Day 59 of 60 | Bonjour, Paris! 🇫🇷✨
I could start with something cliché like “Where did the time go?”
But after 59 demanding, immersive, muscle-sore days, I know exactly where it went. It went into the kitchen at École Ducasse.
Every hour. Every repetition. Every refinement. 🔪🔥
Today marked the unofficial start of our final exam. We were given a full day to prep our four-course menu for tomorrow’s main event. Because I have a 4:00 PM flight tomorrow, roughly two hours after the exam ends, to fly to Phoenix and officiate one of my closest friends’ wedding (because moderation is overrated), the school kindly allowed Lori and I to go first. I fly back to Paris Friday to continue our European adventures. No time for jet lag to ever set in! 💪
Going first is both a blessing and a mild psychological experiment… but we’re grateful for the accommodation and ready to roll….. mostly! 🤣
Today we also submitted our final final final menu. It is below. This is the one the judges will see. No edits. No pivots. No “what if we had more time.” Just decisions made and owned.
The good news? All food is prepped. Every component is labeled, stacked, chilled, reduced, clarified, and triple-checked. From here on out, it’s not about learning, it’s about execution.
Also worth noting: Despite what I assume were some very confident wagers placed against us, Lori and I remain happily married after two months of cooking together under pressure while alternating roles as Head Chef and Supreme Court Justice.
So if you shorted us as a stock, please close your position and move along. 📉😄
As for my last night in Paris - no romantic strolls, no wine bars, no lingering goodbyes. Just grocery runs, print shops, checklists, and a lot of packing.
Tomorrow is game time. We’ll give it our best effort, plate by plate, minute by minute.
With any luck, I’ll remember to grab photos of all four dishes before they disappear into the judges’ hands, though there may be a tiny conflict between documentation and survival.
Either way, tomorrow closes this chapter.
Thanks for following along on my culinary journey. I can’t wait to share how it ends.
À demain. 🍽️🇫🇷✨👊
