegetables)

Terrine de poisson chaude, sauce beurre blanc

(Hot fish terrine with beurre blanc)

Filets de daurade poeles au fenouil

(Sea bream fillets with fennel)

My friends and I have been missing Mexican food so we decided to make a feast for ourselves as best we could given the ingredients we found in the Marché Franprix. I'd say we did a pretty good job...