wonka

Well, it's been a helluva week. Busy as hell, no time for myself.

It's been interesting, though.

And last night? BEST NIGHT EVER.

I planned a night out for a big group of people at work, a bit of a reward for everyone for a long week of intense meetings. In Norwegian it was called a "Matkurs" or strictly translated a "Food Class".

But it was so much more.

There's this French chocolaterie here, Pascal's, and they have a few locations and they do food and coffee and French chocolates. I booked the cooking class there, at their original location, an old historically protected chocolate shop from the turn of the 20th century.

The shop is gorgeous. Original paintings on the walls and carved wood cabinets and reverse painted glass ceiling tiles. When we got there they started pouring the champagne. (Which honestly never stopped.) Then into the kitchens, where we got a brief tour of the chocolate production areas and a quick intro to what we would be learning to cook that night.

Then, I had a dream come true. It was amazing.

Pascal took us upstairs to a room filled with every kind of chocolate you can imagine. All freshly made, ready to be packaged, sitting in trays and plates and pans and tables. Chocolate everywhere, glistening and smelling of heaven.

And then, he said (Oh I get shivers here)..."Eat whatever you want".

I GOT TO EAT MY WAY THROUGH A CHOCOLATE FACTORY LAST NIGHT. While drinking champagne. And this was part of MY JOB. I was at work!

This evening had already become one of the best nights of my life, right at that second.

Then we went back downstairs, 15 big excited 40 year old kids, to cook (with chef assistance) and amazing meal of seared scallops with cauliflower cream, bok choi and vinegar soy chili sauce, lightly grilled trout with broccoli cream soup and fresh tomato salsa, duck confit with root veggies and FOUR different desserts (lemon cream, caramel, chocolate mousse and little puff pastries; dipping those pastries into the caramel and eating them warm was a lesson in how not to have an orgasm in public, in front of my bosses. Oh So Good). Wine with each course and then...more chocolate. We broke into teams and each team cooked a course.

It was a very very fun night. (Yes I am hungover by the way, I had a lot of champagne and wine and chocolate. There has to be some sort of payment for such a great night. It's an ok price to pay, actually.)

It gets better, now. Munich here I come!