Written exam, a very busy week, lessons 22 - 28

Friday we had our written exam. I think i will come out OK, not very good, but i would be disappointed if the outcome would be below average. 6 or 7 out of 10 i assume.

After the busy weekend it was a very busy week. Tuesday i had a meeting with business relative, Ruud Bakker in Cafe de La Paix, a very enjoyable place to have a meeting. As Ruud has regular business in Paris, it was a good suggestion to meet in Paris. After the meeting i went home to study the regions of France. To be able to remember all the regions i druk a glass of Chablis when studying Burgundy and a glass of Calvados when studying Normandy. In the middle of Normandy i fell asleep, so not a lot of my studyplans were realised.

Wednesday school from 8.30 until 18.00h. We had a terrible demo with Chef Caals and a translator that did not translate correctly, so the whole class was confused and most of us had no clue what Chef Caals was doing.

After Class i spoke with Chef Caals about this, Hiroshi spoke with the translator and it helped. After this incident Chef Caals commented on ot the next lesson and the translator was changed, From that point on Demos were much better to follow. Also on Wednesday, a old and good friend of mine, Schaffel, was in Paris, so we met at Place St Michel, had a few drinks, a dinner with wine and some more drinks, so when i got home round 23.30h i was not in a mood to study, so again no study this day.

Thursday we had a full day scheduled, from 8.30h - 21.30h, 2 demos and 2 practicals. In the morning we had the butcher over o show us how to butcher a lamb. Very interesting lesson from a real professional. I learned a lot this lesson. As the second Demo ran late 18.15h and the 2nd practical started 18.30h and you are obliged to be 5 to 10 minutes earlier in front of the class, there was  no time to eat. For normal people no problem i suppose,  but for a diabetic like me this is an issue, especially with exam the next day, i just could not take the risk of getting out of balance so i skipped this class, the first since i am at Cordon Bleu. It also gave me some more time to study as this had failed the 2 days before. I studied until midnight and dreamed the recipes over and over, so in the morning thay were all mixed up, so i read them again.

Friday we first had a demo from Chef Caals and after that written exam. That night: claass dinner, see next blog.