I’m passionate about food and cooking. Cookbooks – I have hundreds. I love trying new recipes and experimenting with exotic ingredients. Over the years I’ve attended many a cooking class, often during my travels to learn about ethnic cuisines yet I had never attended one in France. Shame! Now is the time. The mother of all cooking schools, Le Cordon Bleu, is headquartered in Paris and is legendary. My idol, Julia Child, got her start there. So, on a recent trip to Paris to see my American dentist, I set a day aside for Le Cordon Bleu. I was overwhelmed. This is indeed the Harvard of cooking schools; like no other.
“The Art of Cooking like a Chef,” was the title of my full-day course, three hours of demonstration in the morning, followed by an afternoon workshop. Twenty-five of us from 11 different countries watched and listened as our teacher, Chef Guillaume Siegler, prepared three different and demanding dishes in the kitchen classroom. He spoke in French, with a translator explaining all in English.
First Course: Pineapple and green zebra tomatoes, creamy burrata, basil, olive oil, pomegranate red pesto.
First Step: Peel the tomatoes. “The skin is disagreeable to the mouth,” said Chef Siegler. He was right, but at home I usually skip this step — never again if I want to cook like a chef.
The tangy red pesto was a mixture of raspberries, tomato pulp, pomegranate juice, olive oil, pomegranate molasses and green Tabasco, all mixed in a food processor. As he moved from tomatoes to pomegranates, Siegler, who has worked in many famous restaurants in Paris as well as his own in Tokyo, spewed out words of culinary wisdom: “To cook well, you must think about what you’re serving.” “Respect all products but work only with excellent products.”
He put this into practice putting the finishing touches on the tomato-pomegranate-burrata concoction rejecting the basil on hand — too wilted. Then he sent an assistant to the school’s roof garden to pluck some fresh. The finished dish was food photo perfect – almost too beautiful to eat. It went into the fridge then we moved on to the main course: Roasted rack of lamb with parsley crust, pearled jus with rosemary, and summer vegetable tian.
Lamb is a favorite of mine, and I’ve always been in awe of a rack with the bones perfectly crowning the roast. Although I’m an ambitious cook, I’d never attempted it. Deboning that hunk of meat is no day at the beach. With skill, precision and speed, Chef cut away, explaining the intricacies of the task. “Remove some of the skin, but not too much. Get rid of the nerve which is attached to the bone. Make careful incisions to free the meat from the bones” He went on to brown the bones and trimmings for the jus. “Let the oil smoke to make sure it’s hot before you add. Don’t stir. Let it alone. The heat will do the work.”
The summer vegetable tian was next. Rows of sliced vegetables (eggplant, tomato and zucchini) were attractively layered on top of a bed of sautéed onions. I have sautéed onions zillions of times, and never gave much thought to it. That will change. There is a professional approach to even this simple task. “Sweat the onions. Add a bit of salt. Don’t color them. Mix vigorously. Taste. Salt and pepper.”
He used a mandolin to get perfect, even slices of the veggies, showing how to save your fingers while using this dangerous tool. You start by holding the vegetable down with your knuckles, then as it gets smaller, you switch to using the palm of your hand. Having recently sliced off a tiny bit of my fingertip slicing potatoes with one, I will surely heed this.
By now I was starving, and all the heavenly aromas had only fired up my appetite. Alas, we were all given small portions of his creations to sample. “Where’s the wine?” someone asked. No wine, but each dish was delectable.
The afternoon workshop was going to be held in a state-of-the art, gleaming stainless-steel teaching kitchen where each student has his own work station. But thanks to the GPS on my phone, I made a wrong turn exiting the metro and missed the first 15 minutes. I quickly donned my Cordon Bleu apron and chef’s toque and hurried in to see that we had each been presented with a lamb rib roast. I already knew I’d be cooking in the workshop, but didn’t realize I’d be preparing the complete dish so hadn’t paid close attention to the intricate instructions in the morning session. I reasoned that if I was planning to make a rack of lamb, I’d order the meat right from the butcher.
So, feeling a little stupid and humiliated, I seek assistance. Alisa, a bubbly young Russian woman next to me, guides me through the initial steps then she in turn seeks help from the Russian doctor next to her. They had met the day before at another Cordon Bleu course. The doctor’s technique is exceptional, applying her knowledge of anatomy to the lamb, making precise incisions. Chef Siegler races from station to station, guiding, critiquing, encouraging. “Five more minutes to finish,” he announces. We had to move on to the jus, the crust and the vegetables and tension was mounting. “I love to cook and I love to share with my students,” Siegler tells me, “but I must have my eyes on everything here. Some students have never even held a knife.”
My classmates appear to be wielding their knives fairly well. Some have previously taken Cordon Bleu courses. One from Paris plans to follow up and enroll in a course for professionals to qualify for a position in the food industry. The dedicated chef comes around to inspect each student’s lamb. The star of the class, Anze from Slovenia, has managed to perfectly duplicate Siegler’s demonstration lamb. All of us are in awe, even Siegler. The doctor’s efforts are also impressive. Others, while perhaps less perfect, are acceptable but unfortunately not mine. When he sees my massacred meat, Chef Siegler pronounces: “You will have a filet instead of a rack,” then proceeds with Formula 1 speed to show me how to remove the bones and fat, leaving a filet. At least I am not alone in my failure, however, as Lorraine from Shanghai is in the same boat. “We don’t cook like this in China,” she proclaims.”
With limited time left tasks are divided as we move on. I opt for dicing and sautéing onions for the tian, figuring I can’t screw that up. And, I remembered his instructions. We’re each given an aluminum container to assemble our own tians with the onions and other veggies we had sliced.
These, along with the racks and filets go into the ovens.
The reward: We each get a tian and our lamb to take home. My husband and I had rented an Airbnb for the weekend so I call ahead and tell him to get a bottle of good red wine because I am bringing dinner. I may not have prepared the perfect rack of lamb, but my filet was superb. The tian: delicious, definitely a three-star meal. The day had been fun, enjoyable and educational and I learned many new techniques which I have been putting into practice. I have been inspired and now approach my cooking with renewed enthusiasm and vigor.
Next time I visit Paris I will definitely schedule another Cordon Bleu course along with my dentist appointment. And I will arrive on time and pay closer attention to everything.