The weekend practicing a bit and 'le menu en Francais' !

It’s been a weekend of practicing a few garnishes. Making a puree, stuffed confit tomatoes and something with lettuce. I decided not to buy any fish because I know what to do with it anyway. So I bought HUGE steaks instead, yes, more than one! Nice.

The biggest struggle of this weekend was to write down the menu in French. In French ? Yes!!! Are they mad at LCB? I don’t know why we should do this, but it’s totally useless. I mean, all the lessons are translated into English, and all the chefs do understand some English. Maybe it’s ‘history’ because the superior class wasn’t always translated or maybe it’s because of the ‘old’ judges – they probably don’t speak English.... Anyway, it caused me some trouble, and Jayne helped me out big time!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you !

I also have to make a drawing of my final dish, so I went to the Monoprix supermarket to buy some pencils. That a job for this evening!

My menu for tomorrow’s final: Filet de turbot ‘artistique’ aux diamants avec une garniture de tomate confite remplie de ratatouille, une purée de pommes de terre et des petits pois, laitue farcie avec du poivron rouge et mini calamars farcis avec des bâtons de poivron rouge. Le plat sera accompagné avec un beurre blanc ‘herbes et Noilly Prat’.

Doesn’t that sound nice ?

On top of all this we have to make a soup, to be served in 4 shot glasses. I’ll be making an asparagus soup with a cheese foam on top and a dried thin slice of ventreche (pancetta).

I’ll be in class tomorrow from 13.20 – 17.20 hrs.

A demain, Sjoerd

Il pleut ! practice for exam, trying to relax a bit and shopping for moulds.

Yes, it rains in Paris. Again. And how nice it is that it’s a lot cooler now.

The last few days were really nice, but hot. Too hot. You can only imagine what it will be like in the kitchens during the summer. Hot, extremely hot!

Yesterday evening I tried two things again: The asparagus soup, that  was sort of OK, but I’m still not too happy about it, and I did de-shell peas again (therapy or the perfect internship-job) and made the perfect puree. Eat that ! I also went shopping for small Inox ring moulds at Mora, Bovida, Dehillerin and Simon, but nothing/rien/nada/niks/pas du tout. They didn’t have anything close to what I was looking for. So I will go to the school today to see what they’ve got left in the basement... I do need these moulds to present my puree ‘tower’ at the exam. And LCB admin gave me a nice letter of recommendation, signed by the cuisine chefs; That was really nice of them.

And... yesterday it was our last demo! Chef Terrien was in charge and before he started cooking, he wished us all good luck for the exam and the future. At the end of every semester, there’s champagne served at the last demo.

Well, something with bubbles in a plastic cup, but it was nice. Funny thing is, when there’s champagne, suddenly a lot of chefs ‘just pop up’ out of nowhere to join us. We saw Terrien, Clerque, Poupard, Caals, Lebouc, but we ‘missed’ mr.Ego from pastry....

Starter.

Yesterday’s menu:  a shot glass of goat cheese and oven roasted veggies, for mains, chef made veal loin in a salt crust (Intermediate cuisine style...) with a vegetable spaghetti and souffleed spuds (nice!)

And for dessert we had pears cooked in caramel and carambar ice cream.

dessert.

The program for today and tomorrow: write down the whole menu in detail how it is prepared - IN FRENCH ! That's going to be a challenge... And I also have to make a drwawing of the plate I'm going to deliver at the exam, in colour... it's not over yet!

Sj

Have you seen the 'injury counter' on my blog?

It’s still on three........ I guess I’ve learnt... What a difference compared to my time in Intermediate Cuisine.Only one lesson to go! I’ll try to avoid new cuts and burns, I promise.

Today's workshop - a practice run for the exam.

Today, we had the chance to practice for our upcoming exam next Monday. We had two time slots available to sort out what we are going to do. 5.5 long hours... Some people had everything written down in detail (like me...) and others ‘had it all in their head’. Today was ‘just’ a practice run; You were allowed to experiment with different garnishes, different plating styles. Anything was possible, and chef Clerque would give you some good feedback.

Goal: three shot glasses with a soup and 2 plates with the main course.

Well, my session went sort of OK – I made my asparagus soup (and struggled with the top bit, a small piece of squid stuck on a toothpick) and the foam on top of the soup collapsed too quickly. I know how to solve that foam issue now...

Then my main course. I decided NOT to cook the fish on the bone because so many others are doing it already and chef also advised me to try out my other idea – steam the fish (But with a decoration of aubergine and red bell pepper paysanne on top, stuck on a real thin layer of farce of whiting). That went really well and chef liked it. But it was a hell of a lot more work....
In the pictures: I tried to prepare the fish in different styles; cut and fry it on the bone or make separate fillets. In the second picture you can see the 'result'... two styles of fish, the green ball is a blanched lettuce leaf that is stuffed with red bell pepper and herbs, the other thing is the bottom part of a calamari 'stuffed' with a julienne of red bell pepper. We have to use the calamari, lettuce and turbot in the exam. I also made a confit tomato stuffed with a nice ratatouille. A suace of course; a very nice beurre blanc with a twist.

Other items: my pea puree was way undercooked (idiot!), but hey, I did de-shell the things, and it’s easy to solve 'the undecooking issue' next time. My lay-out on the plate was good, the garnishes were not bad but need a little tweaking. My beurre blanc (tarragon, basil – just a hint) was super. Seasoning all over was very good. Looking back now, I’m quite happy with what I did today. It’s looking good for the final next Monday (13.20 – 17.20 hrs); Please think of me and wish me luck !

Enough for now. Tomorrow we have our last demo at 08.30 hrs. Chef Terrien in charge. (Champagne afterwards?)

A demain! Sjoerd

Ha ! It’s raining big time now. Finally! After some very nice sunny and very hot days, it’s finally raining ! Thank you for that. It was sooooooo hot in the kitchens last week and today.

Practice, practice, practice...

I’m doing the dishes for my exam at the moment; As you know it’s turbot, a very nice flat-fish. So, yesterday evening I practiced my fake turbot. I went to the Sunday market at Dupleix, but they only sold HUGE turbot fish (at least 35-40 euro per fish). So I decided to buy a turbot look-a-like: Brill. Same texture, smaller and cheaper (yes Mark, cheaper!)

Cheap... I'm not like him, but Paris is soooooo expensive...

I tried two different cooking styles for the fish. Cooking it ‘on the bone’ and filleting first and then cook it with a special forcemeat/topping. Interesting results... I’ll explain in another blog-post.

I also tried two different garnishes, the simple ones; something with lettuce and something with the (mini) calamari.

Mon Calamari, different style (from Star Wars)

I still have to decide which one I’m going to use;

Tonight: practice evening for the Verrine in a shot-glass and two garnishes. The shot-glass has to be filled with a (drinkable, as in ‘liquid’) soup, served either cold or warm. I’m working on  asparagus soup at the moment. It’s asparagus soup because it is the season for it, but also because many people in class will do some kind of pea/lettuce soup, which is very French. And I want to do something else.... Regarding the garnishes, I’ll try to make some descent purees and combine the two (or maybe not).

A puree made from... little green 'pea kids'...

Tomorrow we have a double practical to practice our exam. I’ll try to aim for a 4 hour project to make two plates (different styles) and two shot-glasses with soup. I’ll also try to make some extra garnishes; just to see if it works with the fish. and it’s hot in Paris....and it's worse in ze kitchen..

Until tomorrow, Sjoerd

Update: My first attempt of the soup wasn’t that bad, but I’m not completely happy with the final result. Too ‘milky’ and too salty. I’ll try again!

Demo 28 & 29 on Saturday from 8.00 - 15.30....

Saturday – 2 demo’s ! Are they mad at Le Cordon Bleu? The first one started at 8.30... and after an hour’s break, we had the second one at 12.30 until 15.30.

It was quite a difficult morning in class because my neighbours, opposite my apartment, had a party until 5 ‘o clock this morning. Students...

Today, it was chef Philippe Clergue’s last demo. The final one, number 30, next week on Wednesday, will be given by chef Terrien.

Well, today’s recipes were:

Lesson 28, starter crabmeat in jelly with (molecular gastronomy style) pea pearls. For mains chef made filet de boeuf en gratin gourmand, aux champignons, croquettes de pommes de terre, asperges vertes et blanches au beurre – in short: beef with asparagus! And for dessert he made Tonka Bean panna cotta with cherries.

The most interesting bit was the molecular ‘cooking’, the pea pearls. Chef used Algin and Calcic to make these. Algin comes from brown algae and it can do magic tricks in/with water. Calcic is needed to perform a trick to make droplets; check out this link for making mango droplets; chef did the same with peas;

It was hot in class today; And everybody looked tired. I guess we all showed up just for some possible exam info....

Lesson 29;

·         Langoustine consommé with veggies

·         Semi-wild duckling with a parmentier

·         Watermelon jelly with melon, mint and Sauternes wine cocktail.

Not bad, not special. Allthough the consommé was nice, until chef put gelatine in it. What a waste of a nice soup, but he wanted to make a jelly, so you actually need to use the stuff. Today we got some ideas about plating dishes again, making a good pea puree and making a good potato puree. Exam stuff...

I went home knackered, did some shopping on the way (artichokes, fruit and wine) and fell asleep when I got home. At 7 ‘o clock I started to prepare the rabbit legs that I took home from school yesterday. Just finished dinner; not bad...

Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the market and buy some fish to practice for the exam. I’ll keep you posted!

Sjoerd

La petite chef - not bad at all.

The mini chef;

She's good, has a good pallet, she's only little - even with her chefs hat on - she's nice and she gives super feedback during the practicals. And she's the only female chef at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and certainly the youngest. She speaks French with us and sometimes a little bit of English. We call her a guest chef.

'La Petite' doesn't give demos, that's only for the Cordon Bleu staff. She's Korean and has done the Grand Diplome, did some other culinary stuff in Paris and worked for chef Robuchon (2* Michelin) - so she must be really good...

Yes, I do like her in the practicals; Especially the feedback she gives us. She sometimes stares at a plate for a minute or so, then wipes it completely clean and starts plating herself in a different way - just to give you some ideas. Wonderful ! I still write 'she', because nobody knows her name... even after all these months...

Making fun of Ms.'sweet sweet' David...

(pictures from Will's blog - check it out! )

Last normal practical (No27) today- one atelier and the exam to go!

Today, we had one practical, rabbit legs stuffed with minced veal, herbs and breadcrumbs. Chop, chop, chop, cut, trim, cut some more, remove some bones and push the forcemeat inside. And finally, my favourite – NOT - wrap the leg in caul fat.... (pigs stomach). Put in the oven and plate nicely. Served with endive and some slices of polenta. It wasn’t that bad actually.

We only used the legs this time ! (The rabbit's legs that is....)

Not everybody showed up in this practical today. The hours before, some us had a class in sugar pulling. They were very tired, had dirty clothes and just didn’t feel like showing up for just a rabbit’s-leg.

Tomorrow we have 2 demos in a row, no 28 and 29. The corresponding practical is next Tuesday, which is actually our ‘atelier’, or workshop, for the exam. In this double practical we can practice our final dishes that we want to prepare in the grand final. So, that means that today we had our LAST normal practical session. The rest is related to the final! Was did it all go quickly in the end!

Paris is nice these days; Lots of sunshine, 20+degC, everybody is smiling, people dress nicely (ha,ha). And lots of beautiful flowers in the parks. In the coming days I will not see much of all this – I will be practicing the final dish a few times at home. I’ll be going to the market this weekend and next week to buy some turbot and vegetables in order to practice.

For me, exam day is the Monday 31^st May. My session starts at 13.20 hrs and finishes at exactly 17.20 hrs. We’ll be with only 5 or 6 in the kitchen, which is nice. Normally it’s 10 people... More about the final later, including my menu and maybe the recipes as well...

Off to bed now, tomorrow class starts at 8.15 hrs...

A demain! Sjoerd

Today one demo and the written exam

Wednesday;

Chef Clergue is back from his ‘Down Under’ tour. He visited Adelaide and LCB Sydney. Chef was away for 3 weeks, and I kind of missed him in class. I missed his wine advice and his excellent demos. And in the practicals he’d give you lots of great advice,

unlike our always computer playing and shouting ‘mon ami, vous etes bien’ chef T. from Intermediate cuisine.

Today’s demo was about oysters, served hot or cold, a veal chop dish ‘en cocotte’- in a cast iron pot - (served pink) with a nice colourful vegetable mix and for dessert a cake with some soft chocolate inside. All nicely presented at the end of the demo.

Well, I’m studying again this early afternoon. I have a few hours off, before we start on our written exam at 15.30. That’s all about (6) ingredient lists, background information of setting up a restaurant business and all the terms and information the chefs gave us in class. Shouldn’t be that difficult.... I hope....

A demain! Sj

PS: update 23.30 hrs; I think I did sort of OK for the exam. Something has changed at LCB: the new director was keeping an eye on things during the exam, like a hawk - no cheating any more or... well, you get it ! We even had to change into our FULL uniform, including the safety shoes.

Studying, sleepless night(s), exam dishes and written exam.

There's a lot going on at the moment. The school schedule is not that bad, 1 or 2 sessions a day, even the odd day off, but we also have our written exam coming up this Wednesday and on the 31st May we have our MOST IMPORTANT practical exam. That last thing will give you sleepless nights! Oh yeah!
I have (too) many ideas and quite a few of you readers have given me some great input so far, but I'm still not sure what to make for my final exam.

As you know, we have to make a starter (soup, cold or hot) in a shot glass, and a main course with turbot. But it's quite difficult to come up with a balanced plate! Not too much, some colour, some height, some..... well, everything. So I'm struggling a bit and I don't sleep that well.....
Any 'exam input' is very welcome, thanks.

until tomorrow. Tuesday, I have a day off to study...I might even go to the hairdresser (not gay) .... or maybe not...

One of those dinners....

I went shopping at the Dupleix market last Sunday ; I mean, I do have to practice my exam dishes, but I just couln't resist...... the rest!

I bought some good fish, a dozen of oysters, asparagus and some wine. So..... that was a pretty good meal! And cheap!

A demain! moi

Verrines practicing evening

I tried two verrines (shot glasses/ starter/ amuse bouche / whatever) tonight, recipes thanks to Levi, who was in intermediate with me last year.

He doing an internship in Reims at the moment and I think he’s seen some pretty nice dishes in his restaurant until now. He had some good ideas and I prepared two nice verrines ‘my way’ !

I didn’t know what to do actually, so I just tried something. The result was not too bad. One of the dishes had a bit too many olives in it, so I’ll try to make that dish again soon.

And I actually put the pea/lettuce verrine stuff in the food processor.... don’t know if this was the original idea, but it tasted ‘damn nice’ , as Damien, my former classmate would say. And I seasoned it well; judiciously!

Then I prepared the lamb saddle I took from school today; I deboned it, trimmed it (fat off), made a stuffing of vegetables and finely chopped meat trimmings, sautéed it, put it in the oven, let it rest and thinly sliced it. Few glasses of wine later.... It was goooooooooooooood !

I also bought new batches of asparagus, brunoise (onion, leek, carrot) and some calamari and whiting. Tomorrow more practicing!

Sjoerd

the weekend

Not much blogging going on... sorry. I’m practicing a few dishes for the exam at the moment. Yesterday I tried something with an asparagus puree – well, that went straight into the bin! Another chance today, different method.

And I bought some fish to try that with the verrines. Let’s see how that goes.

I had a class today, but I didn’t go. Well, I did, but only to pick up the nice piece of lamb. That’s for dinner tonight! And I already paid for it.... I missed a demo the other day because I went to a lecture about marketing/branding your own business. That was held at the same time as my demo, unfortunately. To cut a long story short, I wish I had gone to the demo! Waste of time.

And, I’m studying. Shock!!! Yes, I have to read a bit about setting up a restaurant, recipes and general stuff the chefs told us in the demos. So yes, I’m studying. (With a glass of beer.... )

Until tomorrow, Sjoerd

(blogging via Email now; just to see if this also works)

Final Exam, FISH ! Turbot and calamari

Today, we received our ingredients list for the final exam on 31st May; It's fish ! Quite a surprise to me, but I'm happy with that. I do like fish a lot and this time we have to do something with turbot, calamari (squid), asparagus, fresh peas and lettuce. The rest on the list is optional.

We have to plate 4 identical plates, and 4 shot-glasses with a cold or warm soup (served separately). Total time available is 4 hours.
We have to make 3 garnishes, including a farce (stuffing) and a sauce or jus for the main dish. And, what's NOT on the list, is NOT available (like balsamic).

Please have a look at the ingredients list and the basic rules and if you have some nice ideas, please let me know! Email: sjoerd.servaas@hetnet.nl
And keep in mind the judges are OLD.... and very very French!
I hope to hear from you readers! Thanks a lot.

Today and last week; Jayne in Paris! Lessons/market tour.

Let me start with today, and the things that happened last week;
We only had a 3 'o clock practical today - fish; cod with veggies. An easy dish to prepare and actually quite nice. I just finished that for dinner ! (after having a few beers with Levi from last year's intermediate class).
The practical went really well. I was first to plate and chef T. liked it. My gazpacho, French style, was really tasty. And the HUGE piece of fish was nice. I took most of it home (uncooked) to put it in the freezer. And I also found a few pieces of super-steak (beef) in the fridge from the group before us..... what can you do..... you just take it home! Right?
And this morning I met Audrey, from Amsterdam, whom I met at LCB Ams a while ago, with a few of her friends. They are in Paris for a few days and they booked a demo with the intermediate class. Thank God that chef Thivet was in charge and not chef Caals. Caals is great, but quite often he can be 'a bit hectic'..... to say the least. Afterwards we had a nice glass of wine in the local cafe near the school.

And finally Jayne was here for a few days! Yippee!! It took her a while to get here; 6 weeks.... She missed her birthday in Paris because she was stranded in Cork, Ireland, for a week because of some volcano... She arrived last Wednesday evening and left yesterday late afternoon. We had a great time together. Lots and lots to talk about, some nice restaurants, some good cafes, we cooked together, Jayne baked bread (with eggs in it and without... ha,ha). And we also went to the 'chef invite' at LCB together to follow a demonstration about catering. Chef Roger Raymond of 'Duval traiteur' (yes, click on the link please, it's nice!) did a demo about a 'smoothy de tomate' (please say out look in French...), scallops with a purple spud puree and a tuna and daikon 'thing'. It was very nice actually. In 3 weeks (on exam day) time, Jayne willl be back in Paris! 31st May. I'm looking forward to it already!

What did we do in school last week? Let me see - lesson 19-22. And we went to Rungis, the world famous biggest food market in ze world. That was a nice day out; Get on the bus at the school at 6.30 and be back at 13.00. Interesting tour.

Let me get back on the lessons we did some other time. It's a bit too much for now.... sorry.

Rungis;
some pictures; getting dressed for the freezer, beef, cheese, vegetables and flowers. Breakfast in one of the 21 restaurants on site.

Artichokes; the trauma of many in basic cuisine...

Until tomorrow.

I'm way behind with my blogging... the things I have to write about...

the things I have to write about in the coming days are:

• the recipes we did in demo and practical
• Jayne is back on mainland Europe after being stuck in Ireland for a week
• Paris in general - everything is green now
• class dinner at 'Le Doyen', a *** Michelin restaurant
• Rungis market - the biggest foodplace in the world !
• my 2nd Atelier (workshop) with sea bream, veal and sweetbreads
• class idiots; yes, they're back - the fat one and Ms.D.from Peru
• Jayne FINALLY arriving in Paris after 6 weeks
• dinner at the bar: oysters, shrimps and wine. Dessert in the back of a wine shop
• my (cheep) beer cafe is closed for 2 weeks; refurbishing / re-opened; nice!
• Chef Fred Lesourd; yes, he's back!
• my favourite US chef who ALREADY works in a * Michelin restaurant
• and probably much much more.........