day 24

strawberry verrine
Layers of strawberry "salad", crumble, vanilla mousse, berry glacage and fresh fruit. The strawberries are fantastic, but the crumble most certainly is not. It becomes a soggy mess because of all the strawberry juice.


vanilla and chocolate verrine
Layers of chocolate mousse, vanilla chiboust, chocolate glacage and chocolate decorations. Not my favorite again---too much gelatin for my taste. In case you've picked up on it, verrines are a convenient way to use up extra product. Cake scraps, leftover mousse, odd pieces of creme brulee, over ripe strawberries, extra chiboust----it all gets used up in the verrines. Nothing goes to waste here if they can possibly help it.


lavarie
No, it's not a historical sight. I had to do laundry today and it was raining, so no exciting tours around Beziers today. I cannot wait to get back to my own washer and dryer. And Tide. There's no Tide here and I really miss the smell.

...and in other news
Anthony, I tried the giant beignets! I came in fifteen minutes early today and there they were---seven giant doughnuts with their glistening sugar coating. David grabbed one, too, and slathered it in nutella before eating it.
It was busy today. I made pastry cream and ganache for the Carmela tarts. I helped assemble a giant Fraiser cake (a full sheet pan size) and filled 100 raspberry macarons. Chef has an interesting technique for this. He uses his thumb to indent the flat sides of the macarons, then pipes the filling into the hole and up. He then indents the flat side of the top and puts the two pieces together. He said it was to get the maximum amount of filling inside. It's a good idea because the sugary macaron can easily overpower whatever filling you use if you don't use enough of it.
I also got to try the cheesecake from yesterday. David glazed it with passion fruit glacage and Chef had him cut it up for the staff to sample. It was almost too light. I wanted more cheesecake flavor and more passion fruit flavor----more tang in general. Chef asked me what I though and I told him that and he just stared at me. I guess I was supposed to just say it was delicious.