I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell.

I know, right now you can't tell...
(Matchbox Twenty- Unwell) 

Intermediate Lesson 18- Auvergne

We travel to the Auvergne region for this class, and we prepared a braised forcemeat dish wrapped by cabbage and bacon.

Pow

We've made so many forcemeat dishes already it's getting boring. What annoyed me in this class is that in the past, the chefs presented the rule of forcemeats using 20g of salt for 1 kilogram of protein, but for this dish they're saying it's 9g of salt for 1 kilogram of protein. When I asked the Chef, he said "Obviously it all depends on the dish." Then why was there a rule if its always going to depend on the dish anyways? At least this dish is wrapped in bacon. Everything is better when it's wrapped in bacon. We served the dish with some vegetables cut to pont-neuf.

Confession: I didn't go to practical class today. The picture was from the chef's demonstration class last Saturday. I've been suffering from a terrible sore throat since Saturday, and last night I woke up basically every other hour because I was drowning in my own phlegm. My throat hurts when I eat and talk. Sorry, I know it's TMI, but I feel compelled to explain myself because I am also assistant for the week with Gulnazi. I feel terrible to have bailed out on her and left her alone because today the assistant had to grind up the meat for the entire class. Really sorry about this Gulnazi. I intend on going back to school at noon today and help with the afternoon practical.

Although my throat is really killing me now, at least I don't have a fever. In intensive, you can easily miss 4 classes just by skipping one day. That would really suck since you are only allowed 6 absences.

I have to admit though: sleeping in on a Monday morning felt great.

Quotes from this class:

Student *Pointing at the forcemeat wrap that the chef made*: That's for one person?
Demo Chef Caals: Oui Madam. This is for one person.
Student: Oh my god. Can I do a smaller one?
Chef Caals: We're already using our smallest bowl as a mold
Student: I dunno, to me that size is already really..... intimidating!
The Chef ended up serving a half portion dish for her.

Grandma's cookin breakfast she makes pancakes the best.

Every day I see my dream.
 Every day I see my-every day I see my dream. 
Every day I see my dream. 
(LMFAO - YES)

Lesson 21- A typical Bistrot Menu

Our dish today is Côtes de Veau Grand-mère- Grandma Style Veal Chops.

Veal Chops

The veal chop was sautéed in a fairly simply, though it was hard to get right because you had to cook it for a long time to get the thick piece of meat cooked, but you can't leave it on the pan for too long or the skin will burn. The trick is to sauté the meat with its trimmings. Once the skin is colored you put the veal on top of its own trimmings to keep on cooking without being burnt. The trimmings also serve to flavor the sauce later.

Façon Grand-mère, Grandma style, just describes the mix of garnishes that we serve the veal with: glazed onions, sautéed bacon cubes, button mushrooms and lightly fried potatoes.

Quote of the class:
"Always taste your mussels because you don't want anyone to die from your food. If the mussel's gone bad, you will die first as the taster"

-Demo Chef Bogen, 

while teaching us how to prepare mussels (which we didn't make in practical)

If only we could just use Slapchops!

Lesson: 1, Knife skills. Veggie Soup. Bacon

Our first dish at LCB was a rustic vegetable soup. Frankly it was quite an unremarkable soup, but it was a thinly veiled excuse to make us cut 8 "vegetables" (more on that later)

Each Cordon Bleu lesson is divided into the demonstration class and practical class, each taking up around 3 hours of our time. Demonstration classes always precede practicals, and missing one demonstration class would bar you from entering the corresponding practical class, giving you 2 absences (6 absences and you will not be allowed to take the final, effectively failing you out). The two classes may or may not be on the same day, and in some cases practical classes may take place 2 days later.

Cordon Bleu's teaching method is to provide students with only ingredients, and chefs would walk students through the cooking instructions during the demonstrations. Students therefore take notes of each step furiously in demonstrations. Luckily, since a translator translate line by line everything the chef teaches in French, students effectively have double the time to write down notes. Correspondingly, students are allowed to ask questions in either French or English, and everything is (generally) translated into the other language.

Back to the soup. The emphasis of this dish is to teach students how to paysanne a vegetable. Paysanne refers to vegetables cut into sticks or triangles then thinkly sliced into about 2-3mm width pieces. We paysanned leeks, potatoes, carrots and daikon radish (nooli) and diced green beans, celery and cabbage. The final vegetable, peas, required no cutting. Why were potatoes categorized as a vegetable? I guess even though they are a carb, they are botanically a vegetable. The soup itself is quite simple: 1. Sweat Bacon 2. Add veg to sweat. 3. Add water 4. Season 5. Serve with dried baguette and grated cheese.

My First Dish at Le Cordon Bleu

The class also touched on other types of cuts in french cuisine such as the Julienne and the burnoise, which we would practice on vegetables, but not put into our soup.

Students are divided into groups of 10 for practical class. For us, our class took place at 3:30pm on the next day. Our class started off very tensely, as our instructor let it be known that he was not going to be easy to work with. As we waited for his command to enter the kitchen at 3:15, he yelled at us for not being prepared already and for slowing down the class. Students who were missing some ingredients had vegetables thrown at them followed by an obligatory "Putain!" To give him credit, he was quite good at explaining techniques to students, and to assist students who needed help. At the end of class, I talked to one of my classmates about how rude I felt the instructor was, to which the classmate says "Non, il n'est pas mechant. Il est.... qu'est-ce que c'est.....il est francais." I guess that explains it.

Quote from this class:
"C'est pas l'armee, mais presque.... Il faut tout le monde fait la meme!" (It's not the armee, but almost.... Everyone must do the same!")