Macaron School

Two years ago when I was doing my Cuisine Diploma at Le Cordon Bleu, I also decided to take a three month long Pastry course. It was with my nose slightly in the air that I showed up for the first class. I had deboned teeny birds without cutting them up, I had dug out a small fish from the inside of a bigger fish - I was strong, Pastry pshaw! Piece of cake!
Hah! I was quickly put in my place when I was told to dip my finger in boiling sugar to test the degree of firmness. "Do eeet!" sneered the pastry chef teaching us. Needless to say, I didn't. I stuck to the sugar thermometer. There is a limit.
Anyway, the point of the story was that even though I trained as a chef, life in its strange twists decided that my business will not be in savory but in sweet.
I had made macarons only once in class and surprisingly was one of the few people who got it right the first time. So when I started making them for my business I thought (again!) Piece of cake!
Hah! (again!)
I've shed my share of tears when I've over mixed the batter so that soon as I pipe the mix out it spreads and spreads and spreads. I've had the oven too hot, then too cold. I've shaken my fist at dark rainy clouds, as the humidity made my macarons flat. I've read all the macaron books I could lay my hands on. And with a lot of practise I have learned a lot. Now 95% of my batch turns out perfect.
But 95% does not a good business make. So I've decided to enrol in a 2 day course at Ecole Lenotre in  Paris, end of March.
(Oh alright! It was more the thought of going away by myself to Paris and hitting all the patisseries on the way!!)
So I am dusting out my chef's tunic, cleaning up the clogs and heading out into a macaron coloured sunset....
More on that later...