A very busy March in France

Bonjour!!!

I am busy!!! but my favourite event of the past few weeks was our restaurant experience.

To begin in March we started a restaurant simulation called experience where we were put into groups of 6/7 and had to start up a restaurant from scratch for a week. This was very fun from start to finish but a little challenging. We had a number of themes to choose from and the class chose to do the theme is the Michelin Green star. We had to find local suppliers, ethnic tradesmen and eco conscious ingredients, recipes and cooking methods. I found this really interesting because we even had to advertise our restaurant to attract customers. The restaurant was a small place of 40 covers a night and we did our best to fill the seats each night with our advertising. 

We made an Instagram and posted videos of the team and our concept to attract people. We chose the concept of “roots”, having a wide variety of cultures in my group we thought a fusion would work best.

Focusing on the positive sustainable actions in each other’s countries. This part was what our customers found most attractive with our group being from Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, America and of course Ireland. We all added little aspects from our cultures in our dishes to pay tribute to our own countries.

Doing this taught me about the amount of effort it takes into building a successful business, from fiche techniques, menu and dish calculations and where and how to place your money to make a profit and to circle back to the green star products that represent it and how.

It was so much fun and gave me the opportunity to get to know my classmates better, it was like an icebreaker where we all got to be more comfortable with each other.

We also had a week of service were we became front of house for the other teams. Having to polish cutlery and plates, set the dining rooms vacuum the restaurant, iron table cloths. It was very enlightening seeing the kitchen “from the other side”. What i found most difficult was actually interacting with the guest, having to check up on them see if the have enough bread and water if they need more drinks, its not like in the kitchen when you service the food you’re done with the table. In France before dessert they like to eat cheese, it kept slipping my mind to ask them if they want cheese before i fire desserts, and the kitchen was not happy but i did eventually learn on the third night…

Learning from the French chefs as well was another experience in itself with their precision and patience they have such great techniques that I can now implement into my career.  March was eventful and busy, but now it’s time to study and practice for my exams.

Wish me luck.

Lots of love from Ecully,

Sarah :))