Oui, Chef! November 28th

Julia Child has been an idol of mine for quite some time. (Remember I got both volumes of her Mastering The Art Of French Cooking bibles as a birthday gift this year? Score!) Well if you didn’t know, Julia was classically trained at the famed Paris academy, Le Cordon Bleu.

So Michael and I thought it would be a spectacular once in a lifetime opportunity to take a cooking class during our Parisian workcation at the very same school that taught Julia to chop onions and make her very first French omelet. The culinary workshop we selected from LCB was The Art of Making Sauces and Jus. Oooh la la!! We couldn’t wait to go.

The first part of the one-day programme (as they say) focused on mastering several sauces to taste and pair with homemade “fougasse.” In French cuisine, fougasse is a type of bread typically associated with Provence but also found in other regions. The Chef Instructor was going to make Black Olive Vinaigrette and we students planned to conquer Green Crab Coulis, Fresh Tomato Concassée, and Aioli. Certainly an ambitious start.

The second part of the programme focused on mastering a Normandy Mushroom Cream Sauce to taste and pair with a Landes yellow chicken, and finally Béchamel and Mornay Sauce to spoon over our suprême elbow macaroni to make a Pasta Gratin using the Salamander. If you’re not already drooling all over yourself, you’re going to be momentarily!

All fourteen students in the group had a serious workstation complete with a four-burner stove, pots and pans, and a professional prep area with super sharp knives and a cutting board. We all donned the keepsake apron and hat for the class. We gathered at the front of the kitchen for each sauce to watch and learn and then we were sent back to our stations to repeat the process. At our Chef Instructor’s request, we were told to acknowledge his verbal coaching by shouting, “Oui, Chef!” during the class.

Our first sauce was the one that took the most time and was the most complicated. It was a Green Crab Coulis. We began by heating a skillet with a little olive oil while we chopped carrots, fennel, and shallots, and smashed two cloves of garlic. They were all added to our hot pan and then the heat was turned down while we (gulp) attacked the crustaceans. Large bowls of small green crabs were distributed and we had to cut those suckers in half– all of them in five minutes time. Oui, Chef! Once the crabs were halved, they were added to the pan and the heat was cranked up. Into the pot went Cognac, white wine, fish stock, tomatoes, tomato puree, star anise, orange peel, chiles and a wrapped bouquet of herbs.

We had to stir, simmer, continuously skim the foam, and babysit the pot until it was time to strain our Coulis through a fine mesh china cap sieve– pushing hard against the sides to drain both the liquid and the carcasses. Cream was then added to finish the dish. Et voilà!

Our second sauce was a Tomato Concassée– a breeze compared to the Coulis. We added self-chopped minced onions to another hot oiled skillet to sweat them with salt over low heat. We were warned to not burn the onions! Oui, Chef! Then thyme leaves, sugar, and crushed garlic cloves toppled into the pan. Clanking spoons stirring ingredients and the aromatic smell of onions and garlic filled the kitchen. Pre-prepped containers of peeled tomatoes were passed down and had to be chopped and drained. Into the mix they soon went. Salt and pepper were added as the liquid reduced. Et voilà!

The final sauce of the first section was an Aioli. We started with a pre-prepped container of small potatoes, and saffron in chicken broth. We smashed more garlic and added it to our hot pan with the broth mixture. We were told to whisk and mash the potatoes to achieve a smooth mixture. Oui, Chef! Next we slowly added two egg yolks, whisking furiously so that the eggs combined without cooking. Finally we slowly streamed in olive oil whisking the whole time until we achieved the consistency of a mayonnaise. (No pics of this as I whisked the whole time!) We seasoned it with salt and pepper. Et voilà!

After the quick break, we were back at it browning a seasoned chicken breast in a hot oiled skillet. When the chicken was flipped and browed on the other side, it was set aside and we quickly deglazed the pan to begin our Normandy Mushroom Cream Sauce with more oil and butter while sweating chopped shallots and smashed garlic. During the sweat, we halved and peeled cultivated mushrooms. The mushrooms joined the pan party to achieve a golden-brown color on all sides. Oui, Chef! Heavy cream was added and the mixture was reduced. More butter was added as a final step. The mixture was then poured over the chicken. Et voilà!

Our final task was to create a Béchamel that later became a Mornay Sauce. We started by whisking clarified butter together in a hot pan with flour to create a roux. Milk, salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg were then gradually added to the roux. The clatter of furious whisking ensued. Four minutes later we had our béchamel sauce. To turn this into Mornay, we took our pans off the heat and added an egg yolk with more whisking so as not to cook the egg! Oui, Chef! And then finely grated Gruyère and butter were added and combined. This sauce was poured over cooked pasta and then heated under the Salamander with more cheese to brown the top, dotted with extra butter. Et voilà!

Anyone can be a chef. In just three hundred or so simple steps with twelve pans, seventy-two ingredients, and hours to stand on one’s feet to perfect your culinary prowess, you too can learn five sauces in under six hours while being commanded by a trained professional! This class was serious cooking taught by a serious Chef.

At the conclusion, gorgeous insulated bags were distributed to protect our goodies on the ride home because of course we got to keep all of the sauces and dishes we prepared.

We loved learning the techniques, and enjoyed each and every bite of our creations, especially the Aioli and the Mornay Gratin. I’d like to think that we made Julia proud, too.

So what did we say to each other at the dinner table that night when we finished our meal? “My compliments to the chef,” of course!