Tuna Birthday!

You don't plan on spending your birthday doing hand-to-hand combat with a tuna sandwich. But life is full of little surprises. And when the challange is to paint a tuna sandwich. And you have a deadline, the tuna sandwich takes precedence over champagne et macarons. I'm always saying I never eat birthday cake...
 Last weekend I took myself off to Soho to do chocolate cake research for the same illustration project.

First I went to very 'Frenchie' Ceci Cela patisserie.

And got this layered affair to practice on.

I did manage to get a sketch out of it before I was compelled to eat it. It was melting under the table lamp. What else could I do? Next I headed to Francois Payard's new patisserie.

Tres mignon.

Payard's little Sacher cake didn't even make it to the sketch page.

But it did help immerse me in essence of chocolatie cake research. Just what a pastry artist needs...

The tuna sandwich will not be eaten. It has dried up under the lights. But there is nothing like having real props to work from. The new Ladybug kitchen timer is from the Soho Pylones by the way.

BONJOUR TUNA BIRTHDAY!

Bastille Day

If you were wearing a striped shirt yesterday, dressed in blue, wore a beret, carried a quilted bag... And dragging around a small dog around, you were appropriately dressed for Bastille Day in New York. Then you were allowed to eat all the tarte framboise to your heart's content... Or tarte citron... Patisserie Payard was calling the dress code, so stripes rule... President was handing out free fromage tastes...L.A. Burdict had practically free, very intense cold chocolat for a mere $2 created especially for the day... Galeries Lafayette had free Paris maps for all... Not free, but I should have bought it -a Girl's Guide to Paris sac... Really yesterday's fair should have been called Macaron Day in my opinion...Macaron Cafe had lots of flavors and colors...

I felt I had to buy some for research purposes - 2 macs for $5...hmmm

Down the rue a bit, Mad MacNYC was low on flavors and colors, maybe because they were selling bags of 6 macarons for $5. Chef Florian Bellanger is in the background minus a head...

This Frenchie taste tester gave the seal of approval on the framboise...

I bought a tray of macarons in Classic French flavors at a special Bastille price - these would be just perfect to serve at the Alliance Francais exhibits in DC and Philadelphia I'm thinking...

Seen at Bastille Day - this EXACT macaron necklace bought somewhere in Paris - no single pendents need apply - sorry Boucheron

If you know where I can buy this necklace you can win this watercolor!

BONJOUR BASTILLE DAY New York!