One tequilla, two tequilla, three tequilla, PETIT FOUR!

For my last week at ENSP we had petit fours and plated desserts with Chef Richard. I learned SO much in this lab - and the days seemed to fly by! For petit fours (which are small, one bite desserts) we made macarons and religiose (which is two pate a choux stacked on top of one another). Then we made five different plated desserts. It was such an awesome class. I got a lot of really good ideas for future desserts from this class!

Macaron chocolate show pieces we did for the final buffet.

Macaron tower with a sign saying 'BLAST FREEZER' 

Which is my nickname here - because I very frequently get easily embarrassed/shy and my face turns bright red. So I need to be stuck into a blast freezer to cool down.

Macarons on macarons. 

Flavors we made - Vanilla, coffee ganache, mint-lime white chocolate ganache (SO GOOD), salted caramel chocolate ganache, chocolate ganache, praline cream, and strawberry jam.

Chocolat et Saveurs Exotique - whipped chocolate ganache, passion fruit/mango sorbet, chocolate cake, chocolate crunch, passion fruit/mango jelly, chocolate sauce, mango sauce, and passion fruit sauce.

Amande Griotte -  almond ice cream, crumble, cherry compote, tonka cream, and sugar decoration

Poire Belle Helene - Poached pear, caramelized pears, almond tuile, vanilla ice cream, candied almonds, and mascarpone cream.

This dessert sells for 33euro (about 25$) 

Religiose - pate a choux baked with crumble on top filled with flavored pastry cream.

Flavors - strawberry/raspberry/red currant, mango/passion fruit, coconut, black currant, lime, and lemon

Pistache Framboise - Raspberry mousse, whipped pistachio ganache, pistachio sponge cake, raspberry sauce, and raspberry sorbet

Tiramisu Revisitie - biscuit with coffee syrup, praline crunch, milk chocolate ganache, mascarpone chantilly, chocolate sauce, and mascarpone ice cream

Last buffet picture! 

After we were done cleaning and organizing the lab yesterday we popped some champagne and celebrated with a few chefs for a while. Chef  Pierre and Jerome joined and brought mojitos! 

Winter level 2 picture with Chef Richard, Chef Pierre, and Chef Jerome!

Clearly we didn't have that much fun in lab.

After lab everyone from ENSP and the JWU students went to a kareoke bar! It was a BLAST. Most of the Chefs were there and they even sang a few songs! A few rounds of tequilla shots were bought in mass quantities and just handed out to people in the group. It was awesome. I have had so much fun with all these people, I'm not sure how I'm going to live without them in the states!

This morning we had to get up early for graduation! (Which was slightly difficult considering how many tequilla shots were taken last night. And with how late we stayed up!) I also had to make a speech today at graduation. I hadn't even finished writing it yet! However, I needed to curl my hair this morning as well - that obviously trumps the speech. I needed to look good if I was going to stand in front of everyone (even if I didn't know what I was saying! Hah) But I made it to graduation on time, hair curled, speech written - I was ready! (...And possibly still slightly drunk from the night before) 

"Everyone here knows how red I can get - so let's just get this over with quick! Blastfreezer.. Although we are all international students we came here for one thing... our love of french wine - oh wait, I mean pastry. French pastry. We all came here to learn about French pastry but we're leaving with so much more than that. No offense to the Chefs but I feel I learned more from my fellow classmates. Except we did learn A LOT from you. You guys are awesome. From accidentally walking into gay bars in Lyon. Taking shopping carts to the bowling alley. Wine nights in the castle with family dinners. Or attempting to carry each other home from Cine Lux. Each and everyday was a learning experience. I can't thank you all enough for this wonderful experience at ENSP. So thank you! Je t'aime!"

After we all received our certificates we had a big buffet from the classes that did savory foods. We also had lots of celebratory champagne (yes.... at 10:30am.) There were lots of pictures taken and a few good-byes. I even did an interview for the ENSP video! Then back to the castle for a quick nap and some recovery time. Hah Afterwards Kendall, Bia, Giovanna, Robbie, Adriana, and I had a nice picnic on the lawn in front of the castle. Today is THE most beautiful day here so far. It's so nice outside and so unbelievably sunny. It makes me want to see this place in the summer!

Tonight we're all drinking in the castle and squeezing in a few more memories before we all part our ways tomorrow! It's hard for me to believe that it's already over. These past two months have seriously been so eye opening and life changing. I'm very anxious to see what I get myself into next. Hah