The Fundamental Things Apply, As Time Goes By.

It's still the same old story. A fight for love and glory. A case of do or die....
(Frank Sinatra- As Time Goes By)

Intermediate Lesson 02- Cabbage wraps

Our dish today is a Savory cabbage filled with salmon, served with a red wine sauce.

You'll have to imagine the salmon and fillings inside the cabbage.

The dish is pretty delicious, though I personally never liked red wine sauce. The filling consists of a perfectly cooked salmon with delicious bits of bacon, onion, celery and carrots.

The Chef (Need to figure out his name) commented that my fish and garnishes were very good, but that my sauce was too reduced. I guess I'm just always afraid that my sauce is not reduced enough because I have a history of my sauce being too liquid.

The big news today was that I cut myself again! I can count the times I cut myself during basic, but for whatever reason I am now two for two in intermediate. This time was pretty deep- I still remember the feeling of cool metal gliding into my finger, followed by blood splattering all over my uniform. Everywhere I went, there were traces of blood on the floor. I quickly tried to stop the bleeding with paper towels but to no avail even after 3 minutes. The practical brought me to the front desk to treat my wound, and the staff was debating whether they should send me to the hospital because it wouldn't stop bleeding even after a good 10 minutes. "NO!" I insisted that I was fine. "But if it's too deep, you'll need stitches!" The staff insisted.

As they debating about my fate, I started chatting with the receptionist and we discussed what kind of cut I had. She said that it was an émincer, which would imply a straight cut, but I said "nonono it's definitely an escaloper," because it was cut at an offset to my finger. I was about to undo the tape on my finger to prove my point when the debating staffs turned to me.

Ouch... please no condom jokes thank you.
I'm still bleeding after 8 hours. THISISSERIOUS!

The staff could not agree on whether I should go to the hospital, so they asked what I wanted. "Bien sûr je voudrais continuer mon cours." I reiterated. Finally they let me go back to class, where a surprised Chef greeted me in the classroom. Apparantly he already pronounced me dead, and was about to distribute my materials to the rest of the class. I swear if I came back and saw my stuff gone I would have made sure that I was not the only one bleeding. Just kidding......right.

Anyways, I discovered an unexpected benefit of being injured- I can be totally sloppy with my cuts now! Hey! The garnishes are meant to be cut burnoise, which is always the bane of my life. Seriously, I hate burnoise. But now I can cut them any way I want and just say " Mais Chef, j'ai un doigt très blessé!" Hah, nono I still cut my vegetables properly, though maybe a bit larger than required. That I blame on the fact that I lost 15 minutes fixing my finger and so I had to work faster.

At the end of the class, I thanked the Chef for taking care of me and my index finger, and he praised me for coming back to class. He even wrote in french "Had a bad injury but still returned to the classroom. Bravo!" on my grading sheet. Thanks chef. I would never miss a class for something like that. Too bad you're not British, or I'd make a Monty Python reference ("'just a flesh wound").

The key lesson from today is- despite finishing Basic Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu, one must remember the fundamental skills and remain vigilant when cooking. I admit I was a bit sloppy in holding the celery when I cut myself. Next time, it might be more than just a deep cut. Noted, I'll do better.

To make myself feel better, I went for a late night ramen snack. Nothing makes me feel better than a bowl of noodle soup and beer.

 Now you see it.....

Quote of the day:

"Pulling out the mushroom stem is like pulling a baby teeth- you just need to rock them back and forth gently and they'll pop right off."

-Demo Chef Caals

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!")