Saint-Michel Blanquefort, European School

Food and TV

9 August, 2009 Funny, PROFESSIONAL Aucun commentaire

Hello,

You probably know that cooking is a popular topic… and in France, we have channels such as “Gourmet TV” or “Cuisine TV”.

In the USA, England and Canada, they also have television channels focusing on food :

P. Couturier

BEP Oral Exam in English

22 March, 2009 Listening, PROFESSIONAL, Resources, Speaking 2 commentaires

Dear students of H2,

Here are the listenings of some of the texts you will be presenting at your BEP oral exam in English :

- Young, Sexy and Royal : young-sexy-and-royal

- I was too short : i-was-too-short

- The food they like : the-food-they-like

- Paul’s life as a Chef : pauls-life-as-a-chef

- Who’s your DD : whos-your-dd

- Legend : legend

- Cooking Class debate : elllo-cooking-classes

You will also present 3 other documents for which we don’t have a listening, which are :

- Making New Year’s Resolutions

- The Mother of America’s Civil Rights is Dead (Rosa Parks’ story)

- Takeaways

For this oral exam, you also have to be able to introduce yourself personally and professionally, and to tell about your future plans.

Have a nice training.
MC Poussard

MS2 : do you want to leave a message… ?

16 March, 2009 Listening, PROFESSIONAL 1 commentaire

Dear MS2, 

Here are some links about dealing with phone calls at the office. Listen to the conversations and tips in the following links and repeat, if you want, the expressions : 

Useful expressions on the phone

Conversation on the phone

Transferring a call

Taking a message

Now it’s your turn. Work in pairs. With your partner, imagine a conversation : student A is working in an office at the reception, and student B is calling to ask questions, to talk to someone, to leave a message. 

SPEAK ! 

P. Couturier

5 Signs You’ve Had One Too Many To Drink!

8 March, 2009 Culture, Listening, PROFESSIONAL, Writing 14 commentaires

A funny commercial showing what can happen from overdoing it at Video.action?videoGuid=238F4E96-949A-4AD6-94F7-7FCDC245C520

and for more details at www.knowthesigns.com

Watch these films carefully.
Work to do : post a comment in which you give details about what it is to be a “responsible drinker” and make a personal assessment of this document.

On your notebook, note the title of the document and write the 5 types of too much alcohool behaviour you have noticed with their symptoms.

MC Poussard

Stages d’anglais – H2′ (serveurs)

24 February, 2009 PROFESSIONAL 3 commentaires

Hello everyone, 

1 ) Watch this video twice. During the 2nd play, try to repeat what you hear and then, I will have a few questions for you : 

Instructions to the new waiter

2 ) Now list all the questions clients may ask you from the moment they arrive, to the moment they leave. Then, let’s see how you can answer those questions…

3 ) Imagine a menu of your choice, including 2 starters, 2 main courses and 2 desserts

4 ) Here’s the website of a famous American restaurant : The Cheesecake Factory

Look at the menu. What do you think ? Write your comments on the blog.

5 ) Now look at the menu of the restaurant “La Belle France”. Explain some of the dishes in English…

P. Couturier

A culinary song by Jamie Oliver

1 February, 2009 PROFESSIONAL 8 commentaires

This is a video called Lamb Curry Song, written by Leigh Haggerwood and sung and played by Jamie Oliver.

Video.action?videoGuid=B2312DC1-D157-4AA5-8359-20FB8BE6AE0B

You know Jamie Oliver is a Chef, but did you know he is also a musician and a drummer?

So, enjoy and sing with him to learn professional vocabulary while having fun !!

MC Poussard

French master pastry chef Gaston Lenotre just died (Paris – AFP)

8 January, 2009 PROFESSIONAL, Reading Aucun commentaire

French master pastry chef Gaston Lenotre, who built a worldwide empire with his gourmet dessert creations that defined modern patisserie, died Thursday at the age of 88. He passed away at his home in the central French region of Sologne after a long illness. President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was “one of the greatest masters of taste.” … ”Thanks to his talent and creativity, his rigour and excellence, he elevated patisserie to the rank of art form,” he said in a statement.

“We have lost a very great man,” said three-star chef Alain Ducasse, another ambassador for French cuisine who learned the art of pastry-making from Lenotre as a young man.

Born to parents who both worked as cooks in the northwest region of Eure, Lenotre opened his first pastry shop in Paris in 1957 in the rich 16th arrondissement of the French capital. Soon he attracted a loyal clientele with his mouth-watering array of mousses, macaroons and charlotte cakes and turned Lenotre into a brand name synonymous with fine patisserie.

Lenotre broke from traditional French pastry-making by inventing lighter creations such as his trademark “Succes” (Success) cake made with nougat cream and macaroons.

Cuisine was in his blood : his father was a chef at a upscale Paris hotel and his mother a private cook for the household of the baron Pereire, a wealthy French banker.

“French pastry-making taught me to be precise, to have discipline,” he once said in an interview. “If I see that things are sloppily done, I lose it.”

In 1960, he opened a catering service that would lay the foundation for an international food empire, with Lenotre boutiques now open in 12 countries including the United States, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

Lenotre opened a pastry school in the Paris region in 1971 that welcomes some 3,000 chefs each year, and in 1976 took over Le Pre Catalan, a three-star restaurant and two other establishements.

“He taught us to be demanding, to share knowledge and to have a taste for what is beautiful and delicious.”

A father of three, Lenotre is also the author of several books on French pastry and cuisine.