Well, it has been a while, a long while, an entire year that I posted here on my blog. I really missed it. I take a lot of joy in writing, photographing and creating new cake recipes. It truly makes me happy. I do not know how many times I started to write this post in the past year, besides the 15 recipe drafts that are saved in my blog folder. It is difficult to write this post because it is not about cakes or recipes but a very personal post. Today I decided, no matter what, I will post this post. Today and not tomorrow, in order to overcome my writer's block.

Let's have a chat. Over the last three years, I got more and more passionate about pâtisserie - in particular, French pâtisserie. Spending hours in the kitchen and creating little cakes made me truly happy. I loved everything about it, including cleaning up a messy kitchen. The last couple of years I wasn't easy for me, life was pretty rough but baking helped me a lot during this time. I turned my life upside down a year ago and I decided to become a pastry chef.

Last summer I moved to Berlin and I started an apprenticeship at a wonderful French-inspired patisserie store. I was happy there and I learned a lot, in particular working with chocolate and making beautiful chocolate bonbons. When I was about two months in my apprenticeship the pastry store had financial difficulties and eventually, the store closed down. At that time, I felt stuck and did not know what to do. I just moved to Berlin for this apprenticeship and it meant I had to start all over again. Applying again for apprenticeships and so on.

I was fortunate and I had the chance to do an apprenticeship at the pâtisserie department at one of the luxurious and prestigious hotels in Berlin. I worked there for eight months before I quit my apprenticeship in July. I am passionate about French pâtisserie and I realized that there is no better place to study the art of French pâtisserie than in Paris. In France, there is a very high level of aspiration and they place great value on the highest quality of ingredients, which is essential to me.

 As I write this, I am about to start a new chapter. I got accepted into one of France's leading culinary schools in Paris. It still feels very surreal to me that I am going to live in Paris. On July 1st of 2016, I wrote a post here on my blog with the following sentence " I console myself that one day I will move to Paris for a few months with the purpose of visiting a different pastry store every single day and try all the delicious gâteaux that Paris has to offer". Never ever did I thought two years later I will end up in Paris, not only living there but study French pâtisserie. It is really a dream come true. It is still very unreal to me, though I have been several times in Paris in July for apartment hunting. Leaving my beautiful spacious three bedrooms apartment in Berlin and moving into a 22 m² studio apartment in Paris will be an adjustment. Let me tell you that finding an apartment in Paris is no joke and an expensive affair as well. I am very very grateful that I not only found a lovely studio but that this studio apartment has a little terrace attached to a little garden. I even have an oven which is a rarity for a Parisian studio apartment.

I am incredibly excited but I am also incredibly nervous about this new chapter in my life. Join me on my new life in Paris and I do hope to share a lot of new recipes and of course sharing my Parisian pastry life with you.
Thanks for stopping by and reading this blog. Writing this blog has been always such a joy and helped me a lot during the last couple of years. In fact, it contributed a lot to my decision becoming a pastry chef.
Thank you.