Bon Appétit!
A handful of students at Maple Avenue Middle School in Saratoga Springs were given their first taste of French cuisine during Samantha Decker’s foreign language classes on Monday, Dec. 5.
The owners of Saratoga’s only creperie, Ravenous, gave a demonstration about the flat, popular, French pastry to three classes throughout the day. The presentation was meant to help the 7th graders practice their vocabulary skills as they study a unit on food, as well as briefly immersing them in the French culture.
“A lot of the kids usually don’t know what a crepe is, so it’s a way to put the vocabulary to work in a real setting,” said Decker. “This isn’t exactly a French restaurant, but it’s the next best thing.”
Decker’s classroom was turned into a mini-bistro and several students were selected to act as servers to their fellow classmates. Each server asked, “Vous désirez?” or “May I help you?” The students replied with “Je voudrais une crêpe, s’il vous plait,” or “I would like a crepe, please.”
Before eating, co-owners Lauran Wickizer and Francesco D’Amico taught the students the history and cultural importance of crepes, and demonstrated how they are made.
Wickizer told the class that the crepe originated in Bretagne, a northwestern section of France, as a popular peasant meal hundreds of years ago. Made out of buckwheat flour and water, because of accessibility and price, crepes were first used as bread by the poor.
“They probably didn’t taste so good when crepes first started, but it was like their main food source,” said Wickizer.
The middle class soon “jazzed-up” the recipe by adding milk, eggs and sometimes sugar, while those in high-society added the fancier, sweet and savory fillings.
Inside their restaurant, Wickizer and D’Amico have a large crepe machine imported from France, but for traveling purposes have bought two, consumer model griddles.
D’Amico explained how each crepe starts with a batter but the recipe differs slightly depending on if the crepe is sweet or savory. The batter is ladled onto the griddle, and is spread evenly in a circular motion with a wooden tool called a rozelle.
When they opened the business 12 years ago, the duo had a friend who worked in the business show them hot to properly make the crepes, but D’Amico said they learned their craft mostly through trial and error.
When the presentation was over, each student could pick between a Nutella, lemon custard or raspberry jam crepe. Each was asked to bring in $4.25 to pay for supplies, and some opted to bring in an extra dollar for students who could not afford the fee.
D’Amico said he was surprised that nearly half of the students he served said they had eaten a crepe before, but for manyit was their first time.
Twelve-year-old Bailey Davis had never had a crepe before. He opted for the Nutella flavor.
“This is great,” he said with a full mouth. “The chocolate is amazing.”
Davis said he chose French for his foreign language because it seemed fancier than Spanish and in high school he would rather take the trip to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower with his classmates, than travel to Mexico. In the 8th grade, French students go on a trip to Montreal with teacher Robin Murray.
Davis said he had also heard rumors about crepe day and wanted to try one for himself.
Sitting across the room, a fellow classmate said she had eaten a crepe once before at her aunt’s house, but it came from a bag in the freezer. “These are much better,” she said.
Decker said in just one year crepe day has become very popular. “I know a lot of the kids signed-up for French because of it,” she said, while wondering if Ravenous has played a part in making crepes so well liked in the area.
“I just try to give the students an authentic setting whenever possible,” said Decker about crepe day. “That way it’s more meaningful to them to see an application for the knowledge they are learning.”
Wickizer said she and D’Amico were happy to form such a great relationship with the school and its students, and they plan on doing the presentation again next year.
“I think the day was again a great success,” she said. “When we first opened we were a bit scared because sometimes people aren’t open to try new things, but so far that hasn’t been an issue here.”
Decker said eating a crepe has become the school’s “French class rite of passage,” for 7th-graders.