Day 22 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

Exam day! But we had to sit through a demo and perform a practical before the exam. There was a little bit of apprehension since we really did not know what to expect with this test.

The demo covered 3 dishes. I decided that I would only focus on the Sea Bream with Fennel since we would have to cook it later in the practical session and I wanted to keep my head uncluttered.

A beautiful Bream

After lunch we all just wanted to get the practical over with so we could focus on the exam.

It's really too bad because this was one of the dishes that we all seemed to enjoy the most, but we all rushed through it. Here is Flavia saying goodbye to her Bream before she hacked it to pieces. The dish required us to fillet the fish and then use the carcass to make a fish stock (fumet). In the meantime, we julienned a fennel bulb and cooked it "étuver". The fish stock was then used to make a sauce with the addition of cream, butter, anise, and chopped chives. Tomatoes were cooked as a garnish. Here is my finished dish.

My Sea Bream with Fennel

Following the practical, we all gathered in the winter garden awaiting the exam. Finally the time came to file into class and take the exam. It's really silly how worked up some of us got over this test considering the big picture. The exam itself was more substantial in content than I had anticipated. I felt good about portions of it and really BAD about other parts. Oh well.

Afterward you would have thought we had finished some colossal feat because the PARTY mood was in the air and smiley faces were all around. It was about 4p.m. and a group of us headed out to a local cafe for happy hour. My college buddy Chris was in town again and came out to join us. It was a great time to socialize with the classmates as this experience  is rapidly approaching its end (for me anyway).

Happy Hour at local cafe. I think I'm saying to Allis"If they had only not put the damn Marseilles soup recipe on the exam....."

After happy hour, oblivious to all cars and pedestrians, we herded to a nearby Korean restaurant for dinner. This was the same Korean place some of us had been to our first week of school. That seemed so long ago, and look at us now! Steve, Julia's husband, joined us there. Once again, a festive time to drink, eat wonderful food, and soak up each other's company.

Again the caravan was on the move. This time, 2 metro rides to Ile De St Louis for Flavia's party. This is where we would join in with the hardcore Latin party group! Oyyy...dios mio!!!!

Yuka, Julia, Jennifer, and Kelsey getting sentimental

as the end draws near

Me with Kelsey. (Will in the background wishing for a hug)

My "little sister" Kelsey and Jennifer were calling me Papa all night thinking the they might have a new source of money if I adopted them as my daughters.

3 Naval Academy guys: Chris, me, and Will

Flavia's party was already in gear when we arrived. I would say at least half of the class were now at the party. What fun.

Even Bernie (at 50, one of the senior member of our class) was getting down
"Uno mas grande cerveza por favor?"

Chris inducted as an honorary Basic Cuisine Student

The inseparable Asians Y.K.J. (I'm not Asian)

The Brazilian hostess extraordinaire Flavia

(Pic taken by Alan Paparazzi style)

Well, it was a fun night. This fairly arduous week is almost over. We all badly needed an outlet to blow off some steam and this night was perfect for that. We have 3 demonstrations, and 3 practicals left (the last practical being our Final exam). I am envious of those who will remain behind for the remainder of the diploma program, not only for the education, but I know some lifelong friendships will be forged.

Day 21 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

We're really loaded down this week. The first three days are all triple session days. That's 9 hours of instruction, plus the breaks in between and commute time making each day about 12 hours. This doesn't leave much time or energy to study for the exam on Thursday. Today we had a practical/demo/practical. I have to make this entry short so I can study. Not much time to study, but hey, my blog is up to date! 
What to eat? I just ate dinner to energize for the night by pulling out all the leftovers from my practicals (that are still good) salmon, pork, veal, chicken, steak, rice, vegetables, some kind of sauce I don't remember, and potatoes.

I decided to eat some of everything, so I created a new dish called the "fruit de mon travailler melange".

Today we ran right in to the kitchen to prepare the Chicken Tarragon dish. The school is short on Chefs since one Chef has been honorably selected to cook at the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Sweden, and another is on special assignment in Ge

neva. So, today we had a female guest Chef who is Sous Chef at a Parisian restaurant. She was actually very nice, professional, and helpful. I worried that an outsider may critique us unfairly since they may do things a little differently than the way we are taught in the demos. She was DEAD ON with everything. She was a pleasure.

Tasks:

-prep zucchini, red bell, eggplant, onion, and tomatoes for the Italian Vegetable mix
-drizzle with olive oil and season
-get them in the oven
-prep aromatic vegetables
-prep chicken by cleaning, and cutting into 8 portions
-lightly brown chicken parts, and remove
-degrease pan, sweat shallots. add tomatoes, deglaze
-add veal stock
-add chicken back to pan and cook
-finish vegetables by molding them
-decant chicken, and add tarragon to sauce and reduce
-plate

Here is my plate above. It went well. It was a straightforward dish. The vegetables are simple to make and have an extraordinary flavor.

Lunch break found most everyone quietly

studying for tomorrow's exam

Next we had a demo featuring French style scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, fish terrine with beurre blanc, and vanilla bavarian cream with coffee sauce. We had to make the fish terrine in the ensuing practical.

The greatest translator in the world is back! Well, OK, that may have been an exaggerated salutation. Deborah is one of the veteran translators who is well liked and she just returned from vacation. Just when she thought she had all of her kids almost out of the house, she has to train another one. We had Casha the translator trainee back in the den of wolves for her translator OJT under the supervision of Deborah.

It was not an inspirational demo learning to make scrambled eggs and some vanilla cream.

Vanilla Bavarian cream with coffee sauce

Egg with smoked Salmon

We followed this demo with a practical where we made the fish terrine with some salmon and pike. I have to study so I'll conclude with a picture of it.

Day 20 Le Cordon Bleu Paris

I am typing this entry during a 4 hour break in the action. I came home to do some laundry and hopefully study a little. As I finish  my 5th sugar coated beignet au pomme, I am beginning to get motivated to study some recipes.

We had a demo followed by a practical today, followed with a 4 hour break (now), and I'll have to go back in at 6:30 p.m. for another 3 hour demo. This morning's demo consisted of 3 dishes prepared by crazy Chef Lesourd. He has a way of jumping around from one recipe to another as he simultaneously prepared all 3. This proved a little challenging for our new translator trainee. It's not her fault. I guess there is no easy way to learn but to throw her to the wolves. I had mentioned last week that the school has a shortage of translators, so finally in French crisis management style, they have decided to hire one. Better too late than never! Poor girl, she stuck in there with a smile the entire time.

The 1st dish was "Trout Flan with Port Wine Sauce". The trout fillets are placed in a Cuisinart along with eggs and salt then blended. It's then worked through a drum sieve, followed by whisking in some milk and cream and chilled. Later it's placed in buttered ramekins and baked. Meanwhile a sauce is made with deglazed shallots, and reduced with port then reduced with veal stock. Additionally, mushrooms are prepared À Blonde. The final product is pictured to the right with some creative assemblage and presentation.

Next the Chef created a "Fresh Fruit Gratin with Sabayon". He made ice cream, a Sabayon, and assembled it with seasonal fruits which happened to be oranges, kiwi and grapefruit. The layered mix was assembled, broiled and then topped with ice cream.

Fresh Fruit Gratin with Sabayon

Finally the Chef demonstrated the dish we would have to make in the upcoming practical which was "Pork Medallions in Charcutiere sauce, potatoes dauphine. We wrapped up the demo and adjourned for lunch.

As usual, everyone scattered at lunch. Some people head to the corner cafe, the smokers hangout outside, some people live close enough to go home, and some stay in the winter garden. I stayed at the Garden in hopes of studying a few recipes for our Thursday written exam. This exam constitutes 10% of the total grade, so proportionally, in my opinion, the amount of hoopla surrounding it does not equate. Never-the-less, I studied for it during the break.

After lunch we met for the pork medallion practical. This proved to be a relatively simple and quick session.

Tasks:
-Trim Pork rack, manchonner the bones, and cut into fillets, season with S&P
-Peel and cook potatoes in water
-dry the cooked potatoes and crank through a rice grinder
-prepare a mix of water, flour, and eggs (Choux pastry) to mix with the ground potatoes
-place this mixture in a pastry bag and drop small dollops of it in a deep fryer (almost like tater tots)
-cook meat in saute pan with oil and set aside
-sweat onions in same pan
-deglaze with white wine, add veal stock, reduce, and strain
-reduce some more and "shine" with butter
-Off heat, add mustard and julienned pickles, add chopped chervil
-Plate
Not bad. I love the flavor of the sauce. I used 1/2 the amount of the mustard they wanted in the recipe.

My pork Medallion

So, the entry brings me to now. I will not write about tonight's demo since I will be getting home late and we have an early session tomorrow. Bonsoir!

(late entries from demo)

Chicken Saute with Tarragon & Italian

style vegetables

Parisian Style Gnocchi

with Cheese

Apples with Meringue and Raspberry Juice

The late night demo was a cap to a long day with the above 3 dishes presented by Chef Bruno. I guess we tend to forget that it's also long days for the Chefs. At one point the Chef lost his composure a bit when he was peppered with lots questions while he was in the middle of lots of simultaneous tasks. But he regained his composure and the demo went on smoothly. We'll have to prepare the tarragon dish tomorrow morning.

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