Culinary Expo

Yesterday, I woke up before the sun had risen in order to get ready for my day at the Culinary Expo here in Toulouse. I'd been asked to go by a young woman whose child I will be teaching English to regularly. I wasn't sure what to expect, and I did NOT want to be awake so early, but we were going to talk in French the whole day, sample foods and wines, and watch master chefs at work. Instead of recounting the whole day I have provided pictures below with little anecdotes or explanations. The expo was SO FUN, and I really appreciated K.'s willingness to correct my French and spent the day with me!!! The French are all about their food for good reason, they excel at anything related to it!!!



This, the chocolate stall, was one of
probably over 100 stalls at the expo.
There were stalls for buying artisan
baked goods and candies. There were
stalls devoted to new kitchen utensils,
machines, and cookware. Anything
that had to do with cooking or eating
had a stall. K & I passed by the orange bread
stall and the brownie stall twice to 'sample' the
goods.



K. graciously took a picture of me trying
to crack my egg shell top. A chef was teaching
watchers how to prepare eggs in their
shells by removing a circle of shell at the
top and floating the egg in boiling water. Once
the egg was cooked, he either added cream
and cinnamon or fois gras. I tried K's fois gras
and she tried my whipped creme and cinnamon. Both were
delicious, but I could never eat fois gras in
an actual meal.



This chef taught the audience how
to prepare tuna in a few
different ways. All of his
creations looked wonderful
and delicious.

 


A creation by the chef teaching tuna.



Francois the wine merchant!
K. used to work with him elsewhere
in France, and had no idea he'd be at
the expo. When we came upon his wine
stall we had the best time! He is Italian despite
his French name. He speaks French,
Italian, English and who knows what else.
He was so charming and knowledgeable.
Francois introduced me to a black cherry
red wine and a strawberry red wine. Just enough
fruit flavor to overcome the bitter tannins of
normal red wine. Unfortunately I had no cash
on me at the expo. Thankfully for me, Francois has
a website and should I need some of his
Italian wine back in the USA, he ships internationally!

After watching Chef Mael make Italian Macarons

the audience got to sample some. Macarons

may have taken my loyalty away from Crepes

as my chosen French dessert. The are delicious tiny

little cookie pastry halves with filling in between.

The perfect macaron should have a little resistance

when you bit into it, but the halves should be a little

sticky/doughy still on the inside. K. tells me it's a

hard balance to achieve between the slightly hard

outer shell and the perfect sticky, but cooked,

inner of the pastry halves.