Day 18 of 60 | Bonjour, Paris! 🇫🇷✨
Today we had the honor of learning from the legendary Chef Jacques Maximin, a living monument to French cuisine. At 78 years young, Chef moves to his own rhythm, one that’s equal parts wisdom, wit, and a perfectly measured pinch of chaos.
His classroom wasn’t frantic, it was French. That magical, organized disarray where genius appears somewhere between a shrug, a smile, and a perfectly timed “non, non, non!” Only Chef knew what was going to happen next. It was our job to stay out of his way and observe his every dance step to see how the music is made.
The menu he sketched out in the morning looked deceptively simple. Six hours later, with barely a pause for breath, our three “simple” dishes were finally plated and ready for tasting. Every minute was a lesson in patience, precision, and passion.
What I loved most was Chef Maximin’s personal touch. He made his rounds, station by station, demonstrating technique, correcting, encouraging, always teaching through doing. It was old-school, hands-on mentorship at its finest.
Maybe it’s because I’m a little old-school myself, but that pace, that presence — it just clicked. He also took the time in the morning to get to know each of us personally before starting, which I appreciated cause I really like my classmates and want to know them better. 
Today wasn’t just one of my favorite days in Paris… it was one of my favorite days, period.
