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04/03/2003 Entry: "Meeting the Master"

Tuesday, Alban receives a phone call in the kitchen, he turns to me and says (translated version): "Karen, take off your gloves and your apron and go upstairs -- Mr. Hermé wants to see you." I was expecting this because I told Mme. Petremant I would like to talk to Mr. Hermé before the end of my stage, but I still felt quite nervous. The past few days, I’ve been dreaming about what I was going to say to him, but when the moment came, I was still unprepared. He’s a very quiet person like me, so we didn’t talk much. He asked me what I was planning to do after my stage and if it went well. I struggled to explain my plans in French, and I can see he was struggling to understand me as well. I hope I didn’t sound too retarded. I’m just glad to have met the best pastry chef in the world – in my opinion.

I’ve been hanging out with more patissiers. Saori and I had a really good sushi dinner last Saturday. She brought me to a place called Isami by Ile St. Louis, and we had fresh uni, squid, toro, unagi, oysters, and more – mmm. It was my first time eating sushi with a Japanese person, and I highly recommend it because I got to try dishes I’ve never tried before. After dinner we met up with her friend Nick, who worked with Saori at Daniel in New York. He was a sous chef there and just finished doing a 3 month stage in a patisserie in the Alps. Sunday I hung out with Saori and her friends – 3 Japanese patissiers working in France. One of them competed in the Coupe du Monde (World Cup for Pastry) and won 2nd place for his chocolate pièce montée (centerpiece). He’s a real master chef. They were all excited when they found out I had plans to open a patisserie in San Francisco. I said they have to learn to speak English first. It’s funny coz’ we communicated with each other in French, but Saori would feel left out because she doesn’t speak French but speaks English perfectly. So there was all this translating going around – Japanese, English, French.

I’ve been working in the boutique since Tuesday and it’s been great. They all know it’s my last week and they’re all trying to make it a good one for me. Alban said: “Pas des Ispahans pour Karen – Il est interdit.” (No Ispahans for Karen – It is prohibited) They let me do the Tarte au Citron (Lemon Tart), Montebello (from the Spring Collection – Pistachio dacquoise and mousseline topped with sliced strawberries), Mont Blanc (chestnut puree with whipped cream and meringue). Note that we don’t actually bake or cook much in the boutique, we just do the finission or final assembly which usually consists of filling and glazing cakes and tarts. There are 3 new stagiares from Le Cordon Bleu coming to work for Pierre Hermé. I’ve met one of them, Marianna, from Venezuela. It’s too bad they’re just starting when I’m about to leave. It would’ve been fun to hang out with them. I feel like a senior in college, and they’re the freshmen. I was like: “How was your first day?” Marianna said: “It was good, but very tiring.” I said: “Well… it gets worse.” Heh. It’s fun to scare the freshmen.