Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals

Since our return to Strasbourg after our rather long holiday, I have had a to-do list stuck on my fridge.  It covers a selection of random goals that need to be achieved- some short term and easy to achieve (meet NvM for coffee at Brant on Tuesday),  some short term but require more will power (go for at least three 7km runs), some urgent (collect parcel from the post office and medicine for sick family) and some a more long term and have been returned to the new list every week.  These include 

* find a french friend for Beth (and me) so that we are forced to speak more French.

* lose weight.

* work on doing La Code (AKA The Learners Licence) so that I can look towards getting my drivers licence.

* find work.

I have lost weight, but still have a fair bit to go.  Beth has a new friend who doesn’t speak English, although he speaks German to her, and she replies in French, so it’s all very cute.  I have been working through La Code- which is all in French so I am learning some, but I am getting dangerously close to trying to find someone who can help me to bribe my way into obtaining a Drivers Licence because I just cannot get my head around the ridiculousness that is the French Learners Licence theory.  Seriously.  It’s a royal pain in the ass.

And lastly, I have found work.

I don’t think I need to tell you why I have been on such a mission the last 8 weeks- mostly it boils down to mental sanity.  I realised recently that I have become but a shadow of my former self, and hiding behind various excuses left me in a rather shitty head and physical space.  There’s a part of me that may blame grief, and that may be the case, but I did receive a rather nasty kick up the ass recently, hence my rather uncharacteristic mental-health to-do lists.

When it came down to a search for work, this time round, I decided that I wasn’t really prepared to just be a cantine dinner lady, that I would take my heard earned, God-given skill and put it to proper use.  I put it out to various friends that I have here, and straight up said that if they know of any restaurants who are looking for help in the kitchen on a full time basis, I am ready to do that.  I signed up for job-alerts through a mailing system.  I sent my translated CV to Sodexo, Addeco and Elior who are all contract caterers.  

The first opportunity came about from an Irishman who is in the process of buying a pub, and he was happy to offer me a 20hour/week kitchen job, but it wasn’t going to happen until at least November, and even that wasn’t a guarantee.  While I waited for him, I received a call back from Sodexo, and succeeded in undergoing a 30 minute interview in French.  The HR recruiter who interviewed me explained that currently there wasn’t anything in my specific requirements, but they would happily keep my cv on file.  (She was über impressed with my Unisa experience.)

And then last weekend, under the wet grey gloomy skies that were keeping us indoors, I randomly perused through the website of another recruitment agency who were urgently looking for someone, at an inner city restaurant,  with ‘fait maison‘ skills.  

Let me explain ‘fait maison‘.  Some restaurants in France rely on a sous-vide concept.  They buy in most ready-prepared meal as, that are essentially cost effective because there will be no waste, and they can employ less people to work in their kitchens.  (For every euro that is paid to employee, the employer has to pay the same amount to the government tax coffers!) So if a restaurant makes everything on site, they get to have bragging rights and can ‘advertise’ that their food is ‘fait maison‘- Fait in french is the verb to do, and maison translated is house/home, thus fait masion essentially means home made/made on site.

Anyway, 2 hours after applying for the position online, I received a phone call from the owner of the restaurant- could I please ‘present’ myself for an interview at 18h45 that evening? In between skipping dinner with the family and taking Alex out to watch a show at the International College, off I toddled to present myself.  10 minutes later I left, after we arranged a 2 day cooking interview scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

As you can imagine, I was nervous as all hell.  Its been 3 years since I wore a chefs jacket and had to apply myself to a job.  Not to mention, the process was going to take place in French, but I needed to tackle this hurdle more than anything else.

I’m going to try not bore you with the details of what happened- I did leave on Thursday somewhat dismayed.  I got the impression they were looking for someone just for December, so it wasn’t permanent.  Added to that, there was another young male interviewee who clearly was more current, who even I would have hired over a mature rusty mother like me. I didn’t want just a horribly hectic December job.  I returned for Friday’s work, and at the end of service, the (mother) chef de cuisine and I chatted.  Turned out, they are looking for 2 people to work, on a full time basis, and they would be quite prepared to take me on permanently for a half-day job.  In other words, 5 hours a day for lunch service.  Naturally, in the December period I would be required to work longer hours- the restaurant is 100meters away from the famous Strasbourg Christmas market, and season pumps…  Added to this, aside from starting immediately, they were happy that I can’t work in this upcoming Toussaint holiday that starts on Thursday (because I don’t have the girls signed up for holiday activities), but that I report to work on November 3rd.  Plus, they would pay me for the 10 hours I worked this week.  

So, in a nutshell, that is what has transpired in the matter of 6 days!  

Background info is that the restaurant is tiny- 35 seats!  They serve traditional French food- foie gras, Duck Margret and confit, choucroute and spaetzle (because we’re in Alsace), terrines, Veal escalope and they use a lot of butter and cream.  There is a hint of seasonality, and their plat du jour changes (weekly).  And yes, they serve steak, and fish, and they cook it over a fire in the middle of the restaurant- not quite a sizzling braai, but more smoky and perhaps rare enough that any vet would be able to resuscitate.  The kitchen is very small, but is equipped with most electronic gadget you can think of: blast chiller, vac pac machine, robot-coupe, Kenwood Chef with pasta rolling attachments and a blender, an enormous stick blender called La Giraffe.  And they really do make everything on site, which explains the need for the top-notch equipment.  Granted, the restaurant is so small that they can do mise en place that will be enough to last service for a few days and to freeze for the busy season.

On Friday, I was watching the owner take a break just before lunch service.  He stood in the middle of the kitchen and lit a cigarette.  In his hand, he sipped from a beer.  I took a moment to reflect that I am indeed, working in a French kitchen.  I will be learning to make brioche, my own spaetzle, the super-common sauce that is commonly used across Alsace over veal escalopes and cordon bleu.  It’s never been a bucket list dream of mine, but you know what- I will claim it now!

So you won’t see me in Brant next week having a coffee.  I will have to do my weekly runs on Mondays on my day off.  I wont be able to chat with my Polish friend at midday while we wait to pick up our kids for lunch.  And party prep for the girls birthdays is going to take a serious knock.  

On that note, I had better attempt to smear paper mache glue over an over-sized balloon  praying that I don’t pop the balloon and end up with sticky flour/water glue all over the walls- piñata preparation for Beth’s upcoming party.  Wowee- La Petite Monstre is turning 6!!

Anyway, this is a long winded letter to tell you about the job.  Hope you are still awake? 😉

Send news, hope you are well.

All my love, and till next time,

Love 

Me,
Xxx