Dinner Parties and So on

April 22, 2010

As I type this I must confess I had an earlier opportunity to type and post this possibly earlier but…but I fell for the option of least resistance….Sleep…I slept...after a deserving lunch of Vanilla Ice-cream and Noodles….*sigh*oh well I'm typing now so I can posting for viewing First thing tomorrow!

As I try to recollect my last two days I would start by saying that my Dinner Party was a triumph! I was so in my element!!!
The dinner was at Juan’s place and from the time he told me where he lived I knew it was a bigs stuff!!! Juan’s place was near magical!!! Omo some Architecture Digest tins! An Old Parisian building but yet very modern furnishings.

However me…in the bid not show my unintended razzness and to from normal like “say notin dey do me…no bi fine house I get am plenty for my country now” I entered and only conversed with my mind and bellowed in awe on the beauty I was beholding! …with the above all in my mind, I just say “Juan nice place you have” but to my surprise it was everybody else that let their emotions show…Leonardo was in complete awe and kept on telling Juan how his house was great for entertaining a babe!! Kanayo did the same as well and Kristen was plain jealous (in a healthy manner) but very pleased by the place! But I mean Juan is paying millions for that place! So it better be nice!!!
Well we ran late with the cooking, and in true cordon bleu style as I cooked or cut up something I cleaned up…I did it so much I was laughed at for being such a “good student” but after all this millions shey I go rep my calling ke?! My mother would have so proud of me as that was our biggest fight in the kitchen!

Anyway to wrap up, it was a wonderful night although it got almost a bit messy…in the bid of trying to know each other better and our cultural differences as well….Juan had been asking everyone why they chose this and what they wanted…so everybody’s story was on the floor…Leo’s accidental discovery of kitchen work at school (CAN U IMAGINE!!) he took a course in Tourism that exposed him to kitchen work and he has fallen in love since! (which has led to his 6 year work experience!! Serving celebrities like Hugh Grant!) I gave my own story of my total obsession with food and my business I was running (please note I made the gist more juicer than this!) then Kristen mentions how this was a present from her husband as it has been her dream to come to Paris and be by herself and come to my school…but Leo and Kristen almost got into a heated argument…over the use of the N word..yes Nigga/er Kristen made it clear it was an offensive word but Leo felt it was ok..as it was a normal thing in Brazil or in the hoods of Yankee to say…but the argument was quickly broken up by both Juan and I because Leo was not going to give it a rest!


Anyway the menu is below and trust me every dish was awesome!!! Leo made the first course, both of us made the second and I did the last one….Kristen brought wine…

Melon and Cold Meat Salad with a Honey Port Dressing
Mushroom and Bacon Chicken Ballotine with Gorgonzola gratin with a Tomato Sauce
Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice-cream and Mixed Berry Coulis

**PS: I know half you do not have the slightest clue what in God’s name is above (it is not an insult but the truth!)….but please act cream and from you understand….but to explain a few things…Ballotine is just a stuffed Chicken Breast….Gorgonzola is a type of Cheese….and Gratin is a dish of Potatoes…Coulis is a sauce made by cooking fruit with sugar and lemon and straining it to be smooth and fine….**
Anyway it was a great night! We became closer friends somewhat….I mercifully made it home in one piece after all the wine though!!!

We had a market tour with Chef Frank Popaurd on Monday…that was just plain amazing! During the tour, we generally made different stops at landmark French food kinda places…definitely a cheese shop, a cold meat store/deli, vegetable stands, butcher, bakery and fish mongers. The chef did his best to talk to us about different types of cheeses, where they come from, how real cheese is made from raw milk and not pasteurized milk! And how he hates the laws passed to that effect…the smell of the cheese shop by the way was almost breaking my stomach walls like the walls of Jericho! Kai the putird of the shop was cremating! During the tour I could help but voice my thoughts to Juan “wow markets here are so neat and organized…can u imagine they only open from maybe 9-1pm?!!! “ he agreed with me totally because as a Colombian markets are rowdy, untidy and plain crazy! But what I still kept to myself were the now horrifying images of Mushin , Ijora NEPA, Iddo even Oba Eleguhsi sef!...so the chef explains more about seasons and times with Vegetables an...the best time to buy certain things and so forth…same for fish sef and most of the produce we saw…and I kept thinking myself the only time in Nigeria we know something is not in season is when the price skyrockets!!!
After much walking around we round up and go back to school and feast like Kings on some of the things we had seen on the tour and chef had picked up…it was legendary! Endless assortment of pates, cheese, wine, breads, cold meats and butter biscuits…during which the chef expressed his most bitter disgust for British food! He didn’t hold back!!! “zeir pastry is RUBBISH!” “IT IS STUPID!” yes and he was very unapologetic!
However lovely the market trip and eating session was, it had two down sides
1. It seriously sabotaged my diet…...at least my steps towards it!
2. I had a demo class afterwards….wine and excess food does is not a good tonic for class!!!

So with that said let just say I almost fell of my chair in demo class!!!! I was almost doing the “crank that soulja boy” dance to keep awake! Juan Jose was just as useless…Inigo and Kristen too were having their fair share of SLEEP WARRIORS so I did not feel alone or bad for that matter!!!


The next morning which was the 21st I literally ran late for school!!!!! I decided to take the bus as opposed to the metro when I was sorta running late already…so my “smart” decision almost cost me practical class!!! My bus gets stuck in Traffic and I'm wondering…is there 3rd Mainland here too? Or Ajose Adeogun perhaps? Like me, some lady too was in a frantic rush! Because at 8:32am I was 2mins late for my practical and had 8mins left! To be legally late!!! And I was maybe 10mins away!!! Omo see me running!!!!!!!!!

So an out of breath Gbubemi stumbles into the class (which was quite as a graveyard) somehow God made it that the Chef was not there and when he came he didn’t spot a thing! *grateful hands up in the air to Heaven*
I was at least 15mins behind everyone and I rush and cook without a receipt!!!! But as a bad guys! I finished even way ahead of others who started but definitely not Leo! Lol!!! My dish was Hake fillets poached in a Court Bullion (pronounced/ Cor-BUyon/…please do so with your best French-phlegm induced accent) with a Hollandaise Sauce and Carrot and Courgette Tagliatele…without meaning to boast…my food rocked!!!! The chef (by the way who is the head chef at Cordon Bleu…Chef Therrien) gave me a “tres bien” for my sauce, a “ce bon” for my vegetables and Fish and a general well done for my plate of food...however he would have loved a touch more salt in my fish…oh well I still rocked!!!

Alero Danner passed by before her trip to Italy and she insisted we went to the Ralph Lauren Store that just opened....neither of us knew that that was the near worst decision we could ever make in Paris! When we eventually figure where the store was on the almost endless St Germain-De Pres Boulevard….I admire the show glass and comment on the movie glam look/theme and as I instinctively gesture to enter…my brain also instantly focuses my attention on two well dressed lady and guy holding what seemed to a leather notepads like you have at VIP entrances…then the security guards who were definitely dressed in Ralph, then my eyes catch a glimpse of waiters in white tuxedos serving bubbly….then my forward moving legs now froze and then did the moonwalk!!!! “omo no bi my type dey enter here…at least not now…ahan!!”…all this while I was even trying to decide if I was entering or not Alero my cousin was already miles ahead of me not even bothering to process all I just stopped to do! We laughed so hard at each other eh! It was terrible!

My mother safely arrived London despite this Volcano Eruption…I can’t even pronounce the name of the place sef…the name na wa! So I should see her next week…YAY! *praying to God for smooth love without any friction*

Have I mentioned in church I have started forming rock praise and worship?! Omo it’s kinda mad tho! I'm singing in French too!

Today the 22nd at practical my dish was Brill Fillets in White Wine Sauce…..my practical at school was not so great…not so great in the sense that I cooked without a plan and was all-over the place…and yes I attribute it mainly to my dozing off in class and loss of concentration when the chef was doing like one million dishes at the same time!!!! But oh well my food came out ok…the chef like it but felt I could have had more tomatoes in my sauce and potatoes turned better but a job well done still! Hmm…..

Kristen helped me buy my camera from Amazon.Fr so next week I should relieve my dear BB from its SLR duties and have a proper camera do the job!!
I'm waiting patiently for Delaveine and H&M to go 70% off or have an Everything Must go Sale so I can renew my still boring wardrobe…my window shopping has to pay off!!

Its 3:15am Paris time…2:15am Nigerian time…I am determined to post now!!!

So, that’s me so far and also keeping to my promise to break the yoke of Procrastination and the sinful habit of laziness!

So, I sign out…a testimony that dreams come true…and I'm forever Grateful to God!

My family and all I love you guys very much and all of you that have promised to see me must better come or else!!!!!! (Please it is not an empty threat…just don’t know for sure what I would do…at least now)

the pictures so far are here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=416127&id=620705108&l=688aaae8e0

A Bientot!