Blog

‘Surviving Patisserie School–Life in a French village Part 2’ was first published on bee-bakes.com, September 2, 2015 This is becoming like a ‘Rough Guides’ to Yssingeaux! Here is some more information about life in the village because, as you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s virtually impossible for me to write a paragraph about something, I have to write an essay…why did I ever think that a blog was a good idea? Maybe I should just

‘Surviving Patisserie School–Life in a French village Part 1’ was first published on bee-bakes.com, September 1, 2015 I’m going to write some posts I actually meant to write while I was still at school or just after I’d finished, but I never got around to doing it. Now it suddenly dawned on me that in a few short weeks it will be one whole year since I left for Yssingeaux to start at Ecole National

‘The results are in’ was first published on bee-bakes.com, July 8, 2015 The results are in. After nine months of hard slog, very early mornings trudging through snow, numerous burns and injuries, too many tears, countless litres of crème pâtissière, exams, laughs, kitchen disasters and delicious crunchy croissants the results of my French state exams to be a certified pâtissière in France are in…and I passed all of them! All of them in French! That

‘All’s well that ends well’ was first published on bee-bakes.com, March 27, 2015 Ta-da! Je suis une chef qui fait la pâtisserie (I am a chef who makes pastry). I have to write it like that because I’m still not sure what I should be calling myself in French. As a woman, I thought it should be the female form of pâtissier—’pâtissière’, which according to a French educational website, is correct. But then the French teacher

‘What a difference an ‘O’ makes…’ was first published on bee-bakes.com, March 20, 2015 Today, apparently, is Macaron Day in some parts of the world. My cousins from OZ were visiting Lyon the other day and we were discussing the difference between two little tasty bites with almost identical names: the macarOn and the macarOOn. A number of countries have similar biscuits, usually with some form of ground almonds or coconut, so it can get