My very first job after culinary school was at a small French bistro on the Upper East Side of Manhattan called Payard Patisserie and Bistro. It was the most punishing culinary experience I’ve ever had in my whole life. It was also the most rewarding. During my fifteen months of work there I gained more knowledge and experience than three years of culinary school.

I recorded many of the Payard recipes and food combinations on index cards for a quick reference. Those cards have been with me for over twenty years now. Some have been lost, destroyed, dirtied and damaged. What appears below are the surviving cards of my time at Payard Patisserie and Bistro.