When Will I See You Again? When Will We Share Precious Moments?

Is this my beginning or is this the end?
(The Three Degrees - When Will I See You Again)

Intermediate Lesson 30- Corsica

Today we had the final demonstration class for the Cordon Bleu Intermediate Cuisine program. Similar to the Basic program, the final class in intermediate had no practical, which meant no one was paying attention I wasn't paying attention. Hey at least I was here. 5 people out of our 19 person program didn't even show up for this 8:30am demonstration class.

The region of focus today is Corsica, the beautiful Mediterranean Island north of Sardinia. Poor Corsica, despite its majestic ocean views and pristine mountains, Cordon Bleu relegated it to the last class with no follow-up practical. Let me tell you something about their cuisine.... Actually, I can't for the life of me tell you what we learned today. Sorry. I think they have a lot of tasty black pigs. I've eaten the black pigs in Sardinia, which were delicious, so I bet the Corsican ones must be delish as well.

Oh, we did learn something interesting- Zucchini flowers, which, if my memory serves me correctly, are the flowers of the zucchini plant. Yes. I bet you didn't know that from its name. And it is also... damn, completely forgot everything else about it.

Zucchini flower. Very interesting stuff.

but what did we use this for again?

Oh I remember now, it's excellent for frying, so we used it in the Vegetable Fritters dish. This dish reminded me of the Japanese Tempura fried vegetables.

What I can tell you is we had sparkling wine at the end of the class. This I remember. So much for my last class ever in Le Cordon Bleu.

YAY for celebration!

The end of the class was actually quite touching, because this was the last day that we would definitely see everyone from class today, well at least the people who showed up. Everyone has different start time tomorrow during the final, so we probably won't see each other, and although there's a graduation ceremony next week, a lot of people will be skipping it. After the demonstration, we all huddled and gave each other hugs, drank sparkling wine, and took lots of photographs. This was also the first time that I stood behind the chef's demonstration table.

 Band of Misfits. It has been grand guys and girls. Thank you!

I just want to say that we also will miss the folks who didn't show up.

Christian, Gulnazi, Martin, Meng, and Random-Chinese-Guy-I've-never-talked-to

Once class ended, I went back to my favorite café near school Le Vaugirad and started studying again. We have an afternoon to study before our exams tomorrow morning. Unlike in basic, I've barely practiced most of the dishes for the exam, and I'm just hoping that the muscle memory that I've acquired throughout the last two months will come into handy.

This photo doesn't look staged at all

Hopefully I'll be fine.

Quote from today's class:

"The little blag pig of Corsica. A very pretty little animal. Wears a thick black robe. Not a robe like on a French woman. I mean the skin. It's got grey droopy ears, a bit chubby. You just wanna pick it up, take it in your arms and cuddle with it."

-Demo Chef Caals,

On the Coriscan Black Pigs

"Don't be worried about the exam! See this quote? 'Athlete leave only records behind!' I like the quote, almost as much as the photo."

-Demo Chef Caals,

Showing us one of those motivational pictures from a magazine.

The accompanying photo is of a very sexy scanty clad woman

Not sure how it relates to the quote
or how this is suppose to motivate us for the exam.