Service

So, every other week, group A and B get together in the restaurant kitchen at Ferrandi to produce meals for two services: a Wednesday night dinner service and a Thursday lunch service.  It helps to prepare us for our stages (internships) in restaurants in Paris next year.  The energy and feeling is much different from our classroom setting.  The food we are preparing goes to paying customers and thus is held to a very high standard.  No messing up here.

Here are a few quick shots I took on Wednesday and Thursday to give you an idea of what it is like in a working kitchen.

The ridiculously large and unbearably heavy copper pot I used to make my chicken stock.

Chicken stock simmering away.

Cason taking on the lamb.

Getting ready for service.  Adrenaline starts pumping and the energy in the room begins to change.

Scallop dish being put together.

I was Chef of the entree group Wednesday night, which meant I had to keep track of all the dishes being ordered for that group.  Above is a picture of how I did that.  Those orders come in fast and your head starts to spin trying to keep track of all of them.  Thank God I speak and understand French or it could have been a major disaster.

Clean up time Wednesday night.  Carleta hosing down the Garde Manger. 

For Thursday's lunch service, I was in charge of the Amuse Bouche - a pumpkin soup with blue cheese foam and chesnuts.  All the pumpkins reminded me of home and the holidays.

Especially pulling out all the seeds.

Hmm.  Will the day-glo orange color ever come off of my hands?  Or will I forever look like a mutant?

Mutant hands were worth it, because this is just too freaking cute.  We served the amuse bouche in the tiny pumpkins.

Making the soup.

I bet you can't guess in what type of fat I cooked these chesnuts?  Yep, duck fat or as Chef calls it, "ze fat duck."

While guests at the restaurant have the choice to mix and match between the two menus group A and group B produce, my sweet husband chose to only eat my group's food.  I have to say that was an excellent choice.  I think we had a better menu.  Just don't tell group A.  Deal?

The chesnuts went into the bottom of the pumpkin, then came the soup and what you see on top is the blue cheese foam. 

Thai shrimp soup.

Scallops with onions and bacon.

Spinach and pine nut stuffed lamb with tomato gelee and ratatouille.

Random dessert selection.  The pastry class at Ferrandi supplies the desserts for service, my group has nothing to do with it until the bring us leftovers to taste!

B said the waiters (who are about 16 years old by the way and totally overwhelmed and terrified of our Chefs) bring a big tray by the table and apparently insist that you get at least 4 or 5 desserts from the tray.  So, while the plate isn't all that pretty, it tastes awesome.

And no French meal would be complete without the requisite cafe to finish everything.

Japanese Pancake World

There are few words that can accurately describe the experience one has at Japanese Pancake World restaurant in Amsterdam so that someone who has not been there can fully understand this absolutely unique and delicious experience. Good thing I had a camera! :) I will mostly let the video and pictures show you everything you need to know about this place, which happens to be one of the coolest places I have ever been. However, there are a few things you should know about Japanese Pancake World first, especially if you find yourself in Amsterdam and want to go there:

1. The restaurant is closed often. The owner opens it whenever he wants to and thus it has an erratic schedule. Check the website before going.
2. It takes a while to create the pancake, so be prepared to wait 30 minutes for your meal. It's worth every second.
3. The experience is not complete if you don't sit at the grill where the owner makes these amazing creations. There are only 5 seats at the grill, so get there early or don't get there at all. In my opnion, you cannot enjoy or appreciate what is brought to the table if you haven't seen it be made. Plus, you can chat with Jack the owner while he is making his masterpiece right in front of you. He's very friendly and speaks many languages. Maybe he'll tell you what he does the 20 days out of the month he closes the restaurant. I have a guess that he lives in Amsterdam for a reason and enjoys it to the fullest :)
4. The type of cooking he does is called Okonomiyaki which means as you like so feel free to request any kind of topping on your pancake. He is there to please and the laid back, unpretentious atmosphere that he creates is ever so welcoming that you think to yourself as you watch him craft your lunch that you want to come back for dinner. That is, until you eat the entire, scrumptious pancake and realize that you may not even need dinner since it was so filling and satisfying.

P.S. I ordered the okonomiyaki with pork strips, B ordered the okonomiyaki with marinated beef, spinach and onion and Lili ordered the Osaka deluxe okonomiyaki with jumbo shrimps, scallop, pork strips, salami, cheese, shiitake mushrooms and squid. Each one was mouth-watering good in its own distinct way. So, take as many people as can fit at the bar and all get something different to discover the many flavors the chef has to offer on such a unique canvas - a Japanese pancake. Who knew?

Ok, so that's admittedly more than just a few words, but I want you to know the basics before diving into the awesomeness below. Have fun viewing the culinary genius that blew me away. I have never experienced anything like it before. What a taste revelation! If you are in Amsterdam and the Japanese Pancake World happens to be open, DO NOT MISS IT! Obviously, I can't hide my love affair with it. But, I'll stop rambling and let the photos/video do their job.





































































See the owner/chef in action:




Japanese Pancake World
Tweede Egelantiersdwarsstraat 24A
1015 SC Amsterdam
www.japanesepancakeworld.com/

Bordeaux

Friday is always a welcome day to me because it means I have the whole weekend to discover Paris and eat great food without cooking it myself!  Today we made a regional menu from Bordeaux, which is where Chef is from so he was quite excited about it and kept saying how everything from Bordeaux was "ze best in ze world."  I certainly agree with him that the last wine we tasted today, a 1997 Margaux, is indeed one of the best wines in the world.  It was awesome and we all lingered over it until about 3 pm this afternoon when reality set in that we had an entire kitchen to clean (what a buzz kill).

Prepping the meal

My dish was razor clams.  Here they are in salt water.  Notice the one in the very back.

See how it jumped up and over?  They kept doing that.  It was crazy! See video at end of post for more crazy clam jumping.

I have to admit that taking the clams out of the shell was a bit of a downer considering they were still squirming around, and I swear I heard one of them say, "Stop.  Don't kill me and eat me, please."

Some razor clams were rolled in bacon.

Others were lightly breaded.

Plating the razor clams.

Isabelle, who Chef has lovingly nicknamed "Catastrophe," was solo today on her dessert mission.

Estee smiling with the bird she has to gut and pluck.

Estee realizing she has to do just that.

Estee doing just that.

Estee running away from the bird in disgust after finding its stomach full.  Apparently, the bird had just eaten before the hunter shot it and the bird dog fetched it.  Estee was not a fan of this scenario.

Partridges in a rosemary branch.  (Just not as catchy as Partridge in a Pear Tree, is it?).

Someone got caught with her hand in the culinary cookie jar that is mushrooms.

Enjoying the meal

Bring on the food!

Fricasse de Cepes (the best mushroom in the world).  Remember an earlier post about the cepe with the worm in it?  Here's to hoping that the ones I ate today were worm free!  That is, unless it happened to be a tape worm which at this point (when my pants are fitting quite snug) would be welcomed wholeheartedly.

Declinasion de Couteaux aux Concombres (Razor Clams with cucumbers).  Prepared three ways: wrapped in bacon and sauteed, breaded and pan-fried with a yogurt cucumber sauce, clam tartare.

At the risk of sounding like the ultimate wine snob, I must say that this wine, a 2006 Graves, was way too young to drink.  It needed to stay in the bottle much longer to be good.  I have to admit that after a couple sips, I threw mine down the drain. 

Sandre Sauce Bordelaise (a river fish with a bordelaise sauce).  The sauce was amazing.  I could have just had it alone in a soup bowl.  Well, maybe, with a baguette to dip in it too.  Yum!

The delicious red wine that made my run around Luxembourg Gardens so hard this afternoon.

Perdreaux (Partridge) with cabbage, girolles and chicken liver pate on toast. Needless to say, Estee didn't eat her partridge and to be honest, I didn't eat much of it either.  Seeing the stomach contents of an animal doesn't necessarily make you want to eat it, FYI.

Unless, apparently, you are from Bordeaux like Chef, who is enjoying the partridge down to the bone.

Canneles (a bit too brown, but still delicious) and Lillet Sorbet. 

A quick video of the clams jumping around.