Cara's last night at Gracie's

Well, like the title says, last Wednesday was Cara's last night in the kitchen at Gracie's. She's been there for nearly a year and was instrumental this past winter in helping Susie ease into her new role as Gracie's pastry chef. It was Cara who pretty much showed her the ropes and made Susie's transition into her new job that much easier. Now she's off on a wonderful adventure, seeking fame and fortune out west.

"In bocca al lupo!!"

A look back at Apicius two years later

On a whim I recently surfed over to Apicius online to see if they've instituted any major changes since Susie was there studying baking and pastry in 2006.

Well they have -- and for the better, or so it seems.

First off, there appears to be two separate entities under the umbrella of Apicius: the Apicius International School of Hospitality and the Culinary Institute of Florence located at Apicius. The latter offers courses designed mainly for the tourist and those seeking culinary programs of fairly short duration (a month or less).

The AISH offers programs up to four years in the fields of culinary arts, pastry and baking, wine and hospitality management. As before, the pastry and baking program is offered in two sections: the Beginner in the fall and the Advanced in the spring term. The one burning question is do they in fact offer both sections as scheduled no matter how many students are enrolled?

That was the problem for Susie in 2006 -- not only didn't they offer each section each term, as outlined in the literature, but in fact she would not know one way or the other until the very last moment.

So she said non to Apicius and oui to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. The rest, as they say, is history.

There's no denying the fact that Apicius employed some pretty incredible instructors, and one would hope they still do. And the kitchen facilities seemed first rate.

But the uncertainty of the program's schedule combined with the school's focus on US college study abroad students rather than serious culinary students, left it an open question as to how "professional" the school's baking and pastry program really was.

Mind you this was a good thing, a very good thing. Had we not found ourselves faced with an uncertain future that late spring of 2006, we never would have ended up in Paris.

And that would have been tragic indeed.

What was your experience at Apicius like?

Don & Gloria Archer 50 years and counting

Yesterday, Sunday, Susie and I had the pleasure of driving to Brooklyn and helping our friends Don & Gloria Archer celebrate their 50+ wedding anniversary. Organized by their kids and attended by many old friends, it was a perfect day for a party and there were plenty of smiles and lots of laughter shared by all. 

Food for a moment

Susie has been experimenting with three new sorbets -- they may go on the menu or they may not. While they may not look exciting, believe me their flavor is pretty incredible: lemon-rosemary, blueberry-ginger and strawberry-balsamic-peppercorn.

Graduation week in Providence and Susie's desserts

Susie's classic French shell-shaped Madeleine cakes

It's no secret that Providence is a major food town -- but for those of us who seem to be obsessed with food we often forget that this city is also a major university town as well. The textile mills that once defined the greater Providence area are long gone, replaced by academic buildings and residence halls: University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, Providence College, and of course Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design and Johnson & Wales University, to name just a few. 

And last weekend the commencement season for all these schools began in earnest.

One of the Johnson & Wales students, a most amiable young man named Nick, finished his junior year and his job on the website redesign team -- which is where I met him. Pleasant, easy-going, hard-working and reliable, Nick was clearly well-liked by everyone and was surprised with a cake and lots of smiles wishing him well.

Of course, with all the commencements this last weekend and on into the next, also comes plenty of parties at local restaurants and so Susie has been prepping like crazy trying -- successfully I might add -- to stay ahead the game as it were.

And so on Saturday Susie had a very long day indeed. After she had been at work for nearly 10 hours I drove after 5:00 p.m. to pick her up. As I walked in the door I quickly discovered that a serious party was just about to get underway at Gracie's -- six of the staff at the restaurant are graduating this year and two of them were holding a party in the restaurant that very evening. I had the foresight to bring the camera so I snapped a few quick photos to share with you:

Danielle and her brother

Katelynn (Mike in the background)

Danielle

Gracie's server

Before we left to go home I had a unique opportunity to grab a few photos of Susie's desserts being plated. Normally we don't get a chance to see these since it usually only happens late into the evening. But someone had ordered a dessert tasting early it seems so . . .

Banana pistachio cake with honey-mascarpone cream and chopped pistachios and chocolate nibs

Chocolate chambord-sabayon (in the espresso cup) with shortbread sticks

Lemon curd tart with lemon cream

On Sunday Dick and Dorothy drove down from Douglas, MA, and the four of us walked over to Nick's for breakfast. The wait was long -- about half an hour -- but hey it was graduation weekend. The service was slow of course, but, as always the food was good.

The big news for us is that two more condo units sold recently; and in fact a young couple already closed and started moving into one of the town home units already. So now we're half full.

Or half empty. It's your call.

Anyway, the weather has been good, aside from a little rain last week.

You really should have been here.

Ciao,

Steve