Oui Chef!

Since the first day of class this session, I have rapidly returned to the days of uniforms that make me feel more like the Michelin Tire Man meets a Waffle House short order cook, and the loooong days spent running around the kitchen, only to realize that what I need is right in front of my face.   Top that off the with monotonous group chants of "Oui Chef" every time our fearless leader says something that they feel deserves a response.  Did I ever mention that before?  Yeah, every time a chef says  anything, we must respond with "Oui Chef" or else angry French chef commences --- good thing I only understand about 40% of what they are saying.  Voila!  Welcome to Intermediate.

So far, I think that Intermediate has been pretty similar to Basic, except for the obvious fact that the bar has been set much higher, therefore, it isn't as easy to play off stupid mistakes.  I'm in Intermediate now.  I should know better...ha. 

I realized today that I am entering my third week at Le Cordon Bleu and have yet to posted ANY pictures of my dishes!  I'll try to let the food do most of the talking.

We'll start off with Cuisine:      

Sooo...it took me a little while to get back into the swing of things in the kitchen.  The first dish I made, pictured below, was a Basque-style chicken with saffron rice (Basque is the name of a region in France near Spain).  All was going well until I couldn't get my stupid rice to cook properly the first time, so when the chef wasn't looking, I dumped it all out and started again.  When I think back on it, it may have been better to just roll with the rice that I had rather than start over because the shallots in the second batch were not cut properly (the chef kindly pointed that out during my critique), and it made me more stressed and frazzled to waste time starting over.  C'est la vie.  The chef also told me that I was not cooking in a hospital, therefore, I needed to add more salt to my rice and my vegetables.  I was off to a really great start. 

The second dish I made was a fillet of salmon wrapped in cabbage leaves.  All was going well until I reduced my sauce all the way down to a congealed syrupy mess, and my fish was practically raw...even though I cooked it well over the recommended time.  Fantastic.

I had an interesting epiphany just before I left for class to make the dish below (Pan-Roasted Guinea Fowl).  Up until that point, I had been going through a serious internal struggle about coming back to both Paris and Le Cordon Bleu (much  more to come on that later, I promise!).  Being the stubborn person that I am, I had been fighting everything here, rather than accepting and appreciating this opportunity for what it is.  Literally minutes before I left my apartment to go to class, I had a much needed breakdown.  It was a kind of "come to Jesus" moment, if you will.  I let it all out, and immediately felt much better about everything.  So, puffy eyes and all headed over to the school for my late class that evening.  While I was cooking, I let go, felt less stressed, and allowed it all to happen.  The result was a success!  In retrospect, I wish I would have left the skin on rather than peeling it off just before plating because it would have been more aesthetically pleasing, but I know for next time.  This guinea fowl and I went through a lot that night, and I feel as though I have it to thank for my rejuvenated appreciation for this crazy adventure.

This recipe was pretty wild...I never thought I would fillet a fish inside out, but that's pretty much what we did.  We had to gut the fish and remove all the bones, while still keeping it fully intact. 

Red mullet stuffed with a black olive tapenade

"Gaston Gerard" style chicken with a potato crepe

Stuffed sea bream fillet wrapped in lettuce leaves served with a Jerusalem artichoke puree

Roasted duck with polenta...I got a tres bien from the chef on this dish, and let me tell you, that doesn't come around very often!

Next up...Pastry!  Pastry is a completely different feel in the kitchen from cuisine.  It can definitely be challenging and stressful, but nothing like cuisine.  A guy in my class always says that pastry is our zen period of the day, while cuisine is pure  chaos.  I tend to agree with that.

Apricot streusel and almond cake

Passion fruit and raspberry tart...delicious!

The cakes below are called Jamaica, and they are chocolate sponge cakes with poached pineapple, filled with a passion fruit mousse and a coconut mousse.  My Jamaica is the one closest to the camera.

This is a white sponge cake filled with strawberries and pastry cream, and it is one of the best cakes that we've made so far.  Although Mom was here this past weekend to help me finish it, this thing hardly lasted two days.

Frasier

Raspberry macaroons filled with  vanilla pastry cream

This morning I made the macaroons above, and they were soooo good!  I won't tell you how many I have had today.  The original recipe called for Pastis which is a black licorice flavored liquor from Marseilles...barf!  Why ruin such a good thing?  I took it upon myself to leave that nastiness out.  The macaroons themselves were fairly easy to make...except for when the chef yelled at me and asked if a. I was in Basic and b. had  I ever seen an oval shaped macaroon.  I peeked at his grading sheet at the end of class, and I saw that I had done well...I guess he was just joking?  Who knows.  The French are hard to read. Oh well, I was proud of my La Tour Macaroon.  The picture below is of another chef who came into the room and showed us how to properly plate a macaroon.  They make it look so easy.

 - a tout à l’heure!