Day 40 of 60 | Bonjour, Paris! 🇫🇷✨
Forty days! Somehow we blinked and found ourselves two-thirds of the way through this wild, inspiring, humbling, skill-stretching culinary adventure in Paris.
Lori and I continue to be pushed, sometimes gently, sometimes with a firm “allez, allez!” by our instructor at École Ducasse Chef Tony. Today’s recipes were actually less complicated than usual, which meant one thing: a perfect chance to play with plating.
And if there’s one place I feel at home, it’s in that artistic zone where color, texture, balance, and no more cooking all collide! 🤣
The fish dish? I’m not gonna lie… I think I crushed the plating. The chicken dish? Let’s call it “respectable with room for redemption.” 😎
But speaking of the chicken dish… we had a moment in class today that nearly sent all into time out for uncontrolled giggling.
The recipe called for stuffing the chicken… with chicken. Yes, you read that right. So we’re already giving each other side-eye like, “Is this allowed?” Then the chef casually slides a finger under the chicken skin and starts massaging it to creat space between the meat and the skin. And just when we think it can’t get any more phallic, Chef grabs a pastry bag and impregnates the space with the liquefied green chicken (see photos for result). It was all just way too sexual not to laugh. It was… a moment. 😂
But the big news of the day!
We learned that our final exam in three weeks will require us to present a four-course menu to a panel of judges, all within a coordinated time window. And we get to choose our own assistant chef.
Naturally, I recruited the best partner I know: my wife Lori Lochtefeld. We’ve built businesses together, navigated life together, and now we’ll either soar or crash-and-burn together in front of Michelin-level judges. No pressure at all.
Every day here continues to remind me that reinvention doesn’t require a crisis… sometimes it just requires curiosity, courage, and a willingness to be a beginner again at 55 years old.
Thanks for following along. This group keeps me inspired to keep pushing, keep learning, and keep writing — even to report my messy, imperfect, “just decent enough” dishes along with the one’s I am proud of and bring me joy to share.
