Day 19 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

The light can be seen at the end of the tunnel with this being our last full week of school (next week we'll have only 2 days of class) . Although this is day 19 of school, we have completed 23 demonstrations and 23 kitchen practicals for a total of 138 hours of instruction. We have all come so far in such a relatively short time.

The day began with a demo covering the classic Beef Stroganoff which we would have to make in the practical, Grilled Langoustines with a salad, and Salmon and Watercress Gratin. All were delicious.

The salmon dish below was prepared by cutting escalloped pieces of the salmon and barely cooking them in a steam oven, then layering the pieces on a plate covered with cooked mushrooms, reduced watercress, slices of avocado, sliced, peeled and seeded tomatoes and then covered with a mousse line sauce. Mousseline is nothing but hollandaise with whipped (fluffed) cream. Finally the plate was broiled. The finished product is pictured below. What a nice taste!

Salmon and watercress gratin

Next the Chef made the langoustine dish which he mentioned can be made with shrimp or scallops as well.  The langoustines were marinated with what I thought were Indian style spices: Anise, cardamom, coriander seed, cumin, and ginger. They were then grilled and served on some mixed greens with a garlic infused olive oil with Thyme and lemon juice.

Grilled Langoustine with salad

Finally the Chef finished with the Stroganoff. At first I thought it was only me, but the class seemed real subdued with not the usual enthusiasm nor the usual round of questions. I'm not sure if everyone is a little ready for the end or if they were recovering from their weekends. I think I am feeling the cumulative effect of the program. We have our only written exam coming up on Thursday along with a very busy week. I need to study.

Beef Stroganoff et Riz Au legumes

We had about an hour break before the practical. Once again, there was this quietness about as I watched  everyone just doing their own thing in the winter Garden. Here are a couple of pictures. Here are Sara and Allis taking a breather. Also below is Alan.

Alan reviewing his game plan for the Stroganoff practical

Of the 3 practical groups, my group had the good fortune to have Saturday off while the other 2 groups came in and completed their roasted duck dish. Well, it was time for my group to pay for it. So while the other 2 groups went in to cook their beef Stroganoff and finish at 3 p.m., we had to cook the roasted duck, and then cook the Stroganoff for a double session.

The roasted duck went fairly well. We all seemed to have a little trouble with the trussing because the duck just didn't seem to truss like the chicken for some reason! Other than that I think it went well for everyone. The desired doneness for the duck is rare. Mine was bloody and the Chef said tres bien! I thought for sure he would have told me to cook it some more. I wasn't terribly happy with my sauce being too runny either but he thought it was fine. Here is my plate:

My roasted duck with glazed turnips

After I finished I went into the other group's kitchen to check on their Stroganoff to see if I could get any pointers and I got a picture of Pablo (from Chile).

Pablo pointing out the intricacies of his sauce toChef Lesourd in French, English, and Spanish

It was on to the final practical. The Chef allowed us to start early so we could get out early. As we were all trimming our tenderloin pieces, Kelsey cut one of her fingers with the boning knife. The boning knife is the 2nd most dangerous knife in our kit after the serrated bread knife. She hit a nice vein which resulted in a lot of blood. She immediately ran to the reception desk where they whipped out the First Aid kit and put her back together. Julia jumped to her rescue and finished trimming her meat for her.

The Beef Stroganoff was not too bad. I really enjoyed the sauce. It was made with the browned tenderloin trimmings, onions, and tomato/tomato paste, deglazed with white wine and reduced with veal stock. Just before serving, it was strained and cream was added to thicken. We all finished early and left by 4:30.

4th Weekend Off

Saturday

With my days numbered in Paris, I decided to explore a little on a rainy Saturday. I took the #3 Metro to the "sentier" station with 4 cookware stores as my destination. I was elated to see the scene on the right as I emerged from the Metro stairs. The rain had given way to a crisp blue day. Parfait!

The cookware stores allow LCB students a 10% discount with the school ID, so I was armed and ready to buy. 3 of these stores are on Rue Montmartre. My first stop was a no frills but as it turned out, one of my favorite stores called A. Simon . The store was basic, not very big, but had some very nice cookware mostly aimed at baking. I roamed around a bit and finally left empty handed waiting to see all the stores before buying anything.

Mostly Bakeware, no frills but nicely supplied

Next I went to the famous and very touristy La Bovida. I ran into 2 very rude American couples here and cringed at their behavior. If my French was better I would have apologized to the employees. The store is very nice filled with upscale products showcased like a William-Sonoma.

The 3rd on Rue Montmartre was anther touristy store called Mora. Once again nice, lots of glitz and glamour. There was one other store on the same street that I visited but I forget the name. All of these stores were fun to see, but I saved the best for last.





Once again, this relates to Julia Child. Her favorite cookware store when she lived here wasthe venerable E. Dehillerin (E.Dehillerin :COOKWARE - STOCK POT & COOKER - SAUCEPAN - KNIVES - DEHILLERIN) which has been operating since the 1820's. She was a sucker for copper ware and this is where she fed her fetish for anything copper. Often described as "the greatest cookware store in the world", this store is unique in many respects. It displays its goods in a no frills warehouse style fashion with things hanging and piled everywhere in disarray. There are no price tags and the only way to shop is to use their salesmen who walk around with you as you point out the items that you want. If one is interested in cookware, this is a must see when in Paris.

At the end of the day I left empty handed because with the Dollar/Euro exchange rate I can do much better back home, and the thought of lugging more stuff home is unpleasant. Frankly, I wanted everything and couldn't really choose one small item over another to buy. Hopefully I won't regret it.

After leaving E. Dehillerin, I ran in to a global warming demonstration. I hung around for a while, listened to some French protesting ,and took in some evocative tambourine music. Having gotten my fix, I headed back home.

Saturday Night

I decided on a quiet night at home with my leftover steak fillets when I received a text from Alan to meet up in St Germain for some oysters and beer with Will, Jennifer, and Kelsey. So, I headed out on a drizzly night. Walking across Pont Neuf to get to Alan's place, I paused to take in the scene below of the Seine and the Eiffel in the background. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am actually living in Paris.

View Standing on Pont Neuf

It's oyster season here and Parisans's love and celebrate their oysters in a grand style. Wewalked to a restaurant near Alan's place where we had awful service, but the food was decent. Here is Alan with the fashion queens after dinner en route to an ice cream shop.

Afterward it was off to Jorge and Eduardo's place to their party for one drink. The guys have a cool pad on the top floor of a high rise along the Seine right next to the mini statue of liberty. Both of the guys will continue on after Basic Cuisine for the entire diploma program, so I think many more parties will follow at this apartment.

Carnage of oysters, prawns, sea urchins,

crabs, and a few other creatures

The Kids

The view from the apartment of Pont Grenelle

and the mini Statue of Liberty

Jennifer and her roommate Nancy

Eduardo and Yolanda

I stuck to my one drink program despite lots of pressure to get "the old guy" to do tequila shots! Been there, done that...not a pretty sight! The party decided to relocate to a bar at which time I chose to part ways with the group. I was running out of steam and could not keep up with the "kids". It was another great weekend.

Day 18 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

I am exhausted and so thankful for the arrival of the weekend. Today was our longest day to date with 4 sessions. We had a demo, 2 practical sessions back-to-back, and another demo! I am wiped out. We finished the day with 22 lessons completed, leaving only 8 demos and practicals. As tired as I feel, I have to savor this time because it will all be over very soon. As most things in life, we tend not to appreciate the moment until it's gone.


The first demo, presented by Chef Poupard, ranked as one of my favorites for its content. We had a guest translator today (who is normally the reception manager) since the school is woefully short on translators! I am amazed that the school operates on such a shoe string despite its world renowned status. I have to say that she did a fantastic job for not being a professional translator!

Chef Poupard announced that he will be away on an assignment until our graduation and this would be his last day working with my class. That's too bad, because his even temperament and patient teaching approach ranks him as one of my favorite Chefs.

The demo covered a Saffroned mussel soup, Sautéed veal with "grand-mere" vegetables, and a Strawberries Italian style with pistachio biscuits. Once again the dessert really won me over (maybe I should have done the pastry course!). The pastry was creatively made using a sweet pastry dough infused with crushed pistachios giving it a light green color. The dough was then rolled out and cut with cookie cutters of various shapes then baked. A filling was made with mascarpone, cream and vanilla extract. Finally it was all put together with fresh strawberries. The construction of the plate below looks involved but was actually rather simple.

Strawberries Italian style with pistachio biscuits

portions for the hungry students

lightly Saffroned mussel soup

After the demo we faced a seemingly herculean task of back-to-back practicals. The first practical was the Grilled tournedos with Hollandaise and pont neuf potatoes. For a simple dish, it seemed like a lot of work. The chef set up a deep fryer and 2 griddles for all of us to use forcing us to pace our flow based on availability of the 2 stations. The ventilation was inadequate and the room quickly filled with the smell of steak frying. It was a collision of the senses Between the smell of steak and the clickity-clack of all the whisks whipping the Hollandaise sauce. The chaotic session finally came to an end. The fillets were actually quite bland despite the salt and pepper. We all desperately miss the "heat" of spicy dishes. Julia is always hunting down the Tabasco to give her food an extra oomph ...after the Chef's inspection of her plate of course. Today was no different. Here are Kelsey, Flavia, and Julia proudly displaying their secret ingredient.

We had a break. Then it was back to the kitchen. The 2nd practical was a recreation of the morning's Veal chop demo. Once again, a simple dish, but lots of tasks occurring simultaneously made this a challenging session.

tasks:

Trim and tie up veal chop
chop up veal trimmings
Brown veal chops and trimmings
prepare pearl onions and glaze
prepare potatoes (turned), blanch, then brown
cut, blanch, and saute salt slab bacon
prep button mushrooms and cook
use meat pan of dried parts, deglaze and make jus
strain jus and reduce with butter
reheat everything and present

Lots going on in another chaotic session. Actually the time passed by quickly because we were so engrossed with the task at hand.  Eduardo and Flavia who were this week's assistants, really rose to the occasion on their final day and delivered the goods. Below is my plate.

It went down hill after that. I think we were all fried and ready to end the day. The thought of any more instruction just seemed impossible to absorb. Deep in the doldrums, there were two successive moments of rapture that uplifted our spirits. First Greg walked in with a cake that he received from one of the dishwashers. Like a bunch of crackheads in need of a fix, we dove in for the desperately  needed sugar high. Here we are celebrating the moment.
Not feeling quite satisfied, Alan ran out to the corner market and bought beers for everyone and we had an impromptu sidewalk party. It was short lived but it served its purpose. We were now ready to face the final demo. Thanks Greg and Alan.

Carbo loading

The final demo is just a blur. I remember odds and ends, my notes look like gibberish, but luckily I had the presence of mind to capture a great picture of Bernie shucking an oyster.


Have a nice weekend everyone!

Bernie...carefully shucking an oyster
under the watchful eye of Chef Lesourd

Day 17 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

Another session of cooking meat at 0830. Today's vicitim: Blanquette de Veau et Riz Pilaf.

Tasks:

-prep meat
-blanche meat
-prep aromatics for stock
-add aromatics to meat to make veal stock
-prep and glaze pearl onions
-prep button mushrooms and cook
-make roux for sauce
-get the rice going (oven cooked)
-scoop out some stock and use to make a sauce
-make a liaison with cream and eggs
-complete sauce
-decant meat
-reheat everything to plate!


Somewhere in the thick of my frenzy I looked across into the other kitchen and saw the "big Guy" Alan all plated and smiley faced! What's this? Have we been upstaged? My Group B has been the champion group always finishing first! Uhmmmm, I am not going to point any fingers here, but group B's ingredient delivery service is lagging a bit. It's all good, because we all still finished an almost an hour early.

Aesthetically, the dish itself appears dull and uninspiring, but it has a nice taste and the sauce was flavorful and had a nice mouth feel texture to it.

Below is Yolanda receiving some critique form Le Chef. I wanted to show Yolanda's plate because I liked her creative carrot garnish slices bordering her rice. Next to Yolanda is Yuka saucing her plate. Yuka always works quietly but she consistently cranks out a nice plate.

Yolanda (Yuka to the left)

Next we had a nice demo covering a "Flemish Leek Pie", "Grilled Tournedos, bernaise sauce, and potatoes pont neuf". I look over and was happy to see Manuel (pictured on right) who I had not seen for 3 days. I had thought that maybe he had left the course, but he told me that he had to "run" back to Costa Rica for an important conference. He is obviously an

important hombre! Welcome back.This was a busy demo. The leek pie has "Marroilles" cheese (from northern France) as an ingredient. This cheese, as the translator Ben put it, "smells like the stuff you would find between your toes after running a marathon"! I have never smelled anyone's feet after a marathon ,so I didn't know the smell until a sample that was being passed around got within 2 rows of me. I realize that it's in good taste to refer to food smells as "aroma", but this was no aroma. It was an odor, a VERY FOUL odor! I promise to NEVER subject anyone to this smell in my house. However, the dish itself was something I might cook with different fillings. Its exterior crust had the appearance of a shepherd's pie. The cross hatch marks on the crust were a nice touch adding a rustic elegance to its presentation. They were simply created by running the fork across the dough top in one direction and then repeating at a 90 degree angle.

Flemish Leek pie

Next the Chef prepared beef fillets where he taught us the 3 levels of done-ness French style. They are, in order of rarest to more done, bleu, saignant, and Á Point. When sliced, all 3 had red in them but to different degrees. I LIKE! By the way, the 3 levels do not equate to the American rare, medium and well. I would say that Á point may be the equivalent of "medium". If one orders a steak in France any more done than Á point, he is not only considered a culinary amateur, but he is considered downright disrespectful to the chef, French cuisine, Escoffier, and probably even Napoleon himself. OK, along with the fillets was a Hollandaise sauce served in a turned artichoke bowl. Leave it to the French to shroud something ordinary with an elaborate name to elevate its importance. Potatoes "pont neuf" are really fat french fries! Next time I am in Burger King I'll ask for a whopper with some pont neuf potatoes and watch the teenager's face twitch. (Actually, I don't eat at BK lounge)

Tourenados and potato Pont Neuf (Jenga style)

Finally, and the best part of the demo was the "parfait glaçé au café, sauce caramel au cognac". WOW WOW WOW. This was the best dessert I have seen in a demo thus far! It's quite simple to make, but it has a nice "WOW" factor and tastes incredible. I'll make this one again at home!

Picture taking frenzy after every demo

Day 16 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

I caught quite a bit of grief for not going to the class dinner last night. In some ways I regret not going. I hear that the food itself was nothing to call home about, but as always these experiences are more about the people. I missed out on more bonding with my classmates and missed out on meeting the basic Pastry students who were also present.

Classes began at 12:30 today to allow for recovery from the dinner for the night owls. We had 2 tasks to accomplish in this practical:

1. Make the beignets de gambas (batter fried shrimp)
2. Soufflé au fromage (Cheese Soufflé)

My plate (Beignet de gambas)

It was an easy session with the entire group finishing almost an hour early. The shrimp required shelling and deveining. We had to make the batter. Also we made a tartare sauce. We have to make almost everything we need (almost). For example, mayonnaise is required to make tartare, so we had to make the mayonnaise in order to make the tartare. Finally, we had to deep fry the battered shrimp. Simple.

Eduardo plating his dish with the

concentration of a skilled 

surgeon

Flavia working the deep fryer

The Soufflé came from waaaaay back on our 3rd lesson. It seems waaaay back, but in normal human time, it was only 2 weeks ago. It consisted of a béchamel sauce with egg yolks, Gruyere cheese, and some heavily whisked egg whites baked in a buttered and floured ramekin. Here is my Soufflé.

After our break we had a demo covering 3 dishes. I'll only feature one of them because it's something I'll make again. It was Salmon marinated with dill. The name is misleading because the Salmon marinade is made up of many more ingredients besides dill (Dill is the major herb component) and the Salmon is served raw. The citrus juices in the marinade (lemon and lime) "cook" the salmon ceviche style. The salmon is served in thinly sliced pieces. I can think of many variations of dish that I want to try. The taste and flavors of this dish are right up my alley.  Here is a picture of it:

Joined some of the guys for a beer after class and came home on a classically drizzly Parisian night.

Day 15 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

An important message for one of our translators: Deborah, if you're still keeping up with my blog in between having fun in Georgia, We all MISS you. Also, my friend Chris knows Curley and says that he met you at a Christmas gift exchange a few years ago! Will you be back for our graduation? Reply in the comment below.
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Beef Bourguignon is the name of today's game. This is probably Julia Child's most

famous recipe in the United States. In the movie "Julie and Julia" Julie made this dish for the Food Editor of the NY Times (I believe), she burned it and had to remake it. Julia Child always made a big fuss of individually drying each piece of meat with a paper towel so that the meat would brown better as was portrayed in the movie. Well, there was no mention of this technique by the demo Chef yesterday, but today's Chef made a point to tell us. Also some good trivia is that the word Bourguinon (which means Burgundy) is given to this dish because it was a regional dish from Burgundy. Thus Burgundy wine was used to make it and the meat used was from Burgundy cows.


Lots to do in this demo, so we got right down to business. Drain meat from yesterday's marinade, boil wine and skim, brown meat, heat vegetables along with added bacon salt slab skin, heat veal stock and skim, add some tomato paste and flour to meat, combine all the above and shove into oven. PHEW!  Ok, with that done it was time to concentrate on the garnish vegetables which are glazed pearl onions, sauteed mushrooms, bacon slab, croutons, and the dreaded turned boiled potatoes. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that pans were flying. We all got through it. It actually was not bad once the meat and juice were in the oven because we had to wait around 2 hours for it to cook which left plenty of time to prepare the garnish vegetables and croutons. Above is my plate. Today's experience had no resemblance to when I had leisurely made this dish at home with music in the background while sipping a glass of the leftover wine.

Next was a demo covering "Deep fried jumbo shrimp with Tartare sauce", "Veal Marengo with Fondant Potatoes", and a "seasonal fruit flan". Great demo. Too much to type, so I'll let the Chef's creations speak for themselves.

Tonight is the class dinner which I chose to skip because I am too tired. Feeling a little guilty because it's held at a nice restaurant and the cost is covered with my tuition.
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Allis sent out some pictures from the class dinner that I thought I would post. Looks like it was a good time.