We disappeared for a bit for various reasons but are back with a lot to tell you!
Before I give the details about my final exam for Le Cordon
Bleu, which we took on July 23rd, I wanted to share a few of the little things that happen during our weeks
that I don’t mention earlier. I have a few photos of random times in Paris that
I thought may be fun. :-)
This little gem was taken after my worst practical. Everything went wrong and I got dirtier than ever! Hellooo chocolate and coffee stains! (Also, here's a glimpse into our locker room!)
Jacob and I nabbed a picture of the two of us in a practical room together! This was taken in 2GS (second floor "Grande Salle" or "Big Room") a room that is for cuisine and pastry, so we both spent some time here!
Perhaps some of you have heard of Ponts des Arts? It's a bridge in Paris that is covered in locks. To show eternal love many visitors attach locks to the bridge with the name of a lover and toss the key into the Seine. Since before leaving for Paris Jacob and I knew we were going to attach the locks we brought for our school lockers to the bridge the day after we were done with or final. I wrote "LCB" on the back of mine. An eternal love affair with Le Cordon Bleu.
After a night class one I decided to take a picture of what we got to experience a night. This was taken at 10pm on my way home from class. Isn't it gorgeous? We couldn't believe it took until 10:45 or so for it to finally get dark.
Aren't they cute together?? We tried to give them the best of views. :)
Well this has been quite the week-and-a-half! It contained ups and
downs like no other, and had by far the most amount of class. Overall, I’m glad
to be done with it. It’s tough when chefs ask you to restart a recipe or when
you get flustered and drop a pot of boiling water or when chefs fight right in
front of you. Each is a stress inducing item and I now have a (hopefully) temporary eye
twitch (it’s très embarrassant).
The food on the other hand…oh, the food was quite wonderful.
Cakes almost every day, and kilos and kilos of butter. This week the intensive
basic pastry students made Moka, Orange and Chocolate Tartelettes, Pear and
Almond Crust Tarts, (chocolate) Croissants (finally!), Brioches, Pear
Charlotte, and Mogador. There was obviously a ton of whisking done, and my right arm is now quite larger than my left (Lady in the Water, anyone?), not to mention the fact that in one class we were whipping cream and the air was so hot all of ours curdled. Our groans quickly made the way for laughter.
Jacob and I are almost done with classes. These next two
weeks feature our final written exam and our final practical exam. Do I feel
like I’ve studied enough for either? Absolutely not. I took the written exam
earlier today and…all I have to say is they could have told us that they wanted
our ingredient lists memorized by today and not just by the practical test! But
overall it went pretty well. The written test quizzes us on culinary terms, ingredient lists, and basic techniques. It is 10% of our final grade. That, however, pales in comparison to next week's practical exam...45% of our grade!
So here’s
to a ton of studying and brushing up on my recipes. Cheers!
~Sarah
Moka (Mocha)
Orange and Chocolate Tartelettes
Caramelized pear and crisp almond crust tart (it's really called all that...)
For all of you sick and twisted folks who came here hoping that I accidentally cut myself again and wanted to see the bloody mess, unfortunately today is not your day. As promised during an earlier post, I wanted to take you on a quick tour of the famous Le Cordon Bleu knife set and show you some of my favorite and least favorite tools!
Our Knife Case
For our first knife, we have the undisputed most important knife in the kitchen called a "chef's knife", but most people probably know it as a regular knife.
Chef's Knife
This knife has a variety of different purposes and can be used on vegetables and meat in a variety of ways, making it the most useful and versatile knife in the kitchen.
Next, we have my most favorite knife to use...that would have to be the cleaver. When using the cleaver not only do you get to take your aggression out by chopping up some bones, but you get to look awesome while doing it.
6" Cleaver
Now, this is probably my favorite tool in the whole kit, mainly because it fixes a major problem I've had in the kitchen. Let's see if you can guess what it is before reading the next paragraph?
Any Ideas?
This is actually a zester and I like it so much better than a regular microplane zester that I'm used to using because it's so much easier to use and clean, and it has other purposes like making strips of zest or grating fresh nutmeg.
Finally, we are out the one knife in the kit that I can say I do not enjoy using and that is our "Tournee" knife or peeling knife, in other words it's the knife that we use to turn vegetables. (For more info on turned vegetables see Vegetables, Rabbits, and Crabs, Oh My!)
Peeling Knife
I could be biased because using this knife means we're turning vegetables and I don't particularly like turning vegetables, but this knife is really not that easy to use. Some chefs from the school won't even use it because "they simply don't know how" and will use their paring knife for turning vegetables. Believe it or not, the blade is actually on the inside of the curve and I'm not really sure how that helps anyone do anything at all.
Now, moving on to the cooking aspect of the school, we finally had our demonstration for what I would call Julia Child's most famous dish, boeuf bourguignon. For those of you who don't know what boeuf bourguignon is, it's beef shoulder marinated in wine and other vegetables for around 24 hours and then cooked until tender and succulent. Unfortunately for me, I started by slightly over-searing my meat, making it a bit tougher than desired and unfortunately for me again, the chef in our practical told us to take our beef out of the oven around 50 minutes earlier than we were told to do so in demonstration!!! This resulted in getting an end product that was dry and not very succulent at all but the chef understood that we simply didn't have enough time to finish the recipe properly. However, Sarah and I had the boeuf bourguignon for dinner and Sarah seemed to enjoy it (even though I think she was just being nice).
Well, now I'm off to study for our exams (more info to come) and go to bed before my 12 hour day tomorrow (our final full day!).
The real question of today was whether or not Dacquoises (or
any other whipped-egg-white-based products) are really worth what a pain they
truly are, in every way. Dacquoises are essentially cakes with a French
buttercream filling. The cakes are mostly egg whites, whipped into hard peaks,
and the buttercream is mostly egg yolks and butter, whipped until thick and
creamy.
How do you know when you’re done? When your shoulder falls
off. Le Cordon Bleu isn’t necessarily stuck in the past, but they certainly ask
us to understand how food really works, so no stand mixers for us! We’re
whipping everything by hand…and by shoulder, forearm, wrist and fingers. I swear I'm in need of a chiropractor to fix whatever I broke earlier today in practical.
However, that sort of work and pain causes me to smile and
giggle and bond better with my classmates. I’m okay looking weak because, hey,
I don’t have strong shoulder muscles, especially in the shoulder I broke a few
years ago, and it’s rather funny to look around at all of our strained, pained
faces with nothing to comfort us but the fact that the sound of our whisks
hitting the bowls is loud enough to cover up our moans.
So, was Dacquoise really worth it today? I’m still not sure.
Maybe you can decide.
~Sarah
Dacquoise with a praline French buttercream and an almond paste rose
I don't know where I got this pose from, but I guess I'll stick with it!
(Must be the back pain, causing me to hunch permanently)
By that mean we’ve become acclimated to just about
everything! To the city, to(o) much of French culture, and, most importantly
for us, to our classes.
This week has been so incredibly trying, but so incredibly
rewarding, for me. Essentially, what Jacob went through last week I went
through this week: most days were nine hour days AND I was the assistant. So
there was a lot going on and I was the main one being yelled at when something
went wrong. (Although, admittedly, I DID only bring up half the lemons we
needed, so running back down to the sous sol was necessary and I at least
partially deserved the yelling).
What I learned from today is that Jacob and my classes,
cuisine and pâtisserie respectively, work entirely differently. I got out of my
practical a bit early and stood outside Jacob’s practical, just listening. It
seemed so much more individual in his class, whereas in my practicals we do a
lot for each other. We have a team atmosphere most of the time when we’re in
the kitchen, and Jacob says sometimes it feels that way, and other times it
doesn’t. I’d say I want to experience a cuisine practical, but ours seems much
calmer. ;-)
We’ve done a ton this week, though a lot of it consisted of
applications of techniques from last week: more sweet tart crusts and choux
pastry, and finally a lot of recognizable pastries! Perhaps you wouldn’t know
each by their French titles, but consider Gateau Basque, palmiers, chausson aux
pomme, eclairs, and chouquettes.
I sadly wasn’t able to get great photos of each of my
creations from practicals, but here are a few for the time being, as well as a
picture of our kitchen! My partner and I set up fast and we had downtime, so I
managed to snag a picture of what the kitchen looks like all set up, right
before everyone enters and begins cooking.
Cake aux fruits (Pound cake with candied fruit) and Madeleines
Palmiers (Palms)
All the above as well as Chaussons aux pommes (Apple turnovers)
Éclairs!
Chouquettes
The kitchen right after prep and before students enter.
That's Chef Pascal in the back, cooking up some macarons before class begins.
First of all I need to sincerely apologize (which I hate doing because it means that I haven't been doing my job) for not posting in over a week...but I've been completely booked with class and sleeping, really the only two things I do. This week looks a lot better schedule wise, so I should be updating more regularly, but first I have to fill you in on all of the lovely things that I haven't written about yet.
Sitting here, looking back at the list of recipes that we've completed so far, I have absolutely so much that I want to tell you!!! We've done everything from different preparations of puff pasty (100% made from scratch) to forcemeat stuffings to Quiche Lorraine. However, there are a few recipes that jump off the page as being extra-exciting (and extra-intense).
The first would have to be the crab bisque that we made in class. The reason that this recipe was so intense was because it used live crabs!!! Normally I wouldn't have a problem dealing with live crabs (velvet swimming crabs for those of you interested), but our chef decided it was a good idea to fill up these tiny tiny bowls to the brim with our portions of crab. So when I went to wash the crabs, they were all escaping into the sink. I scooped them up and turned around, and the next thing I knew they were crawling out of the bowl onto the floor!!! Luckily only two crabs escaped, but I wasn't able to pick them up immediately because I had to get a bigger bowl to stop the rest from jumping ship also. However, when I went back to scoop up the two other, they were missing! I'm not sure if the chef picked them up, because he was standing right there, or if they're still at large hiding underneath an oven or refrigerator.
Next, we had to sear the crabs in steaming hot oil (which killed them), without even boiling them first, and then crush them with a rolling pin to release the meat and juices. I have to say that it did seem pretty inhumane, but it also did make one good crab bisque.
Also, on a quick side note (for those of you interested in the workings of Le Cordon Bleu), I was one of the assistants for my practical group last week, which basically means that me and a partner had to run down to the basement kitchen, use the dumbwaiter to bring up all the ingredients, sort all of the ingredients and make sure we have enough of everything, and set up the room by putting out pans, cutting boards, etc. It also means that we were getting yelled out by the chef during the entire practical to do extra tasks like cutting portions of meat or running down to the basement during a practical to get extra ingredients (which is especially annoying if you have something in the oven or on the burner that might not turn out right depending on those extra one or two minutes). It also means that you're constantly asked by your kitchen companions where ingredients are...whether or not they're sitting out right on the table in front of the person (some people get so caught up in cooking, they forget to look around before asking) However, I was glad that I did it first and got it out of the way and now I can focus on cooking as the recipes get more difficult.
The next technique that we've been learning is a little thing called "turning" vegetables and although the chefs make it look simple in the demonstrations, it might be one of the most difficult things I've ever done before. The whole idea for turning vegetables is to make them more aesthetically pleasing and my mind is more in the "Let's just make this taste good"category instead of "Let's make this mushroom look really nice" category. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my turned vegetables (which would've got you laughing compared to the actual ones) but I did get pictures of the chefs!
Turned Carrot (Basically a handmade baby carrot)
Turned Mushrooms (We had to recreate the lower one)
Finally, and most importantly, (a little treat for making it this far) we had our infamous rabbit demonstration and practical today! Yes, it was my first time ever tasting rabbit and for those of you who haven't, it's basically a gamey type chicken. Not only do they have us cook the rabbit, but they have us debone...the entire thing (except the stomach). Basically, they give us a half gutted rabbit with the head on, which we have to later cleave off. I didn't take any pictures, so I'm going to steal some from another blog, but I'll post all the gory ones below, so for those of you who are squeamish, do NOT scroll down past the picture of the cute little bunny! I also didn't get a picture of my final plated rabbit dish (I'm always in such a rush to get the plates to the chef so everything stays warm!), but I got one of the chefs, and another of my dinner tonight, so I'll put both of those up also!
Chef's final rabbit dish
My dinner tonight (I swear it was much better than it looks)
Finally, now I get to eat Sarah's absolutely delicious desserts which makes me giddy with joy!!! This is why I'm going to gain sooooo much weight in Paris! Also, as a little added bonus for reading eight paragraphs of my rantings, I might just be willing to make you something...just hit me up. Plus, there will be much much more to come!!!
You've been warned
And finally a video of a former student fully deboning a rabbit:
P.S. First of all, this is what I did today. Second of all, I haven't watched the whole thing so I'm not sure if it's completely correct.
I realize that isn’t the right expression, but here,
it’s true. After messing up a few times and beating myself down I came up with
a mantra: this doesn’t mean anything. This whole course that I’m doing is meant
to be fun and enlightening and exciting, not a tool to aid in my self-worth’s
demise. So before my nine hour day yesterday I told myself all of that, and the
result below is something I wouldn't have posted otherwise.
I’m finally, FINALLY, proud enough of some piece of work I
have done that I’m willing to post a picture of it. The caramel is overcooked,
and the piping on the sides is a total mess, but I was smiling almost the whole
time in the kitchen yesterday (aside from the times where I was running around
screaming “Chaud devant!” so everyone would get out of my way).
Why was I smiling? Because I love baking and I have always
loved baking, regardless of mess-ups. For once I’m looking to get into my head
and stay there because when it’s you and a giant super-cold marble table and
some flour, everything is so perfect.
Saint-Honoré (Sweet pastry crust, choux pastry, chantilly
cream, and caramel)
And a bit of a sneak-peak into our kitchen. You can’t
quite imagine it, I doubt…but it’s amazing. Especially when our practical is in
P3, the kitchen reserved for patisserie.
