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

Message from Le Cordon Bleu - the graduation June 2010

Le Cordon Bleu Paris graduation ceremonies took place on June 3 and 4, 2010. The graduation for the basic and intermediate cuisine and pastry levels was held at the school and ended with a buffet prepared by the chefs. The superior level ceremony took place at the prestigious private club Le Cercle de l'Union Interalliée.

We are proud to announce the top five students from each level:

BASIC CUISINE

* 1st: Hubert Ly, France - Distinction
* 2nd: Wonhoo Lee, South Korea - Distinction
* 3rd: Leonardo Silva Carvalho, Brazil - Distinction
* 4th: Sarah Gill, United Kingdom - Distinction
* 5th: Josée Caron, Canada - Distinction

BASIC PASTRY

* 1st: Ban Tell, Jordan
* 2nd: Wang Ting Cheng, Taiwan
* 3rd: Mohsen Abedi Jazini, Iran
* 4th: Loredana Cunti-Mayr Harting, Canada
* 5th: Yee Men Chong, Singapore

INTERMEDIATE CUISINE

* 1st: Hitomi Saito, Japan - Distinction
* 2nd: Bruna Amaral, Brazil - Special mention from the Jury
* 3rd: Michele Maino, Italy - Special mention from the Jury
* 4th: Mayuko Okada, Japan - Special mention from the Jury
* 5th: Blanca Garcia de Sola Cabello de Alba, Spain - Special Mention from the Jury

INTERMEDIATE PASTRY

* 1st: Naomi Lee, United Kingdom - Distinction
* 2nd: Blanca Garcia de Sola Cabello de Alba, Spain - Distinction
* 3rd: Dimitrios Karabatsos, United States
* 4th: Jean-Sébastien Clapié, France
* 5th: Noor Kandiel, Saudi Arabia

SUPERIOR CUISINE

* 1st: Mayra Toledo, Brazil - Distinction
* 2nd: Joeson Ramos, Italy - Special mention from the Jury
* 3rd: Melissa Lombardi, United States - Special mention from the Jury
* 4th: Maya Patnaik, India
* 5th: Tatiana Bykovskaya, Russia

SUPERIOR PASTRY

* 1st: Mayra Toledo, Brazil
* 2nd: Jong-In Park, South Korea
* 3rd: Paula Silva e Silva, Brazil
* 4th: Amandine Madelaine, France
* 5th: Sachiyo Yamamoto, Japan

Also a Special mention from the Jury to Meaghan Cherny from United States.

Congratulations to all of our students! For those of you who are not attending the next level we hope to see you in the near future and for those who continue, keep up the good work!

For more information about Le Cordon Bleu Programs, visit lcbparis.com

And no, I wasn't in the top 5.....
Sjoerd
PS: Well done Sarah - Basic Cuisine with distinction! Justice...

The menu of Superior Cuisine - March/June 2010

I've had a few requests to publish the list of the menus that the chefs made in Superior Cuisine this semester - so here we go; If you see anything interesting you'd like to make at home, and you want some background info (the recipe - my interpretation...) just send me an Email. (click on the picture for a larger image. The images are not of the best quality, sorry about that, but it's good enough to get an idea of what we did in Superior Cuisine.)

Picture time, part 2 ! The graduation.

Leanne and Philippe.

With the chefs.

Barbara and husband visiting. Thank you for the nice presents!

The top 5 in cuisine and pastry.

Moi, with Enzan.

Picture time, part 1 ! An overview of exam (fish) dishes.

Here are a few pictures of the exam dishes we made; The chef and the jury gave us some feedback during this session.

Flying toques! Graduated !

Et après, un petit peut de champagne...

On the Thalys train now - Amsterdam here we come!

We're on the train at the moment. Going through the northern part of France at 300 km/hr. The last few days in Paris were great and very hot. It's a lot cooler now, since we had a bit of rain this morning.
I'll post some more later tomorrow; Running out of batteries now and the electricity on the train is not working... Tonight a small party at Mike's in Amsterdam!
Sj
Update 16.30 hr; HOME ! It's great to be back in our own house with a very green garden. Tonight, we're going out for dinner - no cooking! Mike is organising a party, he'll cook, I guess....

Enjoying Paris...

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have been great. Finally, I have some free time to do ‘nothing’, Jayne is here, and since yesterday Ron and Pauline (Jayne’s parents) are here. They flew in from England with a nice 4 hour delay from Leeds... On Wednesday, we picked them up from the airport and brought them to their apartment near the Eiffel Tower. This is  the place where I used to stay during my basic and intermediate course!.

On Wednesday evening we went out for dinner at a local resto (‘Lola’) and Thursday we went to LCB to do a small tour through the school. Everybody at the school was very nice and helpful to show us around and let us taste a few nibbles that were made for the graduation of basic and intermediate people that day. Thank you!

After that, we went shopping at Rue Montmartre and surroundings (cookery shops!).  We also went shopping at Tiffany’s, near Place Vendome’. That was very nice indeed.

Dinner at my place. Simple!

Pictures to follow later. Tomorrow is my graduation at 15.00 hrs. Some posh place near Sarkozy’s office....

A demain, Sjoerd

Finished! I did it, plated on time and graduated!

Just a quick update; I graduated yesterday ! It was actually a nice 4 hr session, with only 5 of us the kitchen: Enzan, Hendrick, Liam, Miguel and me. The assistents helped us nicely with cleaning and taking care of extra ingredients.
The last hour went by so quickly, I can't even remember. I ran around the kitchen..... but I finished on time. The judges were happy with my plate I guess, because after a few minutes chef told me that ' it was OK' .
After finishing, Jayne came into the kitchen and gave me a nice beer! Thank you! What a way to finish the exam.

Finished! Time for a beer.

Here are some pictures of the final plates:more pictures later.

The three 'cuisine judges'.

Fighting for a beer...

I'll keep you posted on more news and pictures! A demain, Sj

Update Tuesday: Unfortunately, 2 people failed the exam, 1 in pastry and 1 in cuisine.

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! )