I am what's known as a closer. Each person on the team has his or her specific responsibility. Mine is to close. This means that once the macarons are laid out on the work surface and the ganache piped, it's my responsibility to close them. And I have to admit, I'm quite good at my job.

Before the ganache becomes too hard, I quickly take the top half of a macaron and carefully set it on top of the ganache. This must be done in just the right way so the ganache squishes to the edge of the macaron. The ganache should form a nicely curved edge between the two halves of the macaron. Too much pressure and the ganache squirts over the edge. Not enough and it's hidden between the macarons. And each ganache sets differently. The rose cream and caramel are soft, so delicate pressure must be applied. On the other hand, the bittersweet chocolate or cinnamon pistachio ganaches require greater force. It's a delicate balance, so believe me when I say that it isn't easy.

Each shift, we make approximately 8,000 macarons. If it's a slow day, we will make five different flavors. If it's a long day, we'll make as many as six or even seven. This means that in one week, the two stores sell around 40,000 macarons. At 72 Euros a kilo, I can imagine the stores are making a pretty good profit.

Of the 23 different flavors, only 11 of them are made now. The others, like chocolate and foie gras or white truffle are only made at certain times of the year. The classic flavors include coffee, caramel with fleur de sel, bittersweet chocolate, and rose. The chef signature flavors are apricot pistachio, milk chocolate with passion fruit (my favorite), olive oil and vanilla (you'd be surprised, this one is incredible!), Ispahan (litchi ganache and raspberry jelly), jasmine, and pistachio (with alcohol soaked cherries inside).

Four of the 11 flavors have something inside - this makes them more complicated to make and harder to close. As an example when we make the apricot, inside the macaron is a little square of pistachio praline. To do this, we pipe a small dot of apricot ganache on one half of the macaron. We then take the pre-cut square of pistachio praline and stick it to the ganache. On the second half of the macaron, we pipe a generous blob of apricot ganache. The ganache side is then closed on top of the praline side, totally enclosing the praline in the ganache. The hardest flavor to make is Ispahan because the litchi ganache tends to set immediately after piping and if the ganache is too firm, it doesn't sit well on the raspberry jelly making closure very messy and unappealing.

Okay, in the grand scheme of things, I realize this doesn't sound like serious or important work. But when I think of the hundreds of people buying macarons for the first time each week, and marveling at their beauty and perfection, I feel like I've done a good job.

This week though, my responsibilities changed a bit. I graduated from a closer to a piper. Now don't worry. I wasn't running around in suspenders, playing tunes on a flute while hundreds of innocent children followed. That's the pied piper - no relation to the macaron piper I assure you. This week I actually got to pipe the creamy ganaches onto the macaron halves. And yes, there's an art to piping exactly right.

Now I'm not a bad piper - heck I'm a Wilton-certified cake decorator for goodness sake - but I have a lot to learn. When I thought I was piping just the right amount onto the macaron halves, the macaron chef came along and told me my work looked like merde. Hmmmm... Guess I don't know as much as I thought. But through a bit of practice, I eventually got the right amount and the chef was happy.

Just two more weeks remain in my internship. I'll be spending both of them with the ultra-serious morning team. They are responsible for making all the cake bases, creams, jellies, mousses, and other various items that go into the final product. Although this is my least favorite job - I prefer decoration - I will get to see and learn a lot.

Ah, only two more weeks of waking up at 5 AM. Now that I'm looking forward to!!

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