Bon Appetit: A Novel (French Twist Book 2) by Sandra Byrd

Author:Sandra Byrd
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Quaystrokes
Published: 2011-11-30T06:00:00+00:00

The next week we worked on breakfast pastries in class. If I had to do bread, I'd want to do these. First we did filled croissants. They're a staple, so it's important to get them right.

Jean-Yves, one of the French guys at our table, partnered up with me that week, scooting Anne aside. I'd noticed he'd been avoiding Désirée for the past week or two, and she'd been chasing him again that morning.

“Go ahead,” Anne said. “It'll be good for us to work with new people.” It was almost the end of October, halfway through our program. I agreed with her. She offered to work with another man at a nearby table, but he looked down his nose at her and declined. He found another guy to work with, and Anne worked with Désirée.

Jean-Yves and I rolled out our croissants on long tables. After cutting the dough into triangles, we stuffed some with chocolate nibs, some with tender almond paste, and the rest with pistachio paste—my idea, like I'd done at home last year.

We rolled them up, took them to the oven, and as soon as they were cool, ate one.

“Look!” Jean-Yves opened a jar of strawberry jam and a pot of crème fraîche and set them aside. We daubed it on the hot croissants. “My maman used to serve them like this.”

“Delicious!” I said in English, and he laughed.

“Délicieux!” he agreed in French. I sat next to him that day at lunch, and he shared stories of growing up on a farm in Bresse, and how their chickens were the best.

Désirée joined us for the croissant desserts. “I'd like to try one of the strawberry croissants,” she said, looking around the buffet, “but none were left. Perhaps you'd make one for me?”

“Perhaps,” Jean-Yves said pleasantly. Then he turned to ask me questions about the US, and if everyone was really like the people on CNN or MTV.

“Do I look like I'm from CNN or MTV?” I asked.

“Non.” He smiled flirtatiously. “You are much, much prettier.”

Ooh la la, he reminded me of Luc and of the flirtatious French men who dropped their sunglasses and looked appreciatively and appraisingly at every woman on the block.

Désirée left the table in a snit.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.