Cooking In Paris

Blog Post 10

11/127/2022

40O44’47” N 74O16’48” E

It was interesting to come back to France because it was the first place I had been, and now after so many travels, I would see it differently. Most glaring difference was the people. By now I had had the chance to meet people from all over Spain and Italy, so when coming back to the city I had a frame of reference as II had human interactions. Now first of all, you should remember how many tourists come through France on a daily basis. That said, my experience with the parishan was not very nice. Most of the time, not all of the time, my interactions were blunt, brisc, or even mean. This is not a rule as there were many exceptions but just something to keep in mind.

There is a world-famous cooking school called Le Cordon Bleu, but rather than going to one of its myriad locations around the world, we decided to go to the source and learn from the renowned school in Paris.

I took three classes and each had a different theme: the first was a sauces class taught by a very tall chef who could not speak English (this was true for all the chefs, and so there was a translator). In the beginning of the class he would yell at us to say “oui chef” and after three minutes of cutting crabs he would say “five minutes are up get them done,” but he was never mean. The real genius of how he taught came later on. As we learned more and more, he yelled at us less and less, so by the end, we followed his every instruction to the T. He started to open up and tell us stories from his past.

Our second chef was going to teach us how to make chocolate, and unlike the first, he was very calm and slow-paced. Not only that but he had two assistants which did everything for him, and he had mastered the art of using the least possible energy to control his assistants. He seemed to think that with a single flick of the head he could explain how to properly whisk chocolate and when they inevitably got it wrong, he was angry.

In the halls of the school there is a board of all the graduate chefs and out of the dozens that were there, the only diversity was in two women. Unsurprisingly, our third chef, like the first two, was a white man. He was the classic chef you would imagine, and he took so much delight in the final product. He was a pastry chef who won a competition some years back to be the best pastry chef in the world, and even after years of rolling dough, when we were finally done cooking the croissants and brioches, he would lovingly pick up his perfect pastry and pose with it as though it was his beloved baby.

Outside of those golden halls of cooking, Paris had quickly become frigid, so we spent most of our free time inside. We went to the Louvre, and it was beautiful. However, I do have to say that the Mona Lisa was slightly underwhelming, and so was the Venus Demilo. Despite that, there were many beautiful pieces of art, and if you can stand the chilling gusts, braving the streets, you will always be sure to find some small bakery or bookstore. The beauty of the city makes up for the attitudes of the people so I do recommend a trip.

Miniatures In Barcelona

Blog Post 9

11/27/2022

40O44’47” N 74O16’48” E

Now we come to what at least I have been waiting for: The Miniature Making. The art of making models often at a 1:12 scale and preferably out of accurate material has enthralled me for years. I don't really know why, but the idea of making a perfectly accurate miniature model has just always really satisfied me. I finally had the opportunity to step out of the amateur field and into the big leagues by going back to Barcelona to work with Fernando Setien, one of the greatest contemporary Miniature makers.

When we first went to his shop, we only thought we were visiting because he said that he couldn't do lessons, but we immediately hit it off and he decided to teach me. But what was he going to teach me exactly? Well he makes high-quality, miniature furniture from the 20th century with one-hundred-percent accuracy. If the piece is made of plywood, he makes miniscule plywood. If the piece has dovetail joints in every drawer, then he makes joints smaller than the tip of your fingernail. If the furniture was designed during a wood shortage and the designer made the piece only veneered in scarce rare wood, Fernando will apply a miniature veneer to the miniature wood!

You probably think that I’m finally done gushing, but there is actually one final thing: Fernando himself and his wife Susana. They were the two kindest people I met all year. Fernando was the first person who truly shared my miniature-making passion. We were also kindred spirits on so many other topics that I walked away knowing I made a lifelong friend. And Susana is Fernando’s partner in crime, the Engels to Fernando’s Marx. They rival each other only in kindness. It is people like them that give me hope for the world, and I hope that I meet more kindred spirits.

Barcelona 2

Blog Post 8

11/18/2022

48O50’53” N 2O21’5” E

After our stint in Madrid, we went just outside Barcelona to an ancient Roman town known for its hot springs. There we stayed at a hotel with a sprawling complex of cave-like rooms full of healing hot spring water. But alas, I only know this from the hotel's propaganda pamphlets because I was busy day in and day out.

We went to Caldes De Montbui to the blacksmith. The day before class started, we visited the smithy for a tour, but all the sleepless nights must have caught up with me in the form of a migraine and I nearly fainted in the hot, loud, and bright blur of a shop. Although the first sign was foreboding, the next day I felt fine enough to go to the shop and start work.

I will not go into the endless and boring details of the work here, but instead I will post a separate infographic that will illustrate the process. Often the processes for the crafts are long and complex, so I have been thinking about different ways to relay them to you. The first time I simply described the process in text, the second time I included images, and the third I made a video. This time, I will make an infographic. But I am quickly running out of methods of explaining the different artisan practices in interesting ways so if you have any creative ideas please contact me.

But, back to the matter at hand: Blacksmithing. Even though blacksmithing is always depicted as brutish, and though it is true that everybody at the shop was big and hulkling, there is something undeniably beautiful and delicate about blacksmithing and particularly blade smithing. I was at the shop to forge a sword, but I learned that (I know, I know this sounds cliche but bear with me) you form a sort of relationship with the metal. You learn about the billet of steel, how it likes to warp in one direction, how fast it heats up in which part of the furnace, and even how it picks its own final shape. You see, steel is fickle; if you heat it too much it burns, too little it fractures. If you even so much as look at it wrong it may decide to spite you by contracting a warp. All that aside, it is still indescribably fun to forge steel. No words I can write will describe its allure, so all I can say in the end is try it yourself.

There were so many interesting people and moments that occurred at this apprenticeship, but unfortunately, I had to omit them in favor of a love letter to steel. So you can expect multiple smaller posts about them and the extremely interesting politics of Catalunya in the future.