firing up the stoves.

So it has been 3 weeks of class & damn, it has been a mighty fun 3 weeks. I was nervous as hell when I first started lessons at Le Cordon Bleu. The kitchen was like a chaotic, nerve-wrecking and intimidating metal dungeon, with all sorts of death traps, from boiling vats of oil, 260 degrees ovens, blacking flaming stoves and shiny operating tables that pass of as workbenches for the dissection of raw produce. Truly horrifying!

But it has been 3 weeks now and it has turned from hell to a lovely classroom for the creation of to me, the most intimate of art forms. Which other art form can claim that it's appreciation is derived from the ingestion into a fellow human's body?

I remember the first week was basic week. We were getting acquainted with our knives and were doing all sorts of precision cuts for vegetables. Such as mirepoix, julienne and brunoise amongst others. We also learned how to turn potatoes. Basically, the first week, I term it as vegetable week. The 2nd week was more interesting, we started playing around with flour and basically made a variety of doughs. We made a Quiche Lorraine, a Pissaladiere which is a French style pizza with olives, caramalised onions, anchovies and capers on a bread like crust and lovely puff pastries with the pastry lovingly cared for and tended to for 2 days so that it can be used for the last day's lesson. It was made into a very curry puff looking pastry with a stuffing made from foie gras, mushrooms, shallots, cream and parsley and a little poached pear tart with an apricot glaze and a hidden stash of lovely custard. Freaking awesome pastries if I must say so myself. The chef made my day by saying it was the best he had all day! I love cooking!!









I'll introduce my chef later when I get back from school and explain more about school and week 3.