entertainment in class; class idiots and a drunk....

Last Friday, we had quite a nice demo. Chef Clergue teaching. For mains, chef made the lamb dish. It became a bit of a funny session after a few people went out to go to the toilet, get a quick coffee, glass of water or do whatever. It bothered chef. And he remembers... he always remembers.

Then he found out that somebody was filming the demo all the time. So he stopped that (but she started filming again later..). Filming is not allowed at LCB, taking pictures is not a problem at all. It has all to do with copyrights of recipes.
Later during the demo, Ms.D from Peru went out; noisy ! Later, he (indeed) came back in class with many of his 'gestures' and he just didn't shut up. Chef didn't like it at all and it actually pissed him off quite a bit. So he made a comment (with the same 'gestures' ) to ms.D. and told him to behave. Laughter all over.

The two class idiots

(picture taken from behind so nobody can recognize them...)

But then, the stupid thing sitting next to Ms.D. , the one that is filming every lesson since the beginning, used her last brain cell to get a coffee and return WITH it.... How stupid can you be ! Imagine chef's reaction.

Ms.D. was on a roll. His last comment to chef was: 'Vous êtes très bien chef; bravo !', or something like that. Chef turned all red, was ready to explode, but he didn't say nor did he do anything. If only eyes could kill this idiot....
And we had a smelly drunk guy sitting next to us; I think he came straight from the pub to class. It was kind of funny actually. I don't think he showed up at the practical afterwards.... and that was a smart move of him!

'Want another beer ?'

And last but not least, the two in the front row, Ms.D and 'no brains', already started having quite a few tasters at the end of the class; You know, we actually get to taste the food that chef is making in a demo. Sometimes there is more then enough, sometimes there's not that much. Even before everybody else had their first taster, they were already on 3.... it pissed a few people off. Actually, most of the time after a demo, she has emptied 5 or 6 tasters by the look of all those empty plates near her seat. So,no wonder why she's so large.... (didn't I just say that soooo nicely!?)

The big question remains: Why didn't chef remove these two out of class immediately?

Then there's the absentees: Well, there are quite a few people not showing up in class for whatever reason; but just going on holiday abroad instead of being in class and now being on 6 absent points already is a bit too much I guess. (The maximum amount of points we are allowed to lose is 6. The course is 11 weeks, and we're only in the second week now.) Some people are already on 4 or 5 absentee points, this one is on 6 and the chefs have commented on that. This guy, who's on 6 points,  just doesn't take this course seriously. It's very disrespectful; Not to chefs, not to the school, but certainly not to the other students in class. One more point and he should be out! No matter what. But I guess LCB will let him stay anyway.... unfortunately. Obviously, money is not a problem here if he will fail this course. But hey, it's his problem I guess.

In short: A lesson to remember. There's a lot happening during a demonstration...

Update Tueday, one day after publishing this post: Quite a bit of support from people in class. General reaction: 'Finally somebody is saying something about this/them..., but LCB needs to take (more) action'.
We actually signed a contract when we started in basic cuisine or pastry that we'd behave/do not film/ be on time etc. It was quite a list! So the issue is easy to solve.

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!

Dinner alone with 2 friends; I'm a murderer!

Killed twice today... sorry. I thanked the lobster for a hopefully happy life and stuck the metal pin up its behind. The boiling water was ready and I finished him/her off quickly. Good job, I think.
There are two ways to kill the lobster straight away; Like I described above (and in an earlier blogpost), and there is a more human way. Well, the end result is the same; Cooked meat... This second option is just to tie two lobsters together and throw them in a bigger pan with boiling water. Nice solution for a minor problem.

It wasn't a really difficult practical. Only in the end, there was a bit of pressure - put the chartreuses in the oven over a waterbath, blanch spinach quickly, reduce the sauce, make lecitin in soymilk to thicken the sauce, whisk whisk whisk, and make a frotty sauce, whisk more, then put the plate  in the oven to warm it up and check chartreuses. Un-mould the stuff and plate-up quickly while it's still warm.... Where's chef ???? Busy judging other people's plates... hurry,hurry...

today's creation!

I was very happy with the suace (so was chef), spinach and farce. The only problem was the shitty design of my chartreuse. I ran out of pre-cooked carrot slices, so my chartreuse looked a bit scruffy. Sorry, I'll do better in presentation skills next time.

Raffaele had a good chartreuse I think, but a lousy sauce....

Tonight's dinner will be a nicely cooked lobster chartreuse (or two) with spinach, lobster pieces AND...... an extra lobster.

So, I'll be having two of my lobster friends TO EAT. Wonderful. By the way, I asked chef nicely for it. There was a leftover lobster because somebody didn't show-up today in class. At school, I wrapped it in clingfilm and took  it home safely... hi, hi, he's going to die very soon...

15.00 hrs; I just cooked/killed lobster #2. Reserved the meat and made a bouillon from the bones/carcass. I'll  use that jus for the risotto in combination with my homemade vegetable stock (no Maggi cube in this place!!) Should be a great dinner! Mark M. where are you? Help me out eating some good LCB food here. (picture: tonight's dinner)

Bon appetit to you too!

A demain, Sjoerd

Great guy

What can you say? He's a great guy and he just loves to eat!
I think that's probably the only reason why he's at the school..... and he's NEVER late for class.... Mr. Wen Bo C. from China.
And he giggles when he's eating.... as I said, great guy.
(click on the links and scroll down.)

class photo - I was on time!

After Chef P's belated demo, we went straigt to the local cafe on the corner. Some for coffee, some for beer.
Suddenly, somebody said that our classphoto would be taken at 12 o'clock - so we sort of ran back to school. Just in time...

Here are a few of my classmates looking at the fat man during the set-up for the picture;

Normal weekday with homard, foie gras, a 'light' tiramisu and a loooooong needle.

Indeed, it's one of those normal weekdays.... Chef Franck Poupard is in charge today. We started kind of late because first we received some information about the 'stage', internship that is, we can do after our superior program. We got a list of mainly Parisian posh places where we can go to. I don't think I'll apply to any of these, but I'll look into it some day this week.

Anyway, chef started late and finished very late. He also blamed it on 'silly Peruvian' questions.... and he gave us a lecture on 'NOT being on time in class'; There are too many students already losing too many points. (You are allowed 6 absences; some are on 4 already!). Chef explained the consequences of all of this in detail... and he was quite right actually. With 53 people in class it's pretty full; This is my view on the demo kitchen today.

On the menu today:

starter: A terrine. No tasting today, it's dans le frigo. Chef made a fois gras and oven roasted vegetable terrine. (no picture yet)

mains: Chartreuse de homard aux agrumes confits, jus mousseux. Doesn't that sound great? I'll explain: It actually is a lobster chartreuse with candied orange and lemon with a frotty jus. I liked this dish. But hey, doesn't everybody just loves lobster?

A typical chartreuse.

dessert: A light tiramisu-style mousse with sugared raspberries (with lots of mascarpone that is.... light.... not....)

Chef wasn't really 'sharp' today. Nice guy, but a bit hectic and that showed in the final presentation. But he did produce four desserts. Nice taste, I liked it.



The foie gras (starter dish) was about how to devain a piece of foie. That was quite easy. Assembling the final terrine with all the vegetables was a bit more work, but actually very simple. Further: Cook it in the oven for 40 minutes at 150C, au bain marie (waterbath) and then a few days into the frigo. We'll get a taster next week. It certainly looked good.

Then the live lobster - well, the way chef put that trussing needle up it's arse was just great! Some of us were shocked. This will stay with you forever!

Picture this: You're well alive and kicking and somebody takes a loooooooong needle and choves it straight up your arse... what do you do? you'd freeze! And so did the lobster! The bugger stayed nicely straight and only wiggled it's claws. Actually, that was the only thing left he could move... We finished him off quickly in a nice court bouillon, but just water will also do. What a way to go: Head first into the boiling soup with a needle up your arse!

The end result, after a lot of work (make a mouse, cut/blanch veggie's, make jus from the carcass, blanch spinach, make candid orange and lemon), was OK.

Great taste, shitty plating. Tomorrow early morning 8.46 hrs, after boiling the water first, we have to put 'a big prick up the arse' ourselves.
Oh yeah! Have a good night....
To be continued.

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