French pastry: branch in Thomery

Last Saturday it was a great sunny day and I was wondering how to spend the weekend when I got an email from my Indonesian friend Genie Njoto. She invited me for a Sunday branch at her place. There was no need to persuade me :)

10 am, Sunday, we are in the Fonty morning market (I’ve written about it before, when we did the cheese plate masterclass). We pick up some pastry, cheese, baguettes and jam and drive out of Fonty. We pass the garden of Chateau de Fontainebleau and drive through the Fontainebleau forest to an amazing small ancient village, Thomery. The village is on the river. It looks friendly and hospitable under the morning sun.

Tartiflette: French dinner for cold times

Yesterday I just came home from school around 8 pm. Passing by the kitchen, I saw Frederic, my French classmate, cooking. Mansi and Breanne – watching. I was lucky:

 Mansi: You wanna to join us for Tartiflette?
- I: Sure! What is it? :)

Latin-American dinner in INSEAD

It is the end of Latin-American national week in INSEAD. Several weeks during every year are devoted to particular countries/regions that are selected through pitch competitions (see youtube).
Tonight is the most culinary event of the week: national dinner. The food apparently doesn’t go without music and dance: the evening started from a salsa/samba class today, then continued in the bar with Cuba Libre, Mojitos and saxophone. Finally, 9 o’clock students are gathering at the buzzy lunch hall, drinking beer and Argentinean wine. Onda Cubana Band starts playing. While everyone is still sober the food comes into play!

Trip #1: Paris patisseries

Feb 7

Club members count: 73
Nationalities count: 30
Today I feel that it is quite competitive to organize entertainment in Fonty. After the yesterday party in chateau Villicerf hardly a half of people who planned to join the trip managed to get up to leave to Paris at 11 am. So there is 6 of us today. It is chilly and cloudy outside. We are going to visit several Paris patisseries that we’ve chosen from a guide by Jamie Cahill. These are old cafes and shops, each famous for some sweet specialty.

Unlike the rest of the group, I visit Paris for the first time today. I must look funny holding all these maps and guides in my hands… We get out the Gare de Lyon building and take the direction towards Seine to get to the 4th arrondisement. It is around lunch time and we are hungry so our first stop ideally suits us. After some wandering around rue de Barres we finally find L’Ebouillante (6, rue des Barres).

Restaurants: Aladdin (Algerian) in Fontainebleau

Today I was lucky to share the dinner out with Majed and Rasha. They come from the Middle East (Jordan and Palestine) so we are going to the Arabic restaurant in Fontainebleau. It is Aladdin, offering Algerian food, on Rue de France between Rue des Sablons and Rue Saint-Honore in Fontainebleau.


As it happens with most of the students coming here from outside Western Europe, we are not used to ‘hours’ of French restaurants. ‘Hours’ mean that you hardly can expect to be served for dinner before 7 pm. Thus we spend extra 30 minutes walking along Fonty streets…


Seems that today we are the first here for dinner. 7 or 8 tables, purple – white interior, Arabic music. Majed and Rasha are smiling – they are listening to the songs they know from their home countries. 4 page menu of Algerian dishes in French: I’m totally out of the game :) Guys start questioning the waiter in Arabic and soon we get oriented in the menu: starters, couscous, tajine, kebab.


Service is unhurried, we start from tea. I’m amazed by the elegant silver pot and beautiful movements of the waiter pouring the tea in the colored glass. The tea is green and (!) sweet. The atmosphere gets very relaxing.