Lately,  I’ve been enjoying most of the food I’ve been making way too quickly to photograph it. Like an entire Lebanese spread with falafels and pita made from scratch. Or a BBQ with with friends the moment we saw a little sunshine. Or chocolate brownies and caramel sauce I made for a friend’s party that earned compliments like “Heaven on my lips.” and “It permeates every cell in my mouth.”

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A few days ago I was at were at Jacques Genin to eat his famous lemon tart and guess who I bumped into? Jacques Genin himself! I was with my friends from school and we couldn’t stop gushing, getting his cookbook signed and taking photos. The man knows his lemon tart, he’s written an entire book on it that every lemon tart (USA | UK) fiend must have on his bookshelf.

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The best part about commuting to school is all the reading I get done. I am re-reading the Kitchen Confidential (USA | UK | India) and have also begun with the much acclaimed Blood, Bones and Butter (USA | UK | India). Recently, I’ve come across a bunch of interesting things happening on the food scene and thought it’s worth a share.

• Cut knives. (Suddenly found these knives on my wishlist after watching the video. And just after I saw this video, I discovered an artisan knife shop, I need to go back when it’s open. Oh, the French and their love for les vacances)
• More cool stuff in  Brooklyn – a chocolate factory in the middle of the city.
• Little Paris Kitchen: I’ve been watching the new BBC series presented by my food hero Rachel Khoo where she visits some of my favourite food spots and cooks up delights from her new cookbook that goes with the same title (UK | India).
• Who made that mason jar?
• Advice for aspiring pastry chef.
• Advice for future food writers.
• This compilation of Sounds in the Kitchen in NYTimes got me thinking about my favoruite kitchen tunes. Will put up a playlist soon!
• Foodie-ism as a youth culture.
• You can’t help but feel so inspired after watching the the video on a day in the life of Frenchie. Also, makes me want to get his cookbook.
• Ruth Reichl’s blog post on eating in Paris and London.
• Who doesn’t love pizza? Have a look at the NY Times Pizza Issue.

Need a ultra simple dessert that comes together in a matter of minutes and also doubles up as comfort food? This throw-it-together dessert might help: creamy bread pudding with chocolate chips. [Uh, sorry, those don’t look like chocolate chips because in my enthusiasm of getting my hands on a sack of chocolate after over a month, I think I added too many for it to look like chocolate chip pudding. So it’s slices of brioche oozing with melted chocolate in between.]

This bread pudding is super easy, I practically just tossed the ingredients together without really bothering to follow a recipe at it turned out pretty darn well: Soak a day old (or more) bread in the custard mixture, let it absorb it all, then place it in a dish. Stuff chocolate chips or chunks, whatever you prefer, between slices of moist bread. Bake for 15 minutes. And if that’s not enough, pour some chocolate sauce over it.

A delicious variation: Use spoonfuls of Nutella in between slices of bread. YUM.

According to my phone, my life is a mishmash of new market finds, school life, Paris, what I’m eating for Sunday morning breakfast, psychedelic beets, Friday Lunches, Dutch cheese, stroopwafels and other random things.

If you’re using Instagram, leave your username in the comments section, or follow me if you like what you see.

Bonne soirée!

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By now you’ve probably figured that whenever I travel, I make sure to hit the local food market. I like to reach there relatively early to watch the vendors set up and the pickiest locals reach in time to buy the freshest produce. It’s fun to walk around, soak in the atmosphere and click away. And, it was no different at the San Lorenzo Mercato Centrale in Florence.

The San Lorenzo market is the place you want to go to when you want to have a look at the lush produce available in Florence. We bought ingredients from here and went back to our apartment and cooked up a meal. It’s especially great to get your hands on superlative Tuscan cheese and extra virgin olive oils. It is open everyday from 7AM-2PM, except on Sundays and holidays. And when you are tired from all the walking around, take a seat at one of the little eateries inside the market that Florence is famous for. Or, right outside is the famed Trattoria Mario, a place I can vouch for as well.

Whatever you do, you must try the tripe sandwich (trippa at da Nerbone inside the market). Even if you don’t like it, it will make for a story worth telling.

We spent a few days in Florence before heading north to Venice. Florence was gorgeous but somehow very crowed at the time we went. Here are ten random things we did in Florence. Other things included the mandatory gelato tour, a visit to the Galileo museum to satiate the geek in Arjun, a different sandwich everyday at I Fratellini and eating at places our friends and some internet research recommended.

1. Soaked in the view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo.

2. Tried this chestnut flour cake, Castagnaccio with rosemary and pine nuts.

3. Listened to him play.

4. Ate Trippa at the famous Nebrone with the locals.

5. Marvelled at the duomo.

6. Walked along the river to the postcard-pretty Ponte Vecchio.

7. Bought sun-dried tomatoes and three bottles olive oil.

8. Cooked a meal for us in our apartment.

9. Spotted the sky blue vespa I’ve always wanted and got infinitely excited. Almost like I’d found my own bike that had been lost.

10. Ate a lot of gelato and then lived to talk about it.

Ever since Day 1 at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, I’ve finished 6 lessons. Each lesson includes a lengthy demo by the chef followed by practicals, where we have to make what we see in the demo. The school is pretty strict about being in class on time. For a 8:30AM class I make sure to be ready in my uniform by 8AM and then wait in line to get into the demo room. (Yeah, I’m quite the front row dork.)

Talking about the uniform, the attire is nothing short of elaborate – checkered pants, chef jacket, neckerchief, hair net and cap, apron and a dish towel. Oh, and add ugly kitchen shoes to that. I have to wear it everyday; and on some days when I look at myself in the mirror in the school corridor, all dressed up, I go “Wooooah!” in my head and can’t help smiling to myself. It feels pretty darn amazing.

We’re learning the fundamentals of French cuisine, beginning with stocks and sauces. The amount of butter and cream that goes into the recipes makes my head spin. And it’s probably the reason I almost never eat what I’ve made. With the exception of the sole fish in Bercy sauce that we made in our second lesson. That dish had simple flavours, an artery worth of butter and a whole lot of parsley. I felt so proud of cutting, gutting, scaling, skinning and filleting my own fish. I want to say that again: I cleaned two slippery soles, all on my own! Of course, my hands were stinking for the next few days.

Another favourite of mine was vol-au-vents. And that was mostly because I finally got to play with pastry! Making puff pastry from scratch and then watching it rise through the oven window is so gratifying. We filled the buttery puff pastries with creamy leeks, perfectly poached eggs and Albufera sauce. We also had to make a veal demi-glaze by reducing veal stock to a thick syrup. As my American classmate at school put it, ‘Can’t believe they go through all this for just a dot of it (as garnish)! Everyone cracked up.

Last week, I also attended an optional class that was delivered by a chef from the Radisson. He made a pretty elaborate dish of chicken with morels, but what I particularly loved was the pea and mint soup. Such fresh flavors, those two.

I like that we get different chefs taking care of us for different classes. We’ve had some fun, some stern, “Stop manging (Franglais for eating)! Clean up!” and a lovely Korean chef, the only woman chef at school, who even makes us iced chocolate to drink when it gets really hot in the kitchen.

One other good thing about going to cooking school is that I can bring back home whatever I make (and sometimes, when I am lucky, great pastries made by the patisserie students!) so I don’t really have to cook Arjun any dinner. Needless to say, he’s one happy tester.

Because of all the rich food I’m invariably eating, when I’ve to fix myself something to eat, it’s almost always salad these days.

Here’s a green bean and fennel salad recipe that I tried in an attempt to give green beans a second chance (maybe they’d taste better with fennel?). Did I like it? Totally. But I think I’m going to be loyal to my favourite apple and fennel salad.

Green bean and fennel salad recipe

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Serves: 2

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thinly
200g / 8 oz. green beans, trimmed
1 medium sized fennel bulb, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup (about 2 ounces or 50-60g) hazelnuts
1/3rd cup Parmesan cheese, shaved
1 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling over salad.

Method:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, water, salt and sugar together. Add the onions and set them aside for about an hour.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook beans until crisp-tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Plunge in an ice water bath to refresh.
3. Heat a small heavy skillet to medium heat and add one teaspoon olive oil. Add hazelnuts and toss until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Coarsely chop the nuts. Then, season lightly with salt and pepper to taste.
4. To assemble the salad, toss together all the ingredients. Then, sprinkle two tablespoons of the red onion pickling liquid, two tablespoons of olive oil and the shaved Parmesan over the mixture. Season generously with salt and freshly ground pepper.
5. Tip: Don’t make this much ahead of time – the acid in the dressing will bleach the green beans, giving it a very unappetizing color.

4:38… Not yet.

5:28. A little while longer.

And then, finally, the alarm went off at 6:15, and I jumped out of bed for my first day of school… The school of my dreams. The school for which I was awarded the James Beard Scholarship. First. Day. Today.

So excited was I, I kept taking photos (never mind the stares in the Métro) at every turn to make sure I documented my first day of school well enough. How could I not? I’ve waited for this for a long time, and I couldn’t belive I was on my way to Le Cordon Bleu.

I hopped on to the RER and then the Métro and finally reached Vaugirard in the 15th arrondisment at 8:45. I wasn’t supposed to be in class until 9:30 so I popped into a Carrefour and bought an apple for breakfast and then walked to 8 Rue Léon Delhomme.

After quickly checking my name off the list and being assigned a group number for the day, I was seated in the second row in the demo room for the orientation. Four hours of orientation included long winded speeches from the school director and people from the administration on the rules, receiving our class schedule for the entire course, a tour around the school, admission verification, meeting a few of my new classmates, and best of all: we got our cookbooks, uniforms and (even better) a Wüsthof knife kit. All this, while snacking on pain au chocolat, cheese and grapes.

Although we could leave all our things in the locker, I was excited to bring it back home and show my uniform and shiny new knives to Arjun. I got back home, chopped a few onions with my new knives for the heck of it (does anyone need me to chop their vegetables?) and read through my books.

It was a lovely day.

PS: My first day of school was on Monday, March 26th. I’d written most of it then, but finally got down to putting my photos together for this post after altering and hand-sewing my two chequered trousers for school.

We clearly hadn’t had enough gelato in Rome, so we did it all over again in Florence.

Here’s a list of all the gelateria we went to in one afternoon that was made up of walking, eating gelato and then some more gelato. I’ve listed the gelateria such that you end the grand gelato eating tour at Perché No! because that’s the perfect last memory to have of eating gelato in Florence (we didn’t, but went back there to mark the end of the tour and eat more pistachio gelato). We popped into another one or two gelateria on our way, but that just fortified our faith in the map we’d charted out for ourselves. Don’t get tempted by tourist crowds and overflowing tubs of gelato on display – they’re obviously meant to cloud your judgement.

Can’t make up his mind!

Santa Trinita
Piazza Frescobaldi, 11-12/r (Ponte Santa Trinita)
Mascarpone gelato cookies and cream gelato. I also tried their popular black sesame gelato, but didn’t care too much for it.

Cantina Del Gelato
Via De Bardi 31, Florence
We tried the goat cheese and walnut gelato here that proved to be memorable just because.

Gelateria dei Neri
Via dei Neri, 20, Florence
We tried their caramel, chocolate with chili, chocolate amaro (bitter chocolate) and croccantino (nut brittle). I walked out happy with another cup of gelato and a souvenir Geleteria dei Neri postcard for my travel diary.

Carapina
Via Lambertesca 118r, Florence
This is the place to go for fresh, seasonal flavoured gelato. I absolutely loved their chocolate with ginger. Their mint and cherry flavours are popular as well.

Vivoli
Via dell’Isola delle Stinche 7r, Florence
I came to Florence with a bunch of recommendations from my friend (hi Jennie!) who had lived here for 6 months. She told me she loved the rice gelato here. We tried that along with chocolate, pear, orange-chocolate and yoghurt-strawberry – all rich and creamy. Their riso gelato reminded me of kheer, of course.

Vestri 
Borgo degli Albizi 11r, Florence
Vestri is a chocolate shop but that doesn’t mean you don’t go there for gelato. You go there for gelato drowned in chocolate. Ask for Affogato.

Carabé 
Via Ricasoli 60r, Florence
Carabé makes Sicilian style gelato – which means there are no eggs involved (great for vegans!). Fresh fruit sorbets is what you should try here. It’s a bit of a walk, so if you’re short on time, you can skip this one.

Grom
Via delle Oche, 24-r, Florence
We tried the torroncino, chocolate and Bachio gelato here. And my favourite, the gianduja hot chocolate.

Perché No!
Via dei Tavolini, 19-r, Florence
The best gelateria in Florence by far, their pistachio is to die for and the milk gelato is a close second. Everything here was perfect in flavour and texture. Other flavours we ate and enjoyed: apple pie, chocolate, raspberry and hazelnut. They make a lovely hot chocolate, but Grom wins hands down for their Gianduja hot chocolate.

I’ve mapped out all these places to help to have your fill of gelato in Florence and decide your favourite gelato for yourself. But if I had to pick favourites, it’d have to be Perché No! for all the gelato and Grom for the Gianduja hot chooclate. And if I had to pick one city for eating gelato, then Rome would be the unequivocal winner.