Boom, badoom, boom, He got that super bass!

See I need you in my life for me to stay

(Nicki Minaj- Super Bass)

Intermediate Lesson 19- Côte d'Azur (French Riviera)

I arrived at Le Cordon Bleu's building on Rue Léon Delhomme at 11:30am, guilty for having skipped morning practical and leaving Gulnazi to do all the assistant duties. I then found out that only 6 out of 10 people from my group showed up to class, and Gulnazi wasn't one of them. Yep, neither of the assistants today came, and Chef Poupard had to move all the materials to the second floor classroom himself. When my partner-in-crime Gulnazi strolled into the building at 12:00pm, she apologized embarassingly for skipping morning class.

"Gulnazi, I didn't go to class either" I laughed.

"Wait, so who moved all the materials to the classroom?" She asked astonishingly.

"Chef Poupard."

"Oh, shi.........."

"Yep."

Chef Poupard, who also led our demo class at 12:30pm, didn't look too bothered when I apologized today for not being there. He just threatened to fail me so I would have to repeat intermediate in January. Hahah..... oh wait was that not a joke? I couldn't tell. Ummm... Please don't.

For this class, we drove our imaginary convertible Renault Dinalpin along the Mediterranean coast to the Côte d'Azur (French Riviera). Ahh a burst of sunshine by the beach in Cannes is exactly what I need now. We made a puff pastry galette with marinated sea bass, virgin vinaigrette with basil.

Boom.

The dish was very straightforward to make, especially since we didn't have to prepare the pâte feuilletée ourselves. We just baked the thing. We even prevented the puff pastry from rising too much by putting another baking sheet directly over the dough.

On top of the puff pastry, we put some tomato concassé mixed with really soft onions, brunoised green peppers and sliced black olives.

We filleted the sea bass, cut the ill-tempered fish into thin pieces, and then marinated it in a lemon-based sauce. The acid of the lemon cooks the sea bass without heat, and we would have to serve the fish 10-15 minutes after soaking the meat in the marinate or the fish would be overcooked.

We even had some dried tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette as decorations. All in all, this was a pretty and delicious dish.

Quote from this class:

Demo Chef Poupard: Now add a few drops of Tobasco sauce into your marinate

American Student: Wow wait, you have Tabasco sauce in France?

Chef: Oui.... of course.

Student: Where can you find it?

Chef: Anywhere..... in any supermarket.

Student: No way! Where? I've never seen it.

Chef: Typically these are placed in the condiment area, where one would expect it.

... 10 minutes of back-and-forth later...

Student: I just find it incredible that you can buy Tobasco sauce in France. It's like made on some random island off of Louisiana!

Chef: The basic students go on a farmer's market field trip, and the superior students to go the wholesale market. Perhaps we should organize a field trip for the intermediate students to go to the supermarket!

... at the end of the class...

Student: Howard, this better not be your quote of the class!

While cleaning up the practical room after class...

Fellow Assistant Gulnazi: Howard, you have to step on my foot now.

Me *washing my knives*: Huh? What?

Gulnazi: I accidentally stepped on yours, and by Russian tradition you have to step on mine!

Me: I didn't feel you stepping on me, so..... I'm not going to step on you.

Gulnazi: You must! Or else we'll fight each other!

Me: No! I'm incapable of hitting women.

Gulnazi: HOWARD! You HAVE to step on me, because we're going to be assistants together for the rest of the week.

Me: I'd rather fight and see who wins!

And so, my week of being assistant with Gulnazi began with:
1. Both of us skipping our first class 
2. Us arguing over why I should step on her foot
Five more days to go, partner....