Louisa Chu

Victor, gracias - and gives me a chance to practice reading something other than textbooks in Spanish.

Victor, where did Adria - I mean, Chef - say this? Thanks very much.

Many high-end restaurants around the world do not allow babies in their dining rooms - ages vary, and private dining rooms are a whole other ball game.

Hey man, you'll have to stay off the little ponies - but they do have cart - and you can do the go-karts.

(New Yorkers think they know everything.)

Oh Carolyn, you know that at heart we're all just a bunch of Chinese/Jewish/etc. mothers! And as my French makeup artist said sincerely to me yesterday - "There are no problems - only solutions." And it's already dark here in Paris - and I'm buzzed on vin chaud. Joyeux Noel!

Carolyn, your boyfriend needs to see a doctor NOW about that pain in his kidney area. AFTER he gets the OK from his doc, THEN start messing with his diet like a lab rat! And sesame seeds are one of the best low weight/high calorie, natural - as opposed to processed - foods around.

Isn't there already cornstarch in American powdered sugar? And if you add more, what's the ratio of cornstarch to powdered sugar?

Matthew, my confirmation from El Bulli said that Spanish would be helpful - all I can say is that thank God it's not Catalan - though of course I hope to pick some of that up too. English - of course you can get by just about anywhere in the world with English, but you miss out on the good stuff. And it was better talking to Albert in French than it was English - and I think from what Tony Bourdain's said it was the same for him with Ferran - I mean Chef - in French. Pan, I first started out down this international gastronomic path to be a better food journalist, but as our ADPA boulanger he said to me "T'es folle!"/"You're crazy!" I am crazy - I want it all - I want my own restaurant and to work as a food journalist. And yes, thanks - Joyeux Noel! I do celebrate Christmas - in that American secular kinda way. I'm going skating at the Hotel de Ville tonight with my best friend/roomie Grace. We're taking thermoses - one with hot water for our spicy ramen noodles and the other with white vin chaud - and chocolate bars - lots of chocolate.

Cocoa powder - we had some guimauve/marshmallow trimmings left over at the Plaza so I coated them with a mix of powdered sugar and the Valrohna cocoa powder we use. How well do fresh marshmallows roast up?

One of our newer desserts at ADPA is topped with a small mound of barbe a papa - cotton candy - pale pink, barely rose-flavoured. The sugar's flavoured with a few drops of rose essence. The amazing Amoretti people gave us a huge box of samples of their flavourings when I was in Vegas this past summer - I'm bringing it in to our pastry chef after vacation to experiment with. twodogs, how would you Pacojet caramels to get spun sugar?

Karen, at Le Cordon Bleu Paris all Basic and Intermediate demos are taught in French with an English translator - but all practicals and all Superior classes are in French only. Of course it helps to speak French but there's usually someone multilingual in every group - and it really helps if you have some cooking/baking experience and are observant with a good memory. I'd say start with a visit to the school and sit in on a few demos. And for most programs you could take classes separately. But you've got until next year - enough time to learn French before you get here!

Hi Karen, Welcome to eGullet - and an early welcome to France! I graduated from Le Cordon Bleu here in Paris earlier this year and there are classes for every level. You can do everything from just sit in on a three hour demonstration - followed by a frantic little tasting of all the dishes that were prepared - to taking the 10 week Basic Cuisine or Basic Patisserie class - or classes - hey, you are here for a whole four months. Have a great time planning - and experiencing - your stay.

And here's the Paul site. So the price for a baguette at Leader Price is 70 centimes; at my boulangerie across the street, 80 centimes for a regular/Banette baguette and 1E for a Retrod'or. I'll check Maison Kayser and Poujauran in the next couple of days.

Here's the Banette website - it's more than just the flour supplier. As for sandwiches, etc. - diversification.

So far I've received two huge Brittany blue lobsters and a giant chunk of foie gras terrine from ADPA. And the most delicious chocolates and hippest chocolates I've ever seen from a very dear friend from Delicabar. I'm giving an open house on Christmas day with red and white vin chaud and fondue.

I used to make this all the time with my grandmother - my mom's mom - when I was a little girl - it was my job to make sure there was enough water covering the rice while it fermented - quite a serious responsibility during cold, dry Chicago winters. The second recipe - go with that one. It's funny. We did it all by hand so I can't imagine what my grandmother would think about using a blender. But now that I've been working in gastronomic kitchens I'm thinking Thermomix would be better - and to play around with the rice types, soaking liquid, oil flavour, garnishes, presentation, plating - this is one of the recipes I've been meaning to experiment with - thanks for the reminder.

That's not always possible - even in Paris! Bonne chance et bon voyage.

Ted, paying for something never means someone won't skip out early - how many people pay for college/culinary school and never show up for classes? And yeah, I asked the question about how much one might pay - but it was rhetorical - no one should pay to stage! And school and stages are very, very different things. But OK, 600E a month doesn't seem totally unreasonable - since that covers your room and board - sucks though if you've already got a place to stay. Bux, I don't get it - which restaurants take in foreign cooks for a fee?

Bux - on paying for stages - I've only heard about that one company we talked about before where they'll place people in so-called stages for a week.

Hey Carema - bienvenue - and I grew up in Chicago! Totally agree with Bux's suggestions - especially Fish, Aux Lyonnais, and La Regalade. Another place I strongly urge you to go - especially given your profession and that would be really good for a kid - is La Cave a L'Os a Moelle. It's the wine bar/communal tables cafe owned by L'Os a Moelle/Chef Thierry Faucher - who was also at the Crillon under Christian Constant. Ditto again on La Derniere Goutte for a great wine shop. And for food market, come over to Rue Cler in the 7th - Metro Ecole Militaire. And don't miss the Champ de Mars - kid heaven especially weekdays around 16:00 and all day weekends - go-karts, pony rides, merry-go-rounds - tastefully insane. THE place to go for after-school/after-park snacks is the boulangerie on Rue St. Dominique, just on the other side of Bourdonnais - yellow awning - does your son know that in Paris it's socially acceptable to have a chocolate bar sandwich? And you can catch the last of the Galettes des Rois - just watch out for the favour inside.

Roger, how do I explain the depots pains, white panini bread, etc? The former's just convenience - it's not that much cheaper. I'll have to check later but I think a baguette at Leader Price is only a few centimes cheaper than the good boulangerie across the street. But if you're in line on a Sunday afternoon and the mobscene's happening and everyone's about to close - well, then you just buy the crap baguette in front of you rather than have no baguette at all. The white panini bread? Because if you grease and grill just about any kind of bread with some decent stuff in between it's not half bad. Bux, cooks - and especially boulangers - are the commonest of Frenchmen! artisanbaker, I'm on for drinks anytime. And yes, I love Maison Kayser. menton, yes, Banette - and Retrod'or is another new artisanal-type of baguette being made/sold in local boulangeries.

Ted - six thousand Euros for a stage?! WTF?! Where?! Why?! Yeah, a stagiaire is like an intern - and yes, in all professions, not just culinary. But in culinary, all levels of restaurants - not only prestigious, Michelin-starred, etc. - some of my friends asked to work in smaller restaurants in hopes that they could do/learn more. Businesses are required by law to reimburse stagiaires for transportation to and from - nothing more. But no one should ever - ever - pay for a stage. At the Plaza, stagiaires are paid nominally, have full uniform service, a meal allowance in the personnel restaurant, and the transportation reimbursement. What does a stagiaire do? Almost impossible to answer generally - it depends on the restaurant and the stagiaire. I know some stagiaires in some houses that only clean and do the most basic prep. At ADPA I asked to turn all stations. On my very first day I started off in garde-manger leafing parsley - by the end of the day I was sculpting caviar onto langoustines - I've deveined the Landes foie gras, cooked the Brittany blue lobsters, deboned the Bresse chickens - I'm very - very - lucky that I'm allowed to do some things that even some of the other chef de parties have not yet done in the other stations. Work for nothing? Funny. Last week our new incoming chef, Christophe Moret from Spoon Paris was showing me and our two meat guys how to prep the Bresse chickens for the new dish after the reopening. I had on one side, one of my chefs, Julian, and on the other side, Rafael, who's just coming in from Pierre Gagnaire. While these guys are doing what seems to be magic tricks, slight of hand with flashing knives and meat, they expect me to keep up - and nudge me and coax me along. How much would you pay to learn from guys like that?

OK - here we go - you may not think they affect taste, but crois-moi mon cher Gros Mec, they do affect your experience. I offer myself up as evidence. I can't tell you how many times I've pulled an I Love Lucy - surreptitiously stuffing my face with reject macs - and it's quite different than sitting down to a nice tea in the Plaza's Gallerie.

Ou? I love ginger.