Playground/Chef

Today was another daycare day off, which I luckily have off as well (Chloe does not), so I had a father-daughter day in the park and at the grandparents with Zoe. We drove up to Codornices park and was delighted to see that the long cement slide that I remember from when I was a kid was still there. Zoe and I tried it and some of the other slides out before going to the swings. As I was pushing the swing, I heard the father next to me speaking in French to his daughter, so I asked him where he was from. It turned out that he was from Paris and was the former Chef/Owner of the "Le Charm" Bistro in SF. He had recently sold it to have more time with his daughters. One of the places at which he had worked and trained was in the famous Parisian Brasserie La Coupole, which he said was excellent training. A typical day meant three thousand meals served (open from 6AM to 2AM when he was there), and if you finished at your station you could either call it a day or go to another station. Why would you go to another station? Well, you wouldn't, unless you were motivated to learn new techniques, and even then, you would be washing the floor of the new station for a few weeks before they let you near the real work.

I asked him where the best croissants were in the Bay Area, but he didn't have a good answer, except for the fact that he was planning in the next few years to start a small business on Solano Ave. which will sell pastries, mise-en-place, sausages, all manner of tasty things... and croissants! I can't wait. He's also planning on selling at Farmer's Markets. As far as good croissants, he said the best place in recent memory was some place in the Bellagio, but they were $4 each.

His answer to the question of what the first foods he seeks out when he goes back to Paris are? Crevettes grise and Langoustines.