The French

A real live french pastry chef came to my baking class today. Don't ask me how you find one of those in Rexburg, Idaho. Apparently he and his wife moved from France a year ago so his wife could teach French at BYU-Idaho. Who does that? Couldn't she have taught English is France. I would never, ever, move to Rexburg from France. Apparently, he can't get a work permit, but someone in the baking class knew him and brought him in as part of a presentation she had to give.

I'll be honest, the presentation was not interesting. His attitude towards Americans was what most people would guess. It seemed as if he took a whole half hour of class to vent about Americans eat and cook. Maybe this was bottled up inside for a while and it was time to tell us how he felt. Now put on your best french accent while you read my favorite quotes from him.

1. "You Americans, you drink your sugar soda, your tacos, your cookies... I don't know how you do it."

2. "Americans, they just think it is a recipe, they just mix it all together, not thinking about it and whal-la, you put it in the oven and eat. BUT ITS NOT JUST A RECIPE! Its chemistry. Its art."

3. "Quantity does not equal quality! You fill up our plate but you do not need all that! You have to think about what is good for your body. Why are you eating so much? It is not even good."

Well, us Americans did live up to the french pastry's chefs bias against us. We joked with the our teacher while he did a presentation on cinnamon rolls and were definitely not paying attention to the beauty and art of the whole process. We just wanted to eat them, as most Americans would. The French chef said Americans touch their food too much when they are baking it. "Less touch is more better and sanitary." At least we are building super immune systems! We can wipe out a whole race with all the disease we carry and not even know it! The chef brought in some version of a croissant/cinnamon roll. I hadn't had anything like it before and probably wouldn't have another one if I had the opportunity. (I don't really like pastries anyways though. Some people thought they were really good.)

The other presenters brought in burnt cookies, Oreos and muffins, once again, living up to our name as American culinary students, especially with the Oreos. But I have decided that I probably would not want to study with a French teacher. My biased against them is that they suck the fun out of it. The french man was way to serious about cooking.