Dishes during the course.

Last May, I promised to write a bit more about the dishes we made during the superior cuisine course. I was a bit behind with the blogging back then, but now it's time for the first update. I'm home now for three weeks and I've also been shopping in the kitchen stores here in Amsterdam. The latest purchase is a new KitchenAid blender. This is something we used a lot during the course. It's the perfect tool to make sauces, chop up herbs and vegetables and make ice cream. So we decided to buy one.

Right. Menus. Dishes we made. Turning mushrooms again...

Lesson 14. Classic cuisine.
starter: Roasted jumbo shrimp on a stick of lemon grass
mains: a thick salmon steak with a (butter based!) herb crust, a mushroom flan and a creamy (veal stock based???) jus. Typical LCB - veal stock with a nice fish dish....
and for dessert chef made pistachio creme brulee with a tuile.

The trick with the flan was to clean the ramekins really well and butter them generously. Then keep in the fridge to 'set the butter'. The herb crust was nice and very easy to make. You just blend/grind some herbs like chervil, parsley and coriander, add some butter and almond powder, breadcrums and an egg and roll it out thinly on some parchment paper. Finally you freeze it and when you need it, you just cut it to the right size. Easy-peasy!
And I never thought you could re-use the salmon skin. Chef rolled a (cleaned) strip around a metal mould and dried it out in the oven at 100degC for 2 hours in a convection oven. The result was a dry ring of crispy salmon skin for decoration on the plate. Nice trick!
With the left-over salmon or trimmings you can make a salmon tartare. Don't throw these trimmings away! Ever !
Chef's dish.

starter, shrimp something...

Tuiles in the oven. Let it cool down a bit, then wrap it around a rolling pin to make a nicely shaped tuile. (recipe on request!)

Mayra turning mushrooms.

Adriano struggling...

Comments from Bruno. Meredith's dish.

Carlos listening to Bruno.

Victoria's dish.

more to follow soon.

Sjoerd

Les chefs de cuisine supérieur /höher / superior / superiore / superieur

Bonjour/Bonsoir mes ami(e)s,
In our superior cuisine class, we generally have two chefs who do all the demos. Chef Philippe Clergue and chef Patrick Terrien. Occasionally, chef Franck Poupard takes over. In the practicals, there's a variety of chefs showing up; Even 'guestchefs' whose names I don't even know.

Let me give you a bit of background on this team; All of them are French, mais bien sûr!
I'll start with chef Patrick Terrien - he works for Le Cordon Bleu since 1989, he owned a * Michelin star restaurant in Tours, but that's a while ago. He also worked quite a bit abroad.
Chef likes to make fun of other chefs.... 'oui, mon chef'..... Dedicated indeed.

Then there is chef Philippe Clergue. He's from the Pyrenees region. His career started in a 2* Michelin restaurant. He also worked in the Elysee Palace (Ze  President), and he worked in numerous * Michelin star restaurants.

He also owned his own restaurant in the Beaunne rgion for 15 years. Here, he also gave cooking lessons. Chef Clergue is with Le Cordon Bleu since 2006.

Great chef, very dedicated, precise, funny and a wine lover. He ALWAYS gives wine tips during a demo. And he loves applause! 

And last but certainly not least, chef Franck Poupard. Chef is from Normandy and is with Le Cordon Bleu since 2007. He worked in a few *Michelin star places. He also was a chef for the French Olympic team in 1992 in Barcelona. In winter he used to work in the ski regions and in the summer in Corsica. He was a 'fusion chef' in Geneva, Switzerland and in 2003/2004 he worked in London at Harrods, 'Le Georgian'. He can 'roll his eyes' like nobody else, and he smiles a lot. You can also call hin 'monsieur foie gras'.

And who's this? Is this a guest chef? He even has his own Facebook page... check him

out quickly!