Jayne going home, sushi and sweetbreads/quail practical

Today, Jayne went back to Amsterdam. Yes I know, somebody has to make some money; I understand who the breadwinner is at the moment! We went to the Gare du Nord together and I dropped Jayne off at the Thalys. It was a very easy-going trip for her; Paris-Amsterdam in 3.15 hrs. That's just great.

After I left the railway station, I walked around the city centre a bit and then I took the metro to Vaugirard, near the school. It was lunchtime, so I decided to have some sushi. I had a nice lunch with miso soup, a salad and 12 maki (with lots of wasabi) for only 8.80 euro (menu N) - no beer or wine yet...

Then to school, to do the quail and sweetcrap practical.

I cleaned the bird, chopped off its head, legs, toes,wings and tore the liver,lungs and heart out. Then I cut off the breast, and trimmed the meat before I schredded the carcass completely with my cleaver. What a great way to start a cooking session!

The end-result wasn't too bad. I actually took the leftovers (a whole pie) home and just had it for dinner with a glass of white wine. According to chef Clergue, that should have been a full bodied red wine, but who cares.....!?

My dish.

See you all tomorrow! Sj

(And I cut myself twice today; new knife....)

Just one of those days; a small tour of the centre of Paris.

What do you do with the rest of your day when you only have an early morning class? Yes, you go out and have a look around a few of the major sights. Especially when the weather is nice.

So, yesterday afternoon Jayne and I did.....

• the metro system
• Le Bon Marchee
• The river Seine
• A view of the Louvre (didn't go inside)
• Jardin des Tuileries (near the Louvre; nice!)
• Place de la Concorde
• View on the Avenue de Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe
• Place de la Madeleine
• Fauchon at Madeleine
• Laduree
• Place Vendôme (The Ritz and all the posh places)
• and beer in our own street

not a bad afternoon, I think. A small selection of our trip;

Smell of fried sweetbreads at 9 a.m., Kirsch dessert and smoked eel

Bonjour! Did you all have un bonne weekend?
Today, Monday that is, is a semi-free day. Only one early morning demonstration by chef Clergue.

The picture is taken from one of the TV screen in class;
We have quite a big group with 53 (minus those that are ALWAYS late or absent...). So there is a lot of work to do for the assistant of today, Priska; Helping chef, chopping,chopping,chopping and setting up the plates (53x3) for the tasters. Thanks P! for all the work!

I thought I was looking forward to it, but have a look at today's menu; Keep in mind that it's only 8.30....

starter: smoked eel, smoked salmon and smoked trout with a beetroot mousse and a sauce made from the (smoked) skin of the eel and all the leftover fish-trimmings... LCB calls it 'smoked surf and turf duo', or 'mariage terre et mer en composition fumée'. Now that sounds a lot different! Maybe even better.

For mains, chef made quail with veal sweetbread pastries with shit-aches, I mean shiitake, mushrooms and a peppery jus.

dessert; Frozen chocolate nougat with sour cherry coulis.

Well, let me tell you this; Personally, I'm not that keen on sweetbreads (tasteless funny waste product), but the smell of fried sweetbreads early in the morning, right after a nice breakfast, is just too much.
Then the carcasses of the quails were shredded to the smallest ever possible, leaving the breasts (to eat) and the legs (to make a forcemeat).
Livers and heart were used in the forcemeat. And it's still so early....In the meantime chef also gave us a few tasters; Like the (dessert) sour cherries in kirsch... now that's nice early morning start!! Reminds me of my skiing holidays... Some of us were not that keen on the alcohol shot at this time in the morning.... ha,ha!

Chef ran late today, big time. Not that we really cared actually. Philippe is a super chef and we take it as it comes. That's different with other chefs, like last year in intermediate...
Finally breakfast arrived; a cold fish dish for a starter (smoked), then pastries stuffed with quails and sweetbreed and for dessert a (too sweet for me) chocolate nougat. All fantastically plated. Time for us to take pictures:

Would I make it again? Well, yes and no. I'll make it all, but probably with a few adjustments. (no sweetbreads, adjust suger contents of dessert if possible)
It was good today. Tomorrow (Tuesday), I'll have the corresponding practical at 15.30 at 'holiday-camp LCB' ! I'll promise to use the sweatbreads, yuk.
à plus tart! - that's the culinary version ... I mean à plus tard! of course...
Sjoerd

Jayne in Paris, dinner, thursday demo + practical and dinner at home

Jayne's here! Finally. It's only been a week, but I missed her. We had a look around in the neighbourhood and later that evening we went out for dinner;

On Thursday, I had two classes. My 8.30 demo (after the usual visit to the cafe and croissant on the way) and the corresponding practical straight afterwards. Jayne stayed at home, she wanted to finish some work.
The demo; chef Clergue in charge, my favorite. He's a great chef, explains things in detail, talks about pairing wine(s) with the dishes and has some super plating skills. And he's also a nice guy.

For a starter, chef did salade de pommes de terre et saint-jacques aux tuffes fraîches. Yes, lots of truffles!

Mains; This was based on classic cuisine with Russian influences (the influence is the technique, not the flavour or ingredients) - seabass in a crust with stuffed tom's (cheese).

Fillet the fish (sea bass), clean it/de-bone/descale/skin off - in other words: the lot - and put between those two nice fillets a tasty stuffing of veggies, rice, salmon pieces, hard boiled eggs and onions with mushrooms. All wrapped in a dough and baked for 35 minutes in the oven. Just serve one slice per person, together with some stuffed mini tomatoes. (These little buggers were stuffed with a cheep's milk cheese and herbs.) To bring it all together we NEEDED something tyical French: a beurre blanc...

Oh yeah! The only adjustment we made in class was not to use the full 150 gram of butter we needed, but ONLY 125 gram. The reason for this was that we didn't have enough butter in class.....

Chef Clergue chopping, Raffaele joking around.

That's my plate! There should have been more egg in the middle, but the taste and presentation was good.

And the kitchen was hot! Everybody had his/her stoves switched on at full whack, including the ovens. Not really needed....

Le dessert;

Dates stuffed with almond cream wrapped in phyllo pastry with saffron ice cream.

Oh yes! I liked this one. I'm not too keen on dates, but this was nice. You can also make this with prunes, dried apricots or dried figs. I'm sure I'll try this again.

Evening home dinner: A freshly made salad 'à la Jayne ', 2 slices of warmed up seabass in a crust and stuffed tomatoes with broccio cheese made by Raffaele and Sjoerd.

Friday is my day off; Shopping at the kitchen stores..... euro's, euro's, euro's needed.

These shopping trips are always dangerous! They're always expensive.

more to follow...

have a nice weekend,

Sjoerd

Quite a group!

Indeed, the students are from all over the world. 53 of us this time. Some are doing 'only' cuisine - like me-and some are also doing pastry next to the cuisine program.
We are:

Practical #2; the lamb with a super jus and purple crisps

This morning, we had an early start. I got up at 7, was in the cafe by 7.40.... met my 'ami' - he still doesn't recognize me after all these years, he's a local and always starts with deux petite bierres in ze meurning - I bought a croissant and then to school.

Yesterday's demo was good, and today we had to give it a go ourselves. Chop up/trim the whole rack of lamb, make a sauce or jus, prepare a crust and a garnish. Actually, it went really well. Allthough most were struggling a bit with cutting the rack of lamb, I did quite good I think.

My dish.

There was a new chef in class, French, from a national cuisine school, and he was really nice. He didn't (want to) speak English, but we talked a lot.... yeah, you know me! Nice guy. (The chef, that is! )

Adriano with chef talking about A's crisps gone wrong...

My result was good. Slightly, but only just...., overcooked my lamb. It should have been a bit more pink. But hey, that was everybody's thing today. My jus was super! Chef also liked that very much. Garnish was green beans wrapped in bacon (and re-heated in butter.... but of course!) The purple stuff on the plate are crisps, like Pringles, made from purple potatoes that were dried out in the oven. Tasty!

Meredith trimming the beans

Half past 11; Finished for the day. No beer(s) yet. Jayne will be here soon, and I'll pick her up at the metro station Pasteur soon. She will stay for about a week. Super!

Tomorrow 2 classes, Friday I have the day off. Paris is good!
Sj

Demo #2; frog legs, lamb and fruit dessert - nice!

I liked today's demo; Chef Terrien again. A few more people in class today compared to yesterday... and everybody was sort of on time! Even...

So, for a starter, chef made us frog legs with a garlic puree and a green (herb) jus, for mains we had lamb chops 'mantenon' (don't ask ! I don't know.) with purple potato crisps and green beans wrapped in bacon. And for dessert: fruit minestrone with a tomato cappucino.
It was interesting when somebody from class called chef a 'nice looking rabbit' in a discussion.... chef didn't respond or just didn't get it! Some people...

The starter, the little legs, was quite good, except for the garlic puree, that was a bit too much for me; There's not much meat at all on a frog, so you can actually only use the thighs of kermit. But chef also served it's shins.... From the rest (bones) you make 'just a sauce or jus'.

The small pieces in the green herb-sauce are actually the frog shins..... sad isn't it?

But a very nice presentation.

dead frog bits on garlic puree...

Then our main course; Lamb is always served PINK. Especially in France, and how right they are. This was a great dish, with great taste. Chef made a super jus from the meat trimmings, some veggie's, mushroom leftovers and herb stalks. And truffles!
The purple bits are dried purple potato crisps. really tasty! First you boil these spuds, push it through a drum sieve, add butter (oh yeah!) and make a very very thin layer on a 'sylpat' (or baking parchment) - don't forget the salt and put it in ze oven and let them dry out. Nice! (Click on picture for details)

Le dessert;

Chef made crystallized basil leaves on top.

Le dessert was OK I think. I didn't eat it. Must have been good, but I have to watch my 'super body'....
At least it was healthy; loads of pineapple, strawberry (in season, not!), orange, kiwi and mango. A bit of gelatine was used to make the layer of tomato foam on top of the fruit a bit firmer.
But.............. after demo I ate 3 nice pieces of lamb (chops). Thank you chef!

Tomorrow morning at 8.30 we have our lamb practical. Probably quite a bit of work, but I'm looking forward to it. And on Wednesday Jayne comes over to Paris ! Yippee!!!

A demain, Sjoerd

1st day at 'school'. The schedule, demo and practical.

Bonjour à tous!
Today we started our first superior demo at 12.30. Class was full with 53 people in 5 groups. There is one group of 13...  (but they're always in the 'grand salle' practical kitchen)
I'm in group B, together with Raffaele, who was also in intermediate cuisine when I was there last November/December. Actually, I was a bit nervous today. I arrived at school around 11 am, after I already had my daily stop at the local cafe for the usual espresso. It was busy in the school with all the new people, so I quickly found myself a good locker (or two) for my stuff.

The demo: Chef 'terroriste' Terrien was in charge.
After the introductions, hand-outs, schedule and 'recipes', chef explained his rules in demo. No walking around/leaving class, he will notice and punish you in practical, bring in coffee/beer/wine/rum before class - that's OK - don't even think about getting that during his demo. No talking during a demo. Lots of bla,bla, but we got the picture. By the way, 'terroriste' is chef T's favourite word. He is using that all the time: When you ruin a dish, when you're cutting wrongly, etc etc. Deborah was translating today.

So, today's menu was about couscous, shrimps, cauliflower and broccoli (Tabouleh), a nice summer dish, then John Dory, some rice, mango and papaya and for dessert baked banana's in its skin with banana sorbet with a hibiscus and rum sauce.

Actually, I kind of liked all of it - I'm sure I'll make all of these dishes at home. And guess what: you can be late in class or you can be LATE ! But showing up 10 minutes before the end of a demo.... some will never learn.

Straight after the demo we went into the practical; And yes, we ended up filleting fish and chopping up bones already. I liked my end-product, but some little (French? unknown, still don't know her name) chef gave me lots of comments and said 'très bien' in the end. Yeah right!

Raffaele plating the fish and rice.

When we started the practical everybody was kind of nervous or tense, but that changed during the lesson. at least we all smiled when it was over.... I think....

We also received our schedule for the coming months; more about that later!
Just had dinner at home; my leftover John Dory fillets with rice and sauce (not too much butter!!!) And I took all the trimmings of the papaya and mango home - nice breakfast for tomorrow morning. Next class is at 12.30 - 'just' a demo.
See you all back tomorrow,
Sjoerd
(pictures are not he best yet, I'm still playing with the camera to adjust some settings like white balance etc. and I still don't get it.)

1st class today; demo + practical et une petite bière..

1st class etc etc... more to follow later; just got in - a shower first please!

The new counter : general injuries during the course

Yes! Like last year, there's going to be a burn counter, but it's also a general injury counter. I've had a few suggestions over the last few days, but unfortunately I can't publish those ideas... So, whether it's a burn, a cut, a mental problem, a road accident, extreme frustrations, a computer crash, a change in schedule at LCB or whatever... it counts!

So, it can be a....

A simple burn...

(Not my) head injury

In short; anything is possible! I hope the counter stays LOW!

Friday 19 March: graduation ceremony

Last Friday I was invited to go to the graduation of both the superior cuisine and pastry students of LCB. A few of them were my classmates of last Intermediate. I arrived just in time for drinks and 'missed' the formal part, including Levi's 'speech'....

The graduation was at the Cercle de l'Union Interalliée, on Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré - a bloody posh shopping street, next to Mr.Sarkozy's and Carla B.'s little place. Nice!
(Click on all the links for more information!)

spot the gay guy.....

Levi and Damien with their bosses!

(sorry for the crappy yellow colors in the pictures... don't understand it...)

Paris, graduation, drinks and dinner

just a quick message for now;
Arrived in Paris yesterday, with a 40 minute Thalys delay. Took a taxi to the apartment, changed quickly and took a taxi to the graduation ceremony of a few of my old classmates. (nice place, next to Mr.Sarkozy's office).

Met my old classmates, some LCB people (more news about them to follow later), had a few drinks and posh nibbels and went out for dinner with Damien, Levi and their girlfriends.

Today is Saturday. I'll have to do some shopping (mobile phone SIM card, fruit, coffee, beer) and just settle down. I'll have a quick look around in the neighbourhood.
I'll keep you updated with more stories and some pictures of yesterday's ceremony and my apartment.
Until later, it's raining now...
Sjoerd

The first schedule update 'Nouveau Planning !!! ' - a trent in the making?

Yes! it's here... the first schedule update; I've heard many rumors of this palaver before and it's already starting. Funny!
So, this is the NEW schedule, part1.

The email read:
I quote: 'Attention !!! Changement !!! Nouveau Planning !!!
Ce message annule et remplace le précédent.
Attention !!! Change !!! New schedule !!!
This message cancels and replaces the precedent.'

And yes, I agree as the sign says: 'good luck'. Any direction is possible....

Here is the new schedule.... to be continued.....
Still don't know which class I'm in. They will probably tell us next Monday.

This might be a good idea to make a new counter; How many changes of the schedule will be presented over the coming 11 weeks?