New Chapter

Hello All

It has been awhile since I last posted! It has been a busy few months! I am now on the plane on my way back to London with a 2-year visa! It has been a busy few months have travelled to Tuscany, Paris and back to Australia! Photos to come from travels!

I am now embarking on a new challenge and stage in my life! After completing my Le Cordon Bleu qualification, I’m now ready to start working in the industry! I am moving back to London permanently to begin working. I will be looking for work in a café, causal dining type of restaurant. The blog will now move to following my experiences in the industry. So keep checking back and be back soon!

  

Classic French Desserts

For our last 3 Demonstrations of the course we did desserts. It was a lot of fun and enjoyable but i wasn't so good at them, think i will stick to cuisine! The best part was eating them all!! 

Practical 28: Classic French Desserts 1 

Choux Eclairs a La Vanille (Eclairs with Pastry Cream) 

These images are all the chefs images.. I can tell you that mine did not look like these! 

In the demo the chef also made a Sables aux fruits de saison (Seasonal fruit shortbread) 

And Bavarois a la vanille, petite salade de fruits rouges, coulis de framboises (Vanilla Bavarian cream, red berries and raspberry coulis) 

Practical 29: Classic French Desserts 2

Creme renversee au caramel (Creme caramel)

OEufs al neige, creme anglaise (Meringue eggs with creme anglaise). 

This was an unusual way of making a meringue rather than cooking it in the oven to form a hard outer. we poached them in a sugar syrup and then served them over creme anglaise. They were quite nice but after 10 of them with creme anglaise i was feeling very sick!

This dish was also one that chef did in demostration but we were not required to do in practical, although we did end up having spare time in the practical so me and one of the girls beside me thought we would try it. We slightly changed the poaching liquid added red wine to change the taste and appearance.  

Poires pochees (poached pears) with sauce au chocolat (chocolate sauce) 

Different plating style 

This is a video of me in the demonstration room when chef david was making a meringue, testing to see if he could hold it above my head with it dropping to show the meringue had stiff peaks.    

Demonstration 30: Classic French Desserts 3 

This demonstration was our very last and we did not have a practical for it. So was nice to just sit back and listen without needing to make large amounts of notes or concentrate too hard! And of course got to eat all of it at the end! 

Souffle chaud a la vanille (hot vanilla souffle) 

Gratin de fruit rouges (red fruit gratin) 

I didn't really like this dish, the sauce over the fruit was a Sabayon (egg yolks, sugar and white wine), was a little too rich and wine taste was quite strong.  

Mousse au Chocolat (Chocolate Mousse) 

This was probably my favorite. The mousse was lovely and light, not to heavy like a lot of other mousse i have had in the past. Very easy recipe this i will most defiantly trying this one soon! 

1. Melt 250g dark chocolate in bain-marie

2. Beat 300ml whipping cream

3. Boil to the boil of 180g caster water with a little cup of water until caramelized well

4. Whip 125g egg whites until soft peak

5. Slowly whisk in the caramelized sugar into the beaten egg whites.

6. Fold 5 into the chocolate (around 30c) and whipped cream,then do whatever you want with your chocolate mousse. 

Next Post Final Exam!! 

Barcelona!

Over the Bank Holiday weekend I went to Barcelona. It was beautiful weather and nice weekend away. Here is a little photo diary, most of the photos are from the main food market in the heart of barcelona city!

Last week of Basic Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu

I cant believe the course is almost over! I have just loved it and it is sad its is all coming to an end! 
Aplogise this post is a bit late, have been in Barcelona since Thursday (post to come on travels) ! We had a bank holiday today (monday) in London! So after arriving back early this morning, I'm now at home relaxing and getting ready for my last week of classes at Le Cordon Bleu!!
Practical 25: Dressed Crab and White Wine Mussels
The crab was an interesting dish, very old school french. Looks like a colourful smiley face, but this is how the chef wanted it! To make this we first were each given a whole crab that had been frozen the day previous. They had come into the Le Cordon Bleu kitchen a day earlier alive, In previous year students were given the crabs live, but after a few complaints from students and resistent to do it we had to have them frozen first by the prep kitchen at the school. Bit disappointing, would have been good experience and practice! 
After cooking the crab in water for 15 min we then had to pull the crab apart, scooping out the brown meat and white meat. Once meat was removed from the crab including legs, the shell of the crab was put back into boiling water to clean it out. After this it was then dressed, first brown meat then chopped iceberg lettuce, followed by white meat. Then it was topped with chopped, Egg, Parsley, Tomato and Olives.  
  

 Not much to this dish very easy, just some mussels cooked in butter, parsley, garlic and white wine.

Practical 26: Fillet Steak with Béarnaise Sauce and Pomme Frites

Was so tasty!! 

Practical 27: Beef Stroganoff served with vegetable and rice pilaf, julienne of beetroot and gherkin and a dollop of sour cream. 

Practicing exam dish: Shopping! 

I have been practicing my Chicken dish for exam, a trolley full of all the ingredients needed, including  knife bag. 

Next post adventures in Barcelona! 

Update

Apologises it has been awhile between posts. London and The Olympics have been a very busy time, been getting out and enjoying to atmosphere of London, which has been electric!
So Last week at Le Cordon Bleu was a big week of practicals, Including practicing 1 of tow possible exam dishes. 

Deco 19: Fricassee De Poulet a la Creme de Champignons et Legumes Glaces: (Chicken Fricassee served with Glace Onions, Turned Potatoes and Mushroom Sause)

This dish is one of two possible dishes that we will be examined on for our final assessment. For the practical we ever given 3 hours to fully butcher and prepare the chicken and prepare other elements of the dish. When we do this in the exam in 3 weeks time we are not given a recipe and we are only given two hours!!! We will to start doing a lot of practicing!! The process of turning 3 potatoes to create 12 perfectly shaped potatoes is a fine art and  takes 20 mins on its own. Will have to start spending days cutting and perfecting the art of turned potatoes!  

Kitchen set up before practical 

Demo 20: Poussin

Still looking at birds but slightly smaller varieties! The dish we made was a Poussin served with a Mustard and Tarragon reduction (with cream of course!), Apple sauces and Potatoes that were boiled and then dressed with butter.  

Demo 21: Livers and Sweetbreads! 

This was probably one practical that I would have to say i would never cook again! 

The taste and smell of both Calf Liver and Sweetbread was very strong and I throught it was almost unpalatable. In saying that there were many people in the class who loved them aswell as the chef who enjoyed tasting everyone one of the 14 dishes served by each student! 

 Chef David taking the skin off the Calf Liver. In practical we were given small cuts of this large piece! 

Demo Room

Full Calf Liver

 Calfs Liver with a Caramelised Onion Sause and Sautee Potatoes 

 Veal Sweetbreads with Apragus, Parisienne Potatoes and top with Black truffle

One evening last week we also had to attend a wine lecture. Were we learning about the process of making wine and then had a wine tasting session. We learnt about tasting notes and flavours,  and appropriate food pairings. In the tasting we tasted 3 white wines and 3 red wines, all european wines. 

A turtle made out bread with sandwich inside. This was made by one of the superior students with an afternoon tea.  

THIS WEEK 

Demo 22: 

Les Farces (Chicken Breast stuffed with Chicken mousse)

This was a dish that I really enjoyed doing. There was a lot of techniques involved in create the mousse and then stuffing, rolling and poaching the chicken, but the end result tasted great!  

It was served with a courgette spaghetti and a tomato reduction. The process of creating the mousse was to combine chopped chicken breast with egg white and lots of sea salt. Blend in a robo cop (strong food processer that blend and chopped things very finely), only to a fine paste we then has to pass the content through a fine drum sieve.The holes on the sieve are so fine that it took about 20 mins to get all the content through! Only this was passed we then put it in the blast chillers to cool down quickly. Once chilled to then added chopped rosemary and thyme and became adding cream very slow to ensure it did not silt! Once it came to a moouse like consistently we then piped it in the a flattened chicken breast. We then rolled the breast up to form a long tube like shape. The cooking process was to wrap the chicken up and cooking it in simmering water till cooked through, then sliced and served!        

 Apple cutting chef did in one of the practicals  

Demo 23: Exam Dish Number 2

This is the second of the possible exam dishes. Lemon Sole fillets in white wine and tomato sauce with pan-fried spinach and boiled turned potatoes. This dish is much the same in difficultly, again we were ask to fillet a whole fish and debone it. It was then served with the lovely turned potatoes and peeled cherry tomatos. The same problems applied for this dish took us all 3 hour and should of taken 2. So looks like i will be eating lemon sole and chicken for the next 3 weeks!  

Demo 24: Filet de Truite Meuniere aux Amandes 

Pan-Fried fillet of Trout with Almonds 

Today we every given a whole ocean trout and had to fully fillet and debone the fish. It was then served with a beurre noisette of almonds and Pommes de terre l'anglaise (turned potatoes but slightly larger ones!)

I really enjoyed this dish it beautiful piece of fish and very fresh! Ate it at 11am this morning after plating it in the practical. Trout for morning tea! 

We also had to make a Hollandaise Sauce in the practical but just presented it in the bowl, dont have a photo for you! So photo below is from the demo where the chef used it as a sause over brill steaks which was poached in milk. Doing by hand is definitely a work out full 5 min of content whisking!  

So now you are all up to date with where i am at Le Cordon Bleu. Classes are now finished for the week 5 day weekend back there Monday for Crab dishes! 

Olympics

I was lucky enough to go to two events at the olympics last wednesday night and thursday morning!

Womens Beach Volleyball Medel Matches 

Bronze Match: Brazil VS China 

Gold Medel: USA VS USA 

Here are some photos from the night. It a great atmosphere and was in a temp stadium that was build in St James Parks, so an amazing location. the atmosphere was great lots of music and intervals of dancers and singing performance by MIKA. 

Dancers in the change of ends 

 

China VS Brasil

 USA VS USA 

 MIKA 

Olympic Theme Macrons in Restaurant in SOHO

 Diving Semi Final Thursday 9th. The diving was great, really good to see two aussies progress to semi final and then one win silver that night! The dives were pretty incredible the stuff they do from a 10 m platform is spectacular! It was also great to see the olympic park and all the stadiums they have build out there! Aome are from my photo and some are from my camera so quality is varied sorry! 

 After the diving I went and meet two friends and spend the afternoon having a picnic and lying in the sun at hyde park! So special and amazing!