Day 55 of 60 | Bonjour, Paris! 🇫🇷✨
Today marked a milestone: official cooking instruction is over at École Ducasse. No more being yelled at by pans, no more questioning our life choices during a beurre blanc… at least not in class.
Instead, we shifted into the classroom for business instruction on how to actually run a restaurant or culinary venture. In other words: “Welcome to Eric & Lori’s natural habitat.”
Spreadsheets? Strategy? Systems? Now we’re the ones saying, “Oui, Chef!”
The class was genuinely fascinating, and dare I say… I enjoyed it so much I momentarily forgot about my lingering PTSD from tourné vegetables.
We have one more day of theory and then a full weekend to prep for Wednesday’s final exam. It feels surreal to say it out loud, but: I think Lori and I actually survived chef school. There were casualties… mostly finger cuts and burns. And my wrists. And my ego. But we made it.
Tonight, we took things up a notch and invited our teacher out for drinks after class. A handful of classmates joined us, and we ended up having a truly lovely night full of laughter, stories, and that special kind of camaraderie that only forms when you’ve all collectively burnt something together. I feel like we have made friends for life.
Paris continues to deliver lessons in cooking, business, friendship, and joy.
And we’re soaking it all in… preferably with a good cocktail or three.
À bientôt, mes amis. 🍷✨
