Girl Cook in Paris.

Crantinis

2011-12-02T17:07:00.001+01:00

Here's a cocktail that is both beautiful and intoxicating, so be careful - they are so nice looking and festive, that you might forget to sip!

We once offered Crantinis at a dinner party as a pre-dinner cocktail. Almost half of our 11 guests were french, and none of them took up the offer. Not even interested. They went for the Champagne. I'm not saying that that says anything, I'm just saying that that is the way it was. (That's a lot of "thats" in one sentence, isn't it...and my old english teacher must be cringing wherever he is...). Four of us did go for it, however. Three American gals & one Irish guy. He said something like, an Irishman would never turn down an offer for a drink....neither could the Americans apparently!

So, here's how I make them:

Enough for 2 drinks

2 shots vodka
1 shot cranberry juice extract (fresh cranberries that are put through a juicer)
splash of lemon
1 shot of simple syrup* (optional)
Lots & lots of ice cubes - as many as will fit in your martini shaker

* simple syrup = putting equal quantities of water and sugar in a pan and warming it until the sugar melts. Make as much or as little as you need.

Yes, I shake mine. Always. So, that's it: add all ingredients to the cocktail shaker & shake it up, baby. Keep shaking. Maybe put a towel on the shaker because it's going to get good & cold. Keep shaking. Water from the melted ice that you've been shaking will dilute the drink a bit (definitely in a good way). Then pour a little & taste. Is it good? Do you like it? If not, now's the time to rectify it. Add a little more cranberry juice or more simple syrup....or maybe more vodka? I certainly won't judge...

I actually prefer it on the dry side rather than sweet, but everyone might not agree with me on this. I added freshly juiced cranberry juice because we didn't have any bottled cranberry juice in stock but did have an extra bag or two of cranberries in the freezer. That made the cranberry juice natural, without added sugar, and by default, it turned out Crantinis on the dry side.

Don't you just love the little bubbles? I only added this picture because of that....and the brilliant red color which I swear is only possible if you use freshly juiced cranberry juice...

This drink is smooth, tart, acidic, and has a hint of vodka. Bon dégustation. Hope you enjoy.

Tarte Fine à la Tomate & Moutarde

2011-09-08T18:35:00.002+02:00

Tomato & Mustard Puff Pastry Tart

The tail end of summer is winding down fast. Here's an easy tart to pull together that uses the last summer tomatoes you may have on hand. This makes a great lunch when served with a salad, packs well for picnics or makes nice appetizers if cut into bite-size pieces.

Ingredients:

200-230g / 7-8 oz puff pastry (either fresh, or frozen that has been thawed)
5-6 ripe tomatoes, sliced thinly and seeded
about 2-3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
about 1/3 - 1/2 cup of grated gruyère or swiss cheese
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper
herbs de provence, to taste
chopped sun dried tomatoes (optional)
1 tablespoon capers (optional)

It's so easy, that you can practically follow the pictures to understand how to do it:

I used a 26 cm / 10 inch glass pie pan - I buttered the bottom before laying out the puff pastry dough inside. Make a decorative edge by pinching the sides with your figures (we'll just call it rustic then). You could also make this in a rectangular shape or cut into small individual circles. Use a sheet of parchment paper underneath in these cases. Dock the dough; rest in fridge until needed.
Preheat oven to 200°C /400°F (I used convection).
Cut your tomatoes thinly and seed them. Coat with olive oil. Set aside until needed.
Spoon the mustard on the bottom of the puff pastry dough.
Sprinkle with cheese. Just a thin layer is enough. This isn't really about the cheese, it's all about the tomato. Sprinkle sun dried tomatoes over the cheese (if using).
Place the sliced tomatoes in a rosary pattern around your tart, on top of the cheese. You could even cut them in half again to get a tighter pattern. I didn't do that today, but when I do, it looks really nice.
Season well with salt, pepper and herbs de Provence (or substitute with rosemary, thyme). Sprinkle a little more chopped sun dried tomato and capers, if using.
Bake in oven about 20 minutes, or until nicely browned on the top, side and bottom (the advantage of the glass is that you can actually see it). The tomatoes should be cooked down a bit & there shouldn't be liquid left from the tomatoes.
Remove from oven and let rest about 15 minutes. Can be served room temp or slightly warmed but I find that it's not as good if served piping hot out of the oven.

Enjoy!

:/dma

Bye Bye Bali...Back to Paris

2011-09-05T09:46:00.001+02:00

It's been forever since I've was in Bali and returned to Paris. Since end of April in fact. Don't know what happened here. Time seems to have just evaporated, like it tends to do. The year has been busy with several events, private dinners, cooking lessons and the such, but also with lots of visitors.

OK, so that's my way of explaining why I haven't been around much. "Stuff" has been happening. Oddly enough, it's not as easy to restart as I thought. The longer the break, the more difficult it is.

The good news is that I've been cooking up a storm this year...!

Anybody still out there? (I hope, I hope!)

:/dma

Fruit Smoothie

2011-04-11T10:58:00.000+02:00

I just love smoothies and have been making a lot of them here in Bali. All you need is a blender, some fresh fruit or vegetables, a few ice cubes and/or cold juice. I personally prefer the naturally sweet, fruit smoothies, but have insisted on occassionally drinking the less sweet, vegetable varieties, all in the name of good health.

Here's a fruit smoothie recipe that I made not so long ago. Of course, you don't have to use as many ingredients as I did - that's what happened to be on hand. They're absolutely delicious with a couple of fruits only - and most any variation works well as far as I'm concerned. There's only one critical rule: the fruit must be ripe, and therefore full of flavor!! I know that goes without saying, but I felt compelled to say it anyway!

Recipe

1 baby banana
1 white peach
about 1/2 a cup of each: watermelon, papaya, mango
1/2 cup of fruit juice (orange, or apple, or whatever you have; I used freshly squeezed orange)
5-10 ice cubes

Cut fruit into chunks & place in a blender with the juice. Turn on and blend till smooth...you may need to stop & stir the pot a few times, or add a splash of water, to get it mixing well...Add as many ice cubes as you like - it does dilute the flavor a bit, but the trade off is that it produces a thicker, more refreshing drink. Which I'm all into around here!

Optional additions: Greek plain yoghurt & honey, tsp of wheatgerm, a few leaves of arugula, carrot juice instead of fruit juice...we could go on and on here...

Enjoy!

:/dma

Bali Food - Tropical Fruits Part 1

2011-03-07T12:34:00.009+01:00

I simply can't get enough of the local fruits. Even a banana tastes so much better than a banana....And it's not just me romanticizing things because of the beautiful surroundings, they really do taste better!

Tropical fruits in Bali are refreshingly satisfying, but more importantly, they are fresher than fresh. I think it may have something to do with lack of refrigeration at the markets and perhaps in many homes. Therefore everything is harvested just in time for selling, and bought just in time for using. Or so I've been reading. At any rate, they are the freshest tropical fruits I've had in a long time.

I find myself naturally gravitating toward these wonderfully nutritious treats. Any time of day. It feels like I'm on an unplanned spa detox, or something, because I've lost all interest in french style breads & pastries, cheeses, and even wine. (Yes these items are available here in my hotel, at the expat grocery stores, or at specialty stores/cafés). I just have no taste for them. Anyone who knows me well might find that hard to believe, but with so many fruit choices and fruit juices at hand, I tell you it's easy to do.

Here is a sampling of some local fruits, many of which I tried for the first time:

The Rambutan, or sometimes called the hairy red fruit. It reminds me of a lychee but not quite so juicy. The flavor is great however. I love it & recommend trying it. The "hairs" are not as prickly as they might seem. And it's quite easy to open up. I used a knife just to see, but you can easily peel it and pop it into your mouth. Just be careful not to eat the pit.

The Salak, or snakeskin fruit, is a rather exotic looking thing. Who would ever guess you'd find a fruit inside that hard looking armoured exterior? It's not a soft fruit. In fact, it's crunchy and kind of hard. The texture almost reminds me of a clove of garlic. In fact, it looks like a clove of garlic on the inside, but luckily tastes nothing like it. It has more of a nutty taste with a citrus acidity. Each of the white bulbs contains a big brown pit which is not edible. I find this fruit interesting. I don't know what you could do with a salak other than to eat it as is....but I certainly appreciate it, even if it's not the first fruit I would grab from the fruit basket (that honor goes to passion fruit...)

Orange Peel Passion Fruit - simply amazing. So fresh; so fragrant. In Paris, I can buy passion fruit (with a dark red peel) at the légumerie and the vendor will pick out the wrinkle skinned ones because those are the ripest. Here, that's not been the case. The skins have been smooth & fresh looking. If you're not familiar with passion fruit, simply cut them in half and scoop out what's inside. The fruit is actually a gelatinous kind of liquid with seeds. The liquid is divine and the crunchy seeds are edible. All together, it is outrageously good. The perfum of the fruit is delicate and hard for me to describe. You must taste one for yourself. In this variety, the liquid is a pale grey color and the seeds are a darker shade of that. You can see the uncut, whole fruit in the top photo - it might look like an orange, but it is a passion fruit. And by the way, they are super light weight.

Yellow Peel Passion Fruit - here the very smooth outside peel is a pale yellow color, the gelatinous liquid is yellow, and the seeds are dark. This variety also tastes divine. This particular one was very juicy, and slightly acidic....making it very good! The little white nubbies inside are really soft and pliable which is a nice mechanism for protecting the delicate fruit inside. It's no wonder that passion fruit finds its way into many dessert and pastry delicacies...

More tropical fruits from Bali to follow later on...

:/dma

Bali Adventures

2011-02-25T20:36:00.028+01:00

Yesterday it was 6°C (43°F) in Paris. Today, I'm in Bali with 30°C (86°F) temperatures and 95% humidity. (It took 25 hours door to door, by the way, in case you're wondering...)

I usually drone out the noise of traffic , sirens, and the occasional drunk before falling asleep in Paris. Here the sounds are much different - high winds and monsoon rain storms at the moment, tropical birds, or intense waves crashing against the beach. I am a world away.

Join me on this adventure over the next four weeks. More than anything, I hope to share new food discoveries from Indonesia. I have no doubt there will be plenty! And I never would have imagined coming here like this...

/dma

Survey on French Pastry, Boulangerie & Food Experience in Paris

2011-01-14T17:00:00.000+01:00

For all you French pastry, bread & food lovers, please take 5 minutes to fill out the survey that can be found on this link:

http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=947ab6b9-e142-4032-abe5-a09cdc487403

It will help my friend Guillemette with her final thesis for her master's degree in Patisserie-Boulangerie tourism in Paris.

Merci beaucoup!
;/dma

My New Scooter

2010-11-01T20:34:00.001+01:00

Just to share some news. I'm now mobile! Oui!

I've had my little Peugeot Ludix two full weeks now. It's been a challenge to say the least. Here's what I've gotten used to in this short period of time:

navigating the traffic of Paris,
safely driving through some of it's crazy round-abouts (but I still don't feel ready for the Arch de Triomphe yet...),
surviving some aggressive traffic (e.g., on strike day when Montparnasse was completely blocked off....let me tell you that the drivers were getting plenty irritated...honking all over the place, and whatnot...),
surviving the gas strike (luckily, I didn't run out...but that feeling of uncertainty is not much fun...),
driving on two wheels - hadn't done that in a very long time!
driving with a load after shopping, etc.
driving with a GPS
driving during rush hour, but I much prefer driving around on a quiet Sunday morning!
driving outside of Paris, even...
driving in the rain
getting my speedometer fixed (yes, this never happens, said the mechanic...except it did...)
having perpetual "bad hair"; oh well, something's gotta give!

I'm over the hump. Have been to several customer events with it & food on hand! I love the flexibility it brings me.

And I promised Eric to stay out of the blind spot of big trucks & buses....

So, now, my new motto is: "Have scooter; will deliver!"

/dma

The Scoop on Scoop

2010-09-22T19:19:00.000+02:00

Unfortunately, Scoop, "le café branché" is gone. It closed its doors sometime recently, over the summer break apparently. I only found out the other day, as I walked down rue Saint Honoré like I have a million times before, and was shocked to find it was simply not there anymore!

I don't know the story behind why they closed - it had a good following. Some even thought they had the best burger in Paris. Others liked their bagels. And of course, they were known for their ice cream. Looking at their website gives a clue - it appears they're planning something new....I say, "Bon chance! And please stay close to the neighborhood!"

I feel a need to make a batch of bagels in remembrance of the old place...

Here's a picture of the new place. It's called Oh mon Cake!! (Oh my Cake!!, as if that needs translating!). I haven't felt compelled to try it. Maybe because I've been too busy making my own sweets lately or maybe because I'm not that in to rice crispy treats and pound cakes. (I'm sure that if I were to actually go in, I would discover much more.) If anyone tries it, I hope to hear from you!

:/dma

Encornets de pesto - Baby Squid with pesto

2010-08-25T23:32:00.001+02:00

If you like Mediterranean food, including baby squid, you just might like this. It's really delicious if you can find fresh ingredients, which is what I did here, thanks to a visit to Marché Raspail in the 6th district of Paris. This becomes a great 1st course for summer - served at room temperature.

Ingredients for 4 servings
600g whole baby squid, cleaned up & cut into small rounds
1 lemon to garnish the plate

Pesto:
2 bunches of fresh basil
1 clove of garlic (2, if you love garlic)
80g (approximately) parmesan, high quality
80g (approximately), toasted pine nuts
splash of lemon
~100 ml of high quality olive oil

In your food processor, add garlic until pulverized. Add basil & mix. Add parmesan & pine nuts. Add olive oil. Season. Add lemon juice. Adjust seasoning & ingredients as necessary.
In a frying pan, heat a splash of olive oil. Add the calamari rings, season & cook until tender (some water will be released). Don't overcook or they become rubbery. Remove from pan.
Coat the calamari with some pesto. Stir. Add more pesto as required & season to taste.

Be sure to serve with a fresh baguette & a nice Sancerre.

Enjoy!

/dma

Salicorne (Pousse-Pierre)

2010-08-18T11:57:00.001+02:00

I've got salicorne on my mind. We recently had dinner with friends from Colombia, who were passing through Paris - so I went to the market on Sunday morning to see what I could find for dinner that night. At the fish shop sat a pile of fresh salicorne. Cool! I don't see that often, and so I eagerly asked the fish guy to give me a few handfuls.

So, what is salicorne exactly? I tasted it for the first time in the marshlands of Brittany many years ago while visiting a fleur de sel "farm", just off the Atlantic coast. It's a green plant, a sea vegetable, that grows wildly along the salt marshes. We picked some that day & ate it on the spot, guided by an expert from the region. It was salty, immensely crunchy & very moist! An explosion of sea in your mouth, without it tasting too salty, oddly enough. I immediately liked it.

Salicorne goes by many names...I don't think I've seen anything called so many different things! My favorite is sea asparagus because, well, they kind of look like mini asparagus (to me) & they taste like the sea! Other names include slender glasswort, sea beans, sea pickle, and samphire. Isn't Google great...It also clarified for me that it originates off the coasts of Europe but can also be cultivated and found in other parts of the world, including the coasts of North America, South Africa and South Asia. Many high end restaurants use it on their plates because it is surprisingly good & beautiful.

It can be eaten raw, pickled, and sautéed....

I served it raw on Sunday night as part of the entrée froid (cold 1st course): Ceviche de bar, mariniére de coquillages aux aromates et salicorne (Sea bass ceviche, shellfish & aromatic vegetable salad with sea asparagus).

Here's how I prepared it:

I gave it a brief soak in fresh water and then painstakingly cut off the ends of each mini stalk, where it had browned ever so slightly & I didn't think that would look so appetizing on the plate (see middle photo above - cutting the ends off so meticulously is probably not necessary unless, of course, they've started to go bad...it's just my preference to eat them looking pristine, so that's why I did it that way...) Then I tossed them with a vinaigrette, added some freshly ground pepper, and DID NOT salt them! They're plenty salty as it is, which by the way, you might want to leave them to soak in water a bit more than I did to desalinate them more... Anyway, next I simply added the seasoned salicorne to the plate, as a decorative garnish. That's all. Not everyone will like the texture or taste, but it's certainly a discovery & well worth trying. It's at the tail end of the season, so if you come across it, don't be afraid to give it a try!

Hope you enjoy it!
/dma

ps. It was great to see you again, Patricia & Philippe!

Arlette's Tabouli

2010-07-03T11:09:00.055+02:00

I'm calling this Arlette's tabouli in honor of Arlette. Arlette is the Lebanese mammy who has lived in Paris the past 20 years and who had been taking my Monday night cooking lessons at the Centre Vercingétorix all year long. Classes are now over, following the schedule of the vacances scholaire (school vacation).

One of our last lessons was called simply Mezze. I brought my three recipes that night: tabouli, cucumber-yogurt-mint salad, and hummus. The week before everyone had enthusiastically agreed to the idea of doing these Mediterranean inspired salads, or Mezze ( it is for eastern Mediterranean foods what Tapas is to the Spanish....small appetizer dishes that can be served with a drink as a starter to a meal, or with enough, they can become the meal itself).

I really needn't have brought recipes because shortly after we got started, it became apparent that Arlette was going to lead this class! Not out of some arrogant desire to take control or show the others what she could do....no, not at all. That is the complete opposite of this woman, who is naturally quiet, patient, and respectful. In fact, I was happy to see this more assertive Arlette who had seemed all year long willing to do the last tasks no one else volunteered for (peeling onions, cleaning lettuce, chopping garlic, etc). Rather, her quiet leadership gradually and naturally happened - from someone who has made these dishes all her life, a million times or more, methodically and confidently, with no recipe at all in mind!

So, I share this Mezze in honor of Arlette. It represents to me the thousands of other recipes that are borne out of tradition, passed down from generation to generation. In actuality, my recipe & hers are not much different except Arlette doesn't boil the water to soften the bulghur. (And now I don't either!) I've included quantities from my own recipe as a basic guideline. Use it & adjust to your own taste preferences.

Ingredients - 6 servings

200g bulgur, fine
water to cover the bulgur by 2-3 inches (5-8 cm)
250g tomatoes, diced
55g spring onion
75 - 100g lemon juice
75 - 100g olive oil
1/2 bouquet of fresh mint
1 - 1.5 bouquets of fresh, flat-leaf parsley
salt, pepper

Rinse bulgur well with water. Place in a large bowl & cover with tap water. Let sit for about 20 - 30 minutes or until bulgur is softened.
Peel, seed & dice the tomato (or simply dice without peeling & seeding, if you prefer).
Finely chop the spring onion.
Clean & dry the herbs & then finely chop.
After bulgur is ready, drain any excess water. Add the tomatoes, onions, lemon juice, olive oil mint, parsley, salt & pepper. Mix together well. Adjust seasoning as desired (add more lemon juice & olive oil if too dry; make sure it's salted & peppered enough).

p.s. An authentic libanese tabouli does not have cucumber, chick peas or anything else added. Feel free, if you like! I don't mind. But Arlette might! ;)

An idea of what else you can do with Tabouli:

1st course: Tian de tabouli, orange, guacamole & crab

Enjoy!
/dma

Forest of Green on the Champs-Elysées

2010-05-27T07:18:00.007+02:00

Much has already been written about the 2-day transformation of the Champs-Elysées into a bio-diverse landscape of green vegetation, called Nature Capitale (May 23rd & 24th). We had to go see it, along with over a million other people. Yes, it was packed, even at 11am on a holiday Monday (Pentecote). With so many people all converging at the same spot, we only lasted an hour there. I'm still glad we went. Here's what we saw, starting at the Arc de Triomphe end of the Champs-Elysées:

This is where we stopped our visit, about half way down to Place de la Concorde. Along the way, we ran into entertaining street musicians, admired a concept car at the Renault store, did some pretty interesting people watching, got a kick out of seeing all the traffic lights without the traffic, and enjoyed being able to walk down the Champs Elysées amongst all the green, without a single honking horn!

:/dma

Paris Outdoor Markets - What's in Season - Rhubarb Compote

2010-05-21T14:07:00.001+02:00

Rhubarb!! It's here! Enjoy its bounty while you can.

A pile of rhubarb at the market - grown outside of Paris

The variety of rhubarb grown here has a rich pink color and these particular ones are nice & thin. I find them to be less tart here compared to the ones back home and so I can get by using less sugar when I cook them. Here's a recipe for a rhubarbe compote that I like very much. If you let it cook too long, the vibrant color dulls out & the texture is a bit "mushier", but no worries, it still tastes great!

Recipe: Compote de rhubarbe (Rhubarb compote)
Makes a large quantity; can be halved.

1.5 kilos rhubarb
zest of 1 orange
Juice of 2 oranges
50g sugar (or more depending on the tartness of the rhubarb)
2 vanilla beans
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier (optional)
1 kilo strawberries

Clean rhubarb under cold water. Cut off ends. Remove any fibers (if tough). Cut into 1 inch slices (roughly).
Remove the zest of the orange (using a microplane works the fastest)
Juice the oranges into a small bowl.
Scrape seeds from vanilla beans or use extract; add to orange juice.
Add sugar to bowl with orange juice & stir to mix. Add the rhubarb pieces & stir well. Pour into baking pan & cover with foil.
Bake at 200C (400F) for 30 minutes (the juices will be released during this time); stir; remove foil & bake another 20 minutes or until fruit is soft & the juices have become reduced. Let cool.
While rhubarb is baking, clean the strawberries & remove hull. Slice into med-thin slices (vertically).

You can add the strawberries slices during the first 30 minutes to make a strawberry-rhubarb compote. Or, you can simply add the raw strawberries to the cooled rhubarb compote. Personally, I prefer adding strawberries without cooking them but only if the strawberries are nice & ripe & full of flavor. It's not a true compote like this, but it sure tastes great with yogurt, over ice cream, with a crepe, with pancakes, over angelfood cake, in a "verrine"....I could go on & on...!

Store in fridge. Should be eaten within a few days since the sugar content is so low - it doesn't hold as long as a confiture or a true compote.

ENJOY!

At Marché Raspail this morning...a beautiful moment

:/dma

Basic Techniques: Roasting Red Peppers

2010-05-14T02:10:00.048+02:00

Roasting peppers - it's easy, fast and versatile.

How to easily Roast a pepper:

Rinse outside with water & dry. Leave whole.
Pre-heat oven to 180C (350F).
Place peppers in a pan; drizzle with olive oil & coat well.
Bake in oven 15 minutes, then rotate the peppers. Bake another 15-20 minutes or so, rotating at least another 1 or 2 times. Maybe bake another 5-10 minutes, if needed. They're done when the skin looks separated from the flesh (as in the pictures).
Remove from oven & let sit on counter until cooled.
Remove skins with a knife, or your fingers. Remove core & seeds.
Reserve in olive oil. Store in fridge. Keeps several days.

Unpeeled on left; peeled on right

Other methods will tell you to roast at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time (say 200C/400F for 10 - 20 minutes), typically turning the outer skin black & charred. This works, too, but my preference is to use a lower temp & to cook for a (slightly) longer time. The texture stays more intact this way, and the color stays vibrant. Higher temperatures can blacken the pepper itself, in addition to the skin. (There aren't too many occasions when I'm looking for a blackened pepper, but if I were, I'd do it this way.)

They will also tell you to place the roasted peppers in a paper or plastic after removing from the oven & then to peel after they're cool enough to touch. I don't use bags anymore. I find it's simply not necessary & it only wastes a bag that ends up in the garbage. Sitting on the counter is just fine (if they're roasted long enough in the oven).

I've seen professional kitchens roast their peppers directly over the gas flame. This definitely gets the skin charred which often requires a rinse after wards to get all the black bits off. Of course, you can end up with a grilled & smokey taste this way. I find that it's not that easy to do at home where my burners aren't strong enough to handle the job easily. I end up babysitting them over a hot flame...and well, it's just easier to toss them in the oven & let them be!

One observation: I find that yellow peppers are harder to peel than red; I tend to let the yellow peppers sit in the oven a bit longer than the red ones.

What I like do with roasted peppers:

Use in salads, sliced julienne (into strips).
Make a red pepper sauce, such as romesco or coulis.
Add to pasta - delicious.
Add to an appetizer platter (with baby artichokes, olives, olive-oil marinated feta cubes, etc), served with a baguette & flavored olive oil on the side.
Make a red-yellow pepper soup.
Put in a sandwich.
Frankly, I use these anywhere that raw red peppers are called for. (Some people can't digest raw peppers, so this makes it edible for them.)

Salade Nicoise

/dma

Gateau Tout Chocolat

2010-05-11T11:47:00.003+02:00

Do you mind if I simply share a picture? I made this cake for a private dinner on Monday night. It eventually had some birthday candles & a "Bonne Anniversaire" sign in the middle...

This is one of my favorite cakes. Tout chocolat in french means "all chocolate" and what a perfect name for this gateau. It's a layered cake with sablé chocolat (chocolate shortbread), chocolate-almond cake/brownie and chocolate mousse. What I love about it, however, is that the sablé chocolat has fleur de sel (sea salt) in it....so when you taste it, you experience a very subtle salty-sweet sensation!

On Monday it was served with a creme anglaise sauce, but you could also serve it with a chocolate sauce or rasberry coulis, if you like. For those living or visiting Paris, please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to order this cake. It would be a pleasure for everyone (including for me to make)!

:/dma

Lots to catch up on

2010-04-13T12:29:00.009+02:00

It's such an overused phrase...."time is passing so quickly"....and, of course, it's overused because it holds so much truth! I can't believe it's been a month already since my last post. When such gaps do occur, it's only for a good reason, however: it means I'm busy at work. I do hope you will stick with me during such slow periods on this blog.

Let me try to catch up a bit with some highlights. And I promise to post a recipe soon.

Rendez-vous Dimanche: I've been collaborating with the great Terrance Gelenter on this new event, a "stylish supper club" for up to 20 guests who will enjoy meeting the guest speaker of the night, Alan Riding. We're looking forward to kicking off this 1st event on Sunday April 18th. There's been lots of planning work involved to make sure we're ready & organized! If you hadn't guessed, I'll be preparing the menu...

Cinnamon Swirl Roll Experiment -- Sadly a "Non": Remember back in February when I was so absolutely thrilled with the buttermilk dinner roll recipe (from Ruhlman's blog)? Well, I had the thought to tweak the recipe into a great cinnamon roll. I added more sugar to the dough itself & then loaded it with butter & cinnamon-sugar.....but alas, I was disappointed in the result. The texture was not nearly as light & fluffy as before. Was it just that batch I made? Or are there simply better recipes? Who knows?! If anyone else tries this, please let me what happens for you. ( I don't even think that a sugar glaze on top could have saved these...!)

Rino Restaurant -- a definite "Oui": This new little "micro-bistro" just opened in 2010 by Giovanni Passerini, 2nd who worked under Petter Nilssen of La Gazetta. We went for lunch. The choices are very limited: a choice of 2 entrees, a choice of 2 main courses, and dessert. This might put a few people off, but for me, it's perfectly OK to put my trust in the chef. The food was delicious, inventive & very fresh. The cost for all three courses was 22 euros - quite a good value, in my book.

Chocolate soufflee and soufflee soirees -- no more please!!: I think I would call March the month of soufflees for me. I made more souffles last month than I think I have in my entire life!! That's a lot of soufflees. Suddenly they were everywhere in my cooking classes -- with cheese, or with spinach, with Grand Marnier, with chocolate....etc, etc....we did them all - savory and sweet. As much as I love soufflees, even I have my limits!! Variety is the spice of life you know...

Pappa al pomodoro -- can I have some more please!!: During a private wine-food pairing event for 14 people, I was asked to make something called pappa al pomodoro....It was an Italian wine tasting and the goal was to challenge the chianti tasting with lots of tomatoes, hence pappa al pomodoro (but don't ask me what the pappa meas...). This turned out to be a favorite of not only mine, but of those at the event....and then those at two different cooking lessons that I subsequently gave. It was unanimous -- this is hearty comfort food; the kind that sticks to your ribs & makes you feel all warm inside. And it's simple to prepare with only four ingredients: bread, tomatoes, olive oil & basil. A glass of red wine is required. I hope to post this recipe soon while there is still a chill in the air...

Macaron madness!! If I wasn't making soufflees, I was making macarons. Strawberry & chocolate, pistachio, caramel au beurre sale, white chocolate with rasberry, double chocolate....for private lessons, for group lessons, or batches made for my own events.....I'm up to my eyeballs in macarons! I still find them to be finicky things -- especially when making them on humid days. I still love them. Macarons are the "new cupcake". There's been lots of interest by Americans. It will be interesting to see how this evolves back in the US.

That's all for now!

/dma

Highlight of last weekend - Johnny Depp spotting!

2010-03-09T14:54:00.003+01:00

OK, I just have to write about this. No pictures again. This time intentionally. I had my camera on me. It was just a moment to have some discretion. I'd never make it in the paparazzi world...

(The picture below is something I found on the internet. I just had to include it).

It was late Saturday night, after a rather long day - first at the Europain exhibition at Parc d'Expositions and then to the Swan Bar...finally we ended up at a little Italian restaurant around 9pm for dinner. The long day was coming to an end - my friend and I were heading back to the RER stop at Port Royal. It was frigid cold. We were walking briskly. Then Ali says, "Is that Johnny Depp? I think that's Johnny Depp!!!" I look up immediately, into the restaurant, and say, "OMG, it's him. It's him!" I get a "Don't stare" from my friend. (Kind of hard not to, I tell you!). At that point, there was a full window lending a nice view of the actor.

I won't say where we saw him out of respect for his privacy. Let me tell you why. He was with his partner, who I learned is Vanessa Paradis. And they were with their 2 kids. They were eating in the restaurant like a normal family & all. He was his typical cool self -- hat, glasses, somewhat scruffy-edgy looking. She was in some sort of off-the shoulder black sequin looking top/gown (couldn't get a good look). They were sitting around a square table, laughing & having a good time....that's all. There was another table nearby, a couple, who seemed to be minding their own business, engaged in their own conversation. The place was otherwise kind of quiet & normal looking. Except Johnny Depp was there!

And there we were outside in the freezing windy night, staring through the trees into the restaurant....almost giddy with a star struck, "brush with fame" kind of excitement. Well, I was anyway. I wouldn't say we were jumping up & down with excitement, but we were pretty in to the moment!! It's Johnny Depp after all. We were there a little while, and then it started to feel like we were becoming stalkers or something. It was time to leave. First, we asked ourselves if we should go in & have a drink. Don't ask me why we decided against the idea. I suppose we didn't trust ourselves. If we got silly like that out on the sidewalk, imagine what might've happened if we were within a few tables of him! So we walked away, talking about how cool that moment just was...we talked about Johnny Depp all the way home. I just had to share this story! Have any of your own "brush with fame" stories? Would love to hear them!

:/dma

Restaurant Chez Miocque in Deauville, France

2010-03-03T13:32:00.003+01:00

It would be remiss of me not to write about another highlight of last week's trip to Deauville which was dinner at Brasserie-Restaurant Chez Miocque. I can't pronounce the name very easily, but I can easily recommend going there. Without a doubt.

Before I go any further, let me apologize upfront for not having a single picture to share. (Bad blogger!). I was totally engrossed in the evening itself, and the one and only picture I took turned out ridiculously blurry. I'll blame it on the after dinner Calvados! And on all the laughing going on that night!

We went there for lunch last year and it was very good. Had to go back, but especially so when our friend Ulla relayed her story from the night before. She arrived one day earlier than we did, and befriended the owner Jacques that night. So when we arrived on Monday night around 9:30pm for dinner, Jacques greeted Ulla and therefore us, like family. Already acquainted with Ulla, Jacques turned his attention to Robbin & I & asked where we were from. To my response "Chicago", he said, "Very, very cold". I totally agreed, but had to add, "yes, but warm hearts!". He surprised me by giving me a high five! That made me laugh. Our night was off to a fun start!

Let me try to describe this character Jacques. (He seems like a character to me. From a book or movie. A real interesting sort.) Yes, his name is tres, tres francais. His accent is adorable and he is fluent in english. Here's a man that enjoys life. Or so it seems to me. He smiles naturally & gracefully. I'm not sure his age, but it's bound to be in the retirement bracket. He's been in this business forever, and will forever be. The inside of the place is lined with photographs that date back decades. He's in every single one of them, accompanied by the rich & famous. I'll bet he's friends with each & every one of them, too. I can imagine how the place must be abuzz during the Deauville film festival. It's mostly such a crowd that fills the photos on the walls.

The food there is classic french fare. It's the kind of thing I love, especially when somebody else prepares it well! I could not resist an escalope of veal in a mushroom cream sauce, along with the garlicky sautéed potatoes. The red wine we had was very good, even if I can't remember the name. We had eaten & drank well, but I was really dying to try the tarte tatin. I noticed the women next to us enjoying a piece with a scoop of ice cream, and I imagined that a brasserie-restaurant like Chez Miocque must have a great rendition. There are tarte tatins....and then there are tarte tatins. This fell into the latter category. The three of us shared a piece. We ordered cream with ours. Ulla jokingly suggested to the waiter that the three of us really liked cream & please bring a big bowl. I thought we might get whipped cream, but what arrived was a big bowl of creme fraiche epaisse! It's kind of like a sour cream. Robbin, Ulla & I dug our spoons into the cream even before the apple pie! OMG - we were in cream heaven. This is where the best cream is produced (in the world, if you ask me!). That apple tart had been nicely caramelized as it should be & the underneath pie crust had been light & fluffy & crispy, just like I like it. Our waiter came by to check on us, by now it was getting past 11pm. We raved about it & said we had to sample a 2nd piece. None of us were hungry really, but we did need another bite so that we could taste more of that cream! (Kidding, the apple pie tasted so good that we felt like we "needed" to share just one more piece.) Our waiter said to us in all seriousness, "In this region the way we do it, is we pour the cream on top & let it slide into all the nooks & crannies". (I'm paraphrasing here, but this was the jist of it). And that's exactly what we did. Instead of each of us putting a spoon of cream on our plates & tasting a little pie with a little cream, we slathered it on. Completely. And then dug in. Those guys sure know how to eat a tarte tatin!! It was mighty fine. I'm still thinking about it to this day...

Our waiter couldn't believe we ate the entire "saucier" (gravy boat) full of cream. We then realized that they brought us an over sized bowl of cream, thinking we couldn't possibly eat it all. We sure showed them, didn't we, girls?! Oh la la....we really just couldn't help ourselves.

If that wasn't enough, Jacques, with his entourage around him in the enclosed terrasse seating area, signaled something to the waiter. The waiter quickly arrived at our table with 3 generous snifters of Calvados. We raised our glasses to Jacques & gave an "air toast" to him in his direction, which he reciprocated in kind. We were silly with elation. Having eaten well, laughed a lot, and now feeling the affects of the Calvados starting to arrive, we finally had to call it a night. We were the last customers inside. Jacques & his clan were still out on the terrasse. We talked with them a bit more, and finally said good bye. That's when we realized it had started to rain. Again, Jacques gave a secret signal code to the server guy, and seconds later, he arrived with 3 generous & extremely sturdy umbrellas. We were touched by his thoughtfulness, and offered to come back the next day to return his umbrellas. He said, "No, they are for you to keep". That Jacques sure has a generous heart. And that's how come the food at his restaurant tastes so generous too, in my opinion. This is the kind of place that could become a habit. A Deauville ritual. Jacques, if you are reading this, merci mille fois! You're the best!

Address:

Chez Miocque
81, rue E. Colas
14800 Deauville
02.31.88.09.52

:/dma

Omnivore Food Festival 5 - OFF5 - Deauville 2010

2010-02-24T08:39:00.020+01:00

Bande annonce Omnivore Deauville 2010 from Dimitri MAJ on Vimeo.

I just got back from the 5th annual Omnivore Food Festival held in Deauville, France. It was a packed program again this year - full of interesting and creative chefs de cuisine and several exhibitors, including cider/calvados producers from the Normandy region, french wineries & other food-related vendors. One thing that was very different this year, however, was the newly added program for pastry chefs that ran simultaneous to the program for the chefs de cuisine. This required another MC, Julie Andrieu who accompanied the extremely talented MC from prior years, Sebastian Demorand.

I wake up this morning feeling tired from the past couple of days, filled with travel, good food, good company, and of course, the rich OFF program itself. I love this kind of tired - it puts me in a reflective mood. So, what am I thinking? Here's a brief synopsis:

I'm very glad I went to OFF5 and I continue to highly recommend it (but only if you have a good understanding of french). It provides a perspective of food trends and cooking approaches, old and new. Above all else, I still find it interesting to discover what inspires other chefs, to gain a small insight into their philosophies, and to see and hear them first hand. All of the chefs approach the stage differently, express themselves differently, and I see these differences reflected in their recipes & plates.
All in all, I saw more simplicity than avant-garde or molecular gastronomy this year, although there was a little of that. More present than that, it seems to me, was the human approach and making things "lisable" (easy to read), a theme that continued from last year's event. I didn't see any langoustines, lobsters, or truffles. There were lots of vegetables....and quite a few oysters. I'm not sure what the oysters may mean, but as for the rest, does this have anything to do with needing to comfort us during the past year of financial crisis? Well, who knows, but that thought floats around my mind a bit.
There was a nice mixture of "extoverts" and "introverts" up on stage. Spanish chef Quique Dacosta & French chef Paul Pairet (now in Shanghai) demonstrated the most flare... Gregory Marchand, Sylvain Sendra, David Kinch, and of course Alain Passard demonstrated a quieter approach that was equally intriguing. As I said, a nice mix.
Simple things, simply done well. For me, this sums up the the 2010 OFF event in terms of food trends.
What I was inspired by: Chef Gregory Marchand's egg yolk ravioli (I will try this), Chef Alain Passard's vegetables, MOF pastry chef of Maison Pic Philippe Ribollot, Chef David Kinch for his extremely intelligent & creative approach to cooking, Chef Alexandre Gaultier for his inventiveness & playfullness, Chef Regis Marcon for his optimism and generous heart. Well, there were lots of other inspirations...too many to relate in a short message here. Take a look at the pictures instead.

Sebastian Demorand (MC extrodinaire) with Chef Gregory Marchand of Frenchie

Roasted yellow beet with coriander grains - Gregory Marchand

Café Confidences - Chef Régis Marcon

Julie Andrieu with Chef Jean Sulpice

Poached quail eggs, apple juice gelée, beets, asparagus - Jean Sulpice

Chef Sylvain Sendra - Restaurant Itinéraires

Pastry Chef Tal Hausen (former Ferrandi student)

Chef Jean-Francois Rouquette - Restaurant Pur'

Chef Arnaud Daguin's roasted vegetables

Chef Alexandre Gauthier - Restaurant La Grenouillere

Gauthier's dish called "The Old Stalk"! (Yes, the broccoli florets have all been removed). Love the inventiveness & playfulness. If only I could get away with putting that on my menu!

Chef David Kinch - Restaurant Manresa (California)

David Kinch's vegetable medley....not sure of the name of this dish

Chef Alain Passard (middle) with his gardener (right)

Passard's beet

This was my third consecutive time going. Click here for my notes from last year if you would like to get a sense about how this conference is run & to see my favorites from last year. Can't wait for 2011!

:/dma

Buttermilk Cluster Rolls - Ruhlman's Recipe

2010-02-12T09:43:00.015+01:00

The weather in Paris lately has been frigid & bizarre. Sunny one second, flurry storm the next, followed by hail, more sun, snow....all in the same day....you get the idea. Sure feels like winter. Which is why I took so much comfort in making these buttermilk cluster rolls. The apartment smelled like a bread shop. A comforting scent wafted through the air and a warmth from the oven made it feel comfy. It's worth making these rolls just for that experience alone.

Click here for the recipe: Recipe for Buttermilk cluster rolls from Ruhlman's blog. There are very clear instructions & references to other blogs for detailed information on making them.

Here are my observations, conclusions, opinions:

1) Very good recipe. It's the kind of bread roll that's best served with something having a sauce (as the french say) or with gravy (as we say) because it's made for mopping up the plate, no matter what language you speak.

2) I proofed the dough in our oven at 35°C, the proofing setting. This worked well, especially since our apartment felt a bit on the cold side before I started all this bread making. After 1 hour it was at the double-in-size stage and normally I'd have proceeded with punching it down. However, this time, I followed the recipe & let it go 2 hours. Man did it puff up! Triple in size, I'd say. If I could hazard a guess, I'd say this had something to do with the texture being so nice. (Along with the revised recipe?)

3) I topped them with my favorite "everything" combo: poppy seeds, sesame seeds, onion powder, garlic salt & thyme. Délicieux.

4) Size of roll: too big for me. Mine were 100g each (3.5 ounces) before baking. I got a baker's dozen out of them. However, next time I'll try to make them 50g each. Seems plenty enough to me. Plus, it'd give me more of that topping-to-bread ratio which I think would be really nice.

5) I used the revised recipe (709g flour & 510g buttermilk, but added back a bit more flour when it was too sticky). The texture was extremely light & fluffy. I loved the texture the best. Can you practically feel how light & fluffy these are??!!
6) You gotta eat them straight out of the oven. I know, it goes without saying (...so why did I just say that?!)

7) There's no additional butter or olive oil in this bread. The only fat comes from the buttermilk (which counts for enough I suppose!). I tasted this difference. I must admit that I kind of missed that other kind of taste when it comes to bread...but that only happened when I ate them without anything else. When I had a sauce to mop it up with, I didn't miss it at all.

8) Would I make these again? Yes. I absolutely loved the texture of this. (Isn't that obvious by now?) But, here's what I'm thinking: wouldn't it be great to use this recipe as the base for a cinnamon roll?? I'd get the additional flavor from butter that I'm looking for, and then the sugar-cinnamon filling would add more goodness....

So, this is what I'm going to try next. Or sometime soon anyway. Will let you know how it turns out.

:/dma

Truffle Tasting Results

2010-02-09T22:20:00.018+01:00

Valentine's day is quickly approaching. It's time to share the results of the truffle tasting we did last month so you have time to buy your sweetheart a little something! Recall the following photos. This time I'm disclosing who each chocolatier is. I'm also disclosing some key comments made about each. I guess by the time you get to the 5th one, you'll have a general idea of who the winner is.

The final ranking is provided at the end, but if you want the real deal, as in a real in depth report, you'll find it in Discover Paris' newsletter (click there!). They share all sorts of discovered pleasures about this big village. I highly recommend it.

So, without further adieu, here we go:

Maker: La Maison du Chocolat
Comments:
Crunchy shell; ganache is a bit dry; exterior is dry ; taste is neutral; "good, but not exciting". (My own opinion of this truffle was very low. This surprised me greatly since I bought their truffles before & thought they were great. Granted, this was a few years ago. What happened?)
___________________________________________________________________

Surprise, Guest entry: Made by Alison Johnson, pastry chef of Michelin star Restaurant Jean
Comments:
Very good! Lingers in the palette which I like. Taste: acidic start that evolves to a fruity/floral end. Firm, dense chocolate that is moist & smooth. "This is a mini dessert in my mouth; "I love this!".
__________________________________________________________________

Maker: Jeff de Brugges.
Comments:
Strange shape. (No comment!)
Hard exterior & inside is too light (like frosting). It's imbalanced & not like a truffle (too airy). "Decent for its complexity, but for as big as it is, it lacks character".

Cross cut of the Jeff de Brugges truffle. The inside is really too much like frosting, even if it doesn't look so obvious from the photo. The outside is way to hard...This combo is no good!
_________________________________________________________________

Maker: Jean Charles Rochoux
Comments:
Square & soft. Temperature is on the cool side. Exterior melts at your touch. Texture is extremely soft. It melts in your mouth immediately. Taste is nice, dark, rich. "The size is perfect for having after a meal, with an espresso....where you could just pop one in your mouth & enjoy it immensely without feeling like you're over-indulging". I like this shape - it's very modern! Surprisingly "untruffle-like in shape, but it's fun!"
___________________________________________________________________

Maker: Wiess, distributed by Mococha on rue Mouffetard
Comments:
Shaped like gumdrops! Dense, dark interior. Light colored cocoa on the outside. Sweet chocolate taste at first, and then a cinnamon tone that lingers. Very good.
________________________________________________________________

Finally, here is how the chocolate stacks up (from most preferred to least preferred):

1) Jean-Charles Rochoux (16, rue d'assas, 75006) - go there & you won't be disappointed. This is true artisan chocolate making. A real treat.

2) Pastry Chef Alison Johnson (of Restaurant Jean, 8, rue Saint Lazarre, 75009) - a close 2nd by only a smidgen. Go to where she works...you'll love all of her pastries, and if you're lucky, she might just have chocolates on the menu.

3) Mococha/Weiss (89, rue Mouffetard, 75005) -- well worth the visit. A decent 3rd ranking. You shouldn't be disappointed with this chocolate shop.

4) La Maison du Chocolat (various addresses) - a surprising disappointment. Avoid, I say.

5) Jeff de Brugges (various addresses), who you might be surprised to know, is NOT from Brugges, but from France (with production in Belgium, or so I've been told). I didn't realize how industrialized this chocolate is because I had never tasted it before. Thought it had to be good....being from Brugges and all...(yep, I had been victim to its marketing.) Plus, the shops sure do look tempting... However, this was a big looser. Not even close to the rest. Better to not have any than to have this one. (Ouch. But, it's honestly how I feel about it. Sorry Jeff, if you even exist!)

There are lots of other chocolate shops out there....so there's plenty more for us to discover & to rank. Meanwhile, Happy Valentine's Day! And I'll leave you with this image of chocolaty treats, full of Valentine's sentiments.

Hand made by Alison Johnson

:/dma

Mini Almond Joy Bars - Recipe

2010-02-04T14:34:00.007+01:00

♫ "Sometimes you feel like a nut....sometimes you don't...." ♫

Anybody else remember that jingle from way back when? When was that? The 80s? The early 90s? (Not at all serious about that.) The 70s? Please don't say the 70s! Oh merde, it really is from that long ago...!

I'm still feeling like a nut today, no matter how old that jingle is! So, get ready for an Almond Joy bar recipe.

I'm sharing this recipe thanks to my cousin Mickey in Wisconsin (yeah, Wisconsin!). She put them out over Christmas when we stopped by her house and we really enjoyed them (read scarfed them down). Ever since, they practically become an obsession in our household. They taste that good. And you'll fall off your seat when you see how easy they are to make. I'll warn you, though, it's hard to eat just one.

Almond Joy Bars Makes a lot. You could easily cut the recipe in half, but whadda ya gonna do with half a can of sweetened condensed milk? So you might as well make 'em all. They store well, if they last that long.

16 oz (454g) dried, flaked coconut
1 can (14 oz, or 396g) of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 lb (227g) powdered sugar
Roasted Almonds (about 1 cup, or desired quantity)
High quality dark or milk chocolate, depending on your own preference. (I used dark.)

Mix dried coconut and powdered sugar together, & then mix the sweetened condensed milk with it.
Form into balls* & place a whole roasted almond on top. Press down to hold the nut in place. If the mixture doesn't hold well enough initially, put in fridge for a little while until it holds when you form it.
Chill for 8 hours until good & hard.
Melt chocolate over a bain marie. Dip the coconut-almond bar in the chocolate & remove with your fingers or a fork on to parchment paper to let set.

* Note: I didn't do this immediately & they sat in the fridge all day....so after wards, all I could do was cut them into rectangles, small squares, and other odd shapes....That worked well, too. If you do this, skip step #3, and dip the coconut piece into the chocolate, and then dip the almond & set on top. It's a bit more work this way. An alternative idea is to simply chop up the almonds & blend in the mix (in step #1) - this would be the easiest way to do it. Or, maybe you can come up with some better idea! One other thing: feel free to temper the chocolate if you want to be really pro about it -- this will give your chocolate a nice smooth sheen & characteristic crunch-like / snap-like texture. Believe me, they taste just fine without the tempering!!

Thanks again Mickey for the recipe. I'm happy to pass on such a good treat.

:/dma

Sunday's Walk

2010-02-02T08:23:00.000+01:00

I like Sundays in Paris. Nobody is in a hurry to get the day started. The mornings are quiet. Very few cars are on the streets yet. Eventually people start to show their heads outside.

Afternoons are different. It's when people are ready to do something. A walk is generally a good idea. E & I headed out ourselves, not quite sure where we wanted to go. We started crossing through the Jardin de Tuileries & then remembered there was an exposition on Clint Eastwood happening on the Champs Elysée. It's a short exposition, but a nice one. It did cover something like 40 years of his career, so it's not that short! (kidding). Here are a few photos:

Ali, I took this picture for you!

You can see the Arche de Triomphe in the distant background

After that, we wound our way around the 8th before heading back home where we passed through the Palais Royale. I was pleasantly surprised to see the construction walls had been removed from « Colonnes de Buren ». They worked on that for a year, at least. And what an eyesore it was, even if they tried to make it "fun" with all the multi-colored see-through windows. Here's what the remodeled area looks like. Not much different altogether - but with new little colored lights, and if I'm not mistaken, you can now see down to the ground underneath, through the grates, in some areas. I don't remember that before. I suppose the columns themselves are cleaner, too! People were back to posing for pictures on the posts, and small toddlers were running from one post to another. It's good to have it back.

Until the next Sunday walk, bonne sémaine!

:/dma

Last Night's Cooking Class at La Cuisine Paris

2010-01-29T11:00:00.003+01:00

I have to write about the cooking class I gave last night at cooking school La Cuisine Paris, where I work part-time. It was a group of ten people from the Czech Republic, all expatriated to France.

I've only met one other Czech in my entire life, when I first arrived in Paris and we were both struggling to learn how to conjugate the subjunctive.... Anyway, she was friendly, dynamic, open & fun. So was the group of Czechs last night. Are they all like that??!! (Kidding!) Last night's group was also keenly eager to work, participate, & get "it" done. The "it" was last night's menu consisting of:

Velouté de courgette au lait de coco /
Cream of zucchini soup with coconut milk

Daurade grillé, confit de fenouil d'anis et de vanille, confit de pomme de terre et sauce à l'orange "fondu" à l'huile d'olive /
Pan seared sea bream, fennel "confit" with anise & vanilla bean, potato "confit" & "melted" orange juice-olive oil sauce

Fondant au chocolate aux épices d'hiver /
Molten chocolate cake with warm winter spices

Keep in mind it was a two hour class, including the dégustation (tasting). After having given several two-hour classes over the past year, I can say that teaching & preparing all of this within two hours is ambitious. But guess what. That's what we pretty much did. The old "work hard, play hard" spirit was alive & kicking in this group. The first hour and a half was spent concentrating on the tasks at hand....and the last half hour was spent enjoying the fruits of labor when everyone could sit down and taste each dish, with a glass of white wine in hand.

What a pleasure working with people so eager & interested. The same is true of another class the day before - a group from the American Women's Club. If you haven't checked out La Cuisine Paris yet, I hope you do. It's a different kind of school. In a Cheers kind of way. "Where everybody knows your name".....in other words, the welcome is warm, it feels like home, and "Ted" and "Diane", alias Olivier & Jane, are there to take care of your needs, with total sincerity and a smile on their face. Bravo to them for doing a lot of things right with their cooking school. Makes me happy to be in this line of work. C'est tout...that's all I wanted to say today. What....you expecting something else?!

Address:
89, boulevard Saint Michel
75005
www.lacuisineparis.com

:/dma

Making Croissants! Video & Recipe

2010-01-14T15:14:00.015+01:00

I was asked by Gillian, of gillianyoung.com, if we could make croissants together. I liked the idea. Croissants are a weakness of mine. In fact, when we first moved to Paris, I romantically thought I'd be eating croissants everyday. But in reality, I only eat them from time to time actually (they are very rich!). When I do indulge, however, I completely enjoy each and every mouthful. Usually, my croissant indulgence is on a Sunday morning which tends to be fairly typical for french people, or so I've been told.

Eating croissants is one thing. Making them is another! They're a bit of work. I hadn't made them in years. After all, in France, a great croissant is just a street corner away! However, Gillian's reason for wanting to learn how to make croissants got me thinking. She's leaving Paris shortly....and she wanted to take this back home with her as a souvenir that could be enjoyed anytime she wanted!

And then I realized, I, too, should be making croissants more often. Not only will we leave some day, some unknown day, but I should be practicing the technique because it takes a little practice to get it just right. And finally, there's perhaps nothing better than to taste deliciously warm, freshly made croissants straight from the oven.

Last Sunday was the day we set aside for making croissants and we made lots of minis. Despite our love for croissants, we could not possibly eat all of the ones we made. So, we hit the streets of the 1st arrondissement to say bonne année (Happy New Year) and to share the little, warm flaky treats. We met some friendly people along the way. Turned out to be a fun little adventure!

Here's a brief video demonstrating the general technique behind making a croissant, edited by Gillian herself (one of her many talents). I hope you enjoy seeing people's reactions as much as we did. Additionally, I've provided a recipe that I am using and have interpreted, thanks to my time at Ecole Ferrandi. Happy Croissant making & sharing, to everyone!

Recipe

For 20 - 25 croissants:

500 g flour
12 g salt
50 g sugar
16 g fresh baker's yeast
276g water
25 g powdered milk
150g butter

Make the détrempe: flour in bowl, mix in powdered milk; make fountain & add in the center of it the yeast, sugar and salt. Add water and mix. Gradually turn onto table and work only until smooth. Takes just a few minutes. Wrap with plastic wrap & let rise in a proofing oven or on the counter, until doubled in size.
Punch down the détrempe; re-wrap with film & let rest in fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll out the détrempe and add the big block of butter in the middle. Fold over the flaps to enclose the butter inside. Let dough rest in fridge 20-30 minutes. Proceed to next step.
Do a "double turn", called "un tour double" in french. Roll out dough the length of a long rolling pin. Fold the 2 ends in, and then fold the whole thing in half.
Do a "single turn", or "tour simple" in french. Roll out dough the length of long rolling pin. Fold it into thirds. Let rest in fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll dough out to a thickness of around 2mm (very thin). Cut rolled dough into large rectangles & then cut each rectangle into triangles. Roll into a croissant shape, starting from base of triangle, rolling toward the tip. Let rise at room temp (or proofing oven) until puffy (around 20-30 minutes).
Brush with egg wash.
Bake approximately 15 minutes at 205C.

It makes more than the quantity indicated, if you them mini-sized like we did!

/dma

Chocolate Truffle Tasting - Part 1

2010-01-12T12:36:00.016+01:00

I was thrilled to be invited by Discover Paris! to a chocolate truffle tasting this past weekend. The people behind Discover Paris are Tom Reeves & Monique Wells, recent publishers of the book, Paris Insights - An Anthology.

They wanted to research different truffle makers for their upcoming February newsletter, just in time for Valentine's Day. I was more than happy to participate in such a difficult assignment!

Here's how it worked:

1) Discover Paris! collected "truffe nature" samples from five different chocolate shops in Paris. These are natural truffles, without any added flavorings such as alcohol, nuts, etc.

2) They assembled a few people around their table, including Pastry Chef Alison Johnson (of 1 Michelin star restaurant Jean), Michel Cloes (President of Chef Culinary Network), and myself.

3) The truffles arrived at the table, one at a time, identified only as Truffle A or Truffle B, C, etc. We privately commented on each truffle and rated it on appearance, touch, smell, taste, and mouth feel. We then compared notes & talked about our impressions. Finally, the scores were tallied up and a winner was announced.

Here are the truffles we tasted:

Truffle A

Truffle B

Truffle C

Truffle D

Truffle E

Unfortunately, I can't disclose the conclusions yet, because in all fairness, it is Discover Paris! who deserves those honors! However, I can share a few thoughts:

Side-be-side comparisons have a way of highlighting a flaw that might otherwise be less noticeable. It is perhaps for this reason that a well known chocolatier disappointed me so much. Either that, or they've changed their recipe (admittedly it's been 2 years ago since I last bought from them...).
No matter how many different people you have tasting something, everyone is going to have their own opinion!! That's the nature of something like cooking or pastry or chocolate making....these are highly subjective professions!
Despite these differences, a trend could be found.
There was a surprise entry in this tasting....it turned out to be quite the highlight of the event for me!

Well, that's all I can say for the moment. Look for Part 2 of this posting in early February. Until then, I wonder if you have any preliminary conclusions based on the photos alone? If so, please do share.

Thanks again, Discover Paris!, for hosting such an insightful & delicious event!

/ dma

Happy New Year & Best of 2009

2010-01-06T21:35:00.032+01:00

Is it 2010 already? How did that happen?

2009...it was a year that started off as a lamb (for me), ended as a lion. What an incredible year of ups & downs, and downs & ups!

For the new year, I wish simply to extend my warmest wishes to you. May we all share in the warmth of family, the bonds of old friends, and the kindness of strangers. May we find ourselves in good health, spirit, and outlook. May we take one step at a time, and even take a few big leaps along the way! May we grasp the best of life, each day. Have a great year!

I haven't reflected back yet on what has actually happened in my personal world, or what may come next for the new year...I still want to do that. However, today I did take the time to look back on 2009 through the lens of my camera. And here are my favorite food memories of the year! Never mind the odd non-food image...I can somehow relate it back to food!

Happy 2010.

And Best of 2009:

Spinach Falafel balls with a harissa mayo-yogurt sauce. This may be my favorite.

Taking a bite of one...sooo good.

My little creation: Tartelette au Rose (hibiscus infused apple, shaped like a rose), inspired by a romamtic & seductive photograph by Diana Liu at Galerie Sponte for its art opening in June.

Influence of Robuchon: eggplant, anchovy, roasted red pepper...the Med on a plate

Spring rolls with dipping sauce...fresh, tangy & lite

Warmed Vichyssoise (potatoe-leek soup) with a skewer of roasted vegetables & shrimp tandoori

Little gift packages of apple & cherry pâte de fruit that I created to sell in the shop that never got set up!! They still made nice gifts... (and I'd be happy to sell them, if anyone is interested!)

Crowd pleasing Shrimp masala with roasted eggplant & zuchinni

Freshly made "Everything bagel" with smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, salmon eggs

done at a filming studio of my recipe (www.qooq.com)

At the same studio, the filming of my cheesecake & cherry sauce recipes

A personal favorite: a rhubarb & strawberry "cage" with the "cage"technique borrowed from
my friend Laura at lacucinatestarosa.com

A reminder to stop & smell the roses...especially when they are this beautiful!

Adventure in the Sahara dessert of Morocco

For the love of french cheese, Langres in this case...

For the fresh produce that I love to work with, segments of orange in this case. I used a lot of fresh oranges in 2009. I could eat them every day...

And avocados from the vegetable vendor down the street who consistently sells the best, perfectly ripe avocados...ever. I also used a lot of avocados in 2009. Often with those oranges...

A reminder of spring - with fresh fava beans & peas

The OFF4 Festival in Deauville - exceptional.

The Himalayas in Nepal

At 5800 m (19,000 ft)

Seared scallops, braised brussel sprout leaves, purée of navet

And last, but not least, I could not end the year without a few pictures of this:

Macarons, anyone?

:/dma

First Buches de Noel of the 2009 Season

2009-12-08T04:37:00.008+01:00

I very recently made my first buche de Noel of this year. Three of them in fact. It was for a catering job that I did for a private party of 65 people in a very nice part of Paris. The customers are extremely gracious people, who have both an air of approachability and warmth alongside a very hefty dose of elegance. I wanted to try to make a Buche de Noel that reflected this.

The occasion was a birthday celebration for the husband. So, of course, a birthday cake of some sort was in order. Why not in the form of a buche de Noel. It is the season afterall!

And with that as a backdrop, I have to share a little insight into the difference between the French and Amercian cultures...

What I just explained about using a buche de Noel as a birthday cake with candles and all.....that is soooo American! When I went to shop (and hopefully buy) a rectangular box especially made for a buche de Noel.......I received a look of disbelief from the clerk. The specialty boxes were stacked on the highest shelf in the store - not at all reachable -- as if it was just part of inventory (in a Costco kind of way). I had to ask for help to get them down (as tall as I am, I could not even consider trying to grab them myself). Eventually there were two guys helping me on this little project and both shook their heads, "No, no - pas possible (not possible). It's too early for a buche de Noel". I chuckled to myself (if only they knew the sacred Buche would be used as a birthday cake...). I chuckled some more to myself (it's not like it's July or something....it was already the 3rd of December afterall!).

After a bit more talking, and coxing, they eventually agreed to at least try to ring it up to see if it's sell-able. The skeptical clerks went all the way to the other side of the store.....and 20 minutes later I had my answer. With an air of perplexity and disbelief, they said "mais, oui". I could buy it afterall. And let me tell you something......this whole episode that I just described.........it is sooooooo french!

p.s. In case you're wondering, here are the flavors used in my modern take on the classic Buche de Noel: lemon genoise (sponge cake) with a rasberry jelly filling, coated with a layer of chocolate butter cream frosting, that was then coated with a dark chocolate glaçage (layer). And decorated as shown.

/dma

Three-in-One Lazer Event - Organized by Bernadette Martin

2009-11-11T10:14:00.017+01:00

Last night a private event was held at our apartment for a small group of 10 people. Organized by Bernadette Martin, the evening was called a "Three-in-One Lazer Event". Think "speed dating" but with a business purpose in mind. Which is to say that each of the 10 attendees spent a brief period of time with three different consultants to pick up critical bits of information, or key "take aways", to use corporate-speak. The attendees, all entrepreneurs or highly successful business people, rotated amongst the three following "stations":

Station 1: This station included an assessment of your color profile to determine which are your most complementary colors (and most unflattering colors), tips on your appearance, and a make-up touch up to remove circles under your eyes....so that you would be ready for the next station. Consultant: Cécile Hasroyan, Image Consultant.

Cécile holding up a color swap

Station 2: Professional head shot photo taken (for use in Facebook, LInked In, blogs, websites, bios, etc). Professional photographer: Sue Ryski.

Sue setting up the photo studio (aka, my "arrière cuisine")

Station 3: Coaching on how to write an interesting bio, what purpose it serves, and individual commentary on each person's 1st draft bio that they wrote in advance as "homework" for this workshop. Consultant: Bernadette Martins, Visibility Branding, Career Personal Brand Strategist.

Bernadette's session - writing a bio

All of this was accompanied by some food & drink....supplied by yours truly, served buffet style. There were cherry tomatoes stuffed with guacamole, mini empanadas with chorizo & yellow peppers, warmed medjool dates stuffed with whole almonds with a sprinkle of fleur de sel, whipped feta cheese with roasted red peppers & camembert cheese served with baguettes, verrine mediterranean (roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, and smoked eggplant puréé), skewers of comté-green stuffed olives-proscuitto....and for dessert, a verrine tiramisu (chocolate biscuits, kirsch-soaked cherries & mascarpone cream).

The participants left the evening with a new color palette in mind (or reinforcement that they are using a good one!), a good sense of how to improve their personal bios & how to create a branded bio, and a professional photo downloaded on a USB key. Quite a nice package. And from all indicators, a good night was had by all.

The 2nd session is now scheduled for Thursday December 3th. Price: 130€ per person. Feel free to contact me for more information or you can contact Bernadette Martins, the organizer (www.visibilitybranding.com).

:/dma

Message from the Himalayas

2009-11-03T23:03:00.005+01:00

I must take a break from all of the activities that have been keeping me away from this blog lately...and share a pure highlight of my day. Today the phone rang, and I answered it without giving it a thought.

Guess who I found on the other end: my sweetie! We could talk for only 2 minutes. The call was barely audible. I heard an echo -- my own voice reverberating....and then his, too....and the awkward pauses that needed to be had as we each tried to catch up with what the other had just said....and trying to squeeze the most in during such a short duration....

I have no idea where he called from - but he had been to 4000 meters and back down to sleep at 3000. So far, no altitude sickness. Even better than that...everyone is doing great! I told him I thought of him every night, alone in bed, all snugly & warm with our down-feather comforter....wondering how he was doing in his sleeping bag in the cold snow....to my surprise, and relief, he said the weather has been not at all cold! That's my 2nd biggest worry you know, that he'll be cold. The first one is not having enough oxygen....

What a great highlight! I wanted to share the word with our family & friends who are wondering how he's doing. It's more than half-way over, his trip there. Less time ahead than behind! To wait, that is.

Chips de Banane - Banana Chips

2009-10-14T09:21:00.023+02:00

I recently went on a hunt for colombo spice, an exotic-sounding blend used in Caribbean cooking. I was also looking for christophines (commonly referred to as chayottes in Mexico.) This brought me to the 18th arrondissement of Paris where there are a ton of epicerie exotique (literally, this means exotic grocery store). In these stores I found what I was looking for...and then some! Most stores greeted me with an unrecognizable odor until I spotted the open air bins of smoked fish piled high on top of each other or next to each other. I even saw a few bins of whole chickens just sitting there. I didn't get close enough to see if the heads were still there, but I definitely saw some feet....Luckily I saw those chickens at only one store because that kind of scared me. I sure hope they were smoked because they surely were not refrigerated! I also saw several types of vegetables I didn't recognize & other things I had no idea what to do with! I honestly like exploring these kinds of stores. Makes me feel like I'm travelling or something.

Anyway, I digress. It's here that I found plenty of plantain bananas. I brought some home and I made us some banana chips. Mighty good chips, at that. Even my sister-in-law, a doctor specializing in micro nutrition, thought they were good. And she's very picky about what category of food she nourishes her body with. Rightly so. I say, if she likes them, then you might like them, too!

Recipe for 4 people - for an Aperitif or Appetizer

2 plantain bananas (green)
bunch of oil in your fryer
salt & other seasonings of choice (colombo, paprika, pimento, etc)

Basically, peel, cut & fry the bananas. That's really all there is to it. But here are a few photos to further explain...

Use the green plantains for chips. I tried the yellow one, and as you might imagine, it was more ripe (or is it riper...humm...) and therefore it was more difficult to cut & fry.

Peeling these things is the most difficult part. You can see my knife cuts down the length of the banana (they look like black lines). I made the incisions and then removed sections of the peel.

This works pretty well, if I do say so myself.

A raw banana like this is just not edible. Yuk. yuk. You will want to spit it right out. Like someone I know! Very bitter and awful tasting. The texture looks kind of tough & mealy, doesn't it? Well, trust me, it is.

But this is exactly what makes them easy to slice! About 1-2 mm. A mandoline makes this job kids play. Less than 30 seconds to slice a banana. (I love my mandoline!)

Fry at 180°C about 1 minute, or until all of the water is evaporated off & they crisp up.

These are just about done here. After that, just turn out onto a paper towl, season & serve immediately.

They'll be gone in a second...

And for the curious, here's a picture are the "chips" made with the ripe banana (see below). They're actually very, very good. I just wouldn't call them chips because they didn't crisp up like the other one, no matter how long I left it in the hot oil. They turned brown before they wanted to crisp up. Kind of weird. But what happens is this: the sugar from the banana caramelizes & you're left with this really nice, tasty, sweat treat. They might get slightly stuck to your teeth because of all that sugary goodness, but you don't mind because the taste is so sweet & nice! For me, these would be perfect with dessert. Except, despite how enjoyable they are, I'm not inclined to make them again because cutting them was a royal pain. The banana was mush by the time I got 3/4 through. And the slices that I did get through the mandoline stuck together like glue, making them a real pain to get into the fryer. It would be great to find a solution to this problem, but until that happens, I won't be doing these again. Any ideas, anyone?

As for the christophines, well, they got dropped from the menu I was planning (too expensive). But I'm still glad to have looked for them. It led me to discover a new part of Paris I hadn't seen before. I would even say it felt like I wasn't even in Paris anymore! And it certainly led me to these banana chips. A good adventure all around. Enjoy!

:/dma

New Cooking Classes & Pastry Classes in Paris - La Cuisine Paris

2009-10-11T16:29:00.011+02:00

On October 6th, a new company called La Cuisine Paris (The Kitchen) opened its doors for business. Here's their deal:

First & foremost, they offer cooking & pastry lessons to particuliers (non-professionals). Their classes are centered around different themes such as french cuisine, healthy cooking, global cuisine, special holiday cooking, and even non-kitchen topics such as wine tastings. They also offer special-event dinners, and other non-lesson things upon request.
They're located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, near the metro stop Luxumbourg.
They've installed 2 stellar kitchens & 1 really great dining room. All done in very good taste. It feels like the designer kitchen & dining room you wish you had at home.
They can offer two different classes at a time (the kitchens are side-by-side & separated by a glass wall). The limit is 12 people per class.
The company is owned by a couple - he's French and she's an American who also hails from Chicago! They left their corporate jobs to start this adventure. Don't you just love the coincidences!
For the month of October, (its first month ever in existence) it's my understanding that they're going to hold the cooking classes no matter how many people sign up. Even if only 1 person registers for a class, the lesson goes on....that's a great deal if you're the attendee! Catch it while you can because the rules might change later or their popularity might take off...
Almost all lessons are given in french, but about once a week there's an class given in english. The website is only in french for the moment, but you'll find a little english.

So, why am I telling you all of this? Besides being food- & cooking-related, the real reason is because I'll be giving some lessons there this month! Yes, those English-based lessons would be the ones I'm giving.

My first class is scheduled for October 15th. It's a 2 hour session on Mediterranean tapas (warmed hummus with tomate confite, whipped feta cheese with roasted red peppers, coriander & spinach falafel with a harissa sauce, and chorizo empanadas). Another class is is set for October 21st - it's a 3 hour lesson on American cooking (think high-end hamburgers with foie gras, fries, and a caramelized apple cheesecake). A Halloween-themed cookie-making & cookie-decorating lesson is also scheduled on October 28th - labelled as patisserie pour enfants, but kids of all ages are welcome!

Anyone interested in taking cooking or pastry lessons in Paris should consider La Cuisine Paris....and please be sure to let them know I referred you there!

Address:

La Cuisine Paris
89, rue Saint Michel
75005 Paris

www.lacuisineparis.com

:/dma

Pastry Class: Road Trip Cookies (Biscuits aux M&Ms)

2009-09-30T16:35:00.019+02:00

A friend of mine recently left Paris to seek the greener pastures of food tourism (or I should say to go study those greener pastures). Amongst other impacts, this left an empty spot at the Centre Vercingétorix where she taught pastry class on Saturdays. Whereas I'd have preferred that she stayed in Paris, if she had to leave and if her old job needed to be filled, I was glad she offered my name as her replacement.

Now it's my turn to teach pastry class at the Centre Vercingétorix in the 14th arrondissement. There are 12 students. They simply want to learn more about making pastries, desserts and sweets things. It's nothing high strung - nothing requiring students to be perfectionists....it's a community center offering classes to residents of the city. Key words here include conviviality...fun...and pastry. I like those words!

For last week's class, I opted for a simple & manageable idea: cookies. We are, after all, still getting acclimated to the kitchen, its limited amenities & to each other! The class was divided into three groups, each with a different recipe in hand (two American & one French). See if you can pick out the French cookie (!) - the choices are: chocolate chip, sablé chocolat, and Road Trip Cookies. Gee I wonder...

Everyone in the class liked all three recipes, but it was unanimous - the favorite was the Road Trip cookie, which I'm loosely translating to Biscuits aux M&Ms....or Biscuits de la route, if you prefer! Because of its popularity that day, I thought it would be a good recipe to post. Hope you like it.

Adapted from the Cookbook: Death by Chocolate - Cookies
Author: Marcel Desaulniers (Despite the rather french sounding name, he is an American chef and part-owner of The Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia).

Ingredients - for 55 small cookies

chocolate bar, (64% cocoa minimum) 170 g
flour (2 ½ cups) 340 g
baking soda (1 tsp) 6 g
salt ( ½ tsp) 6 g
granulated sugar (¾ cup) 160 g
dark brown sugar (¾ cup) 160 g
butter, room temp (¼ lb) 115 g
eggs (jumbo) 2
vanilla extract (2 tsp) 15 g
Peanut M&Ms* 200 g

1st step. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie**. Set aside.

2nd step. Weigh out the flour, baking soda & salt. Sift them & set aside.

3rd step. Weigh the sugars (granulated & brown) and the butter in a big bowl. Beat with a hand mixer until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well. Add the vanill & the melted chocolate & stir to incorporate.

4th step. Add the dry ingredients (from the 2nd step) to the wet ingredients (of the 3rd step) and stir with a wooden spoon. Form the dough into balls and let rest in the fridge at least 30 minutes.

5th step. Cook the cookies in a pre-heated oven at 175°C for 11 - 13 minutes on prepared cookie sheets (with parchment paper, Silpat or greased). Remove to cooling rack.

Notes
* the original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cup of peanut M&Ms. I used only a cup, or about 200g. I thought it was plenty of peanut, but feel free to add more than my suggested amount!
** bain marie = pan of simmering water over which you place a bowl for melting the chocolate. The water should not boil. The choclate melts faster when broken into pieces first.

Enjoy!

:/dma

New Patisserie Shop in Paris - Philippe Conticini

2009-09-28T17:20:00.013+02:00

A new pâtisserie shop opened this month in the 7th arrondissement of Paris - on rue du Bac - called La Pâtisserie de Rêves par Philippe Conticini. This is no ordinary pastry shop. And one that I could definitely dream about!

This pastry shop is elegant, fun, creative, welcoming...and its pastries are superbe. Most of what they sell are the classics (brioche, Saint Honoré, Paris-Brest, Kouign Amann, madeleines, tart tartin, etc), however, these classics are cleverly re-visited.

Brioche Feuilletée

Deciding what to order here was unusually easy for me on my visit there last Saturday. Although I went into sensory overload just by being there (I absolutely love this kind of thing!), the selection is rather limited. And quite frankly, I prefer it that way! (Who likes going to a restaurant with a hundred things on their menu anyway?). However, I also think the way the pastries are displayed makes it easier to decide. Instead of the usual long glass display cases, they use rather demure bee-hive like glass canapes to show case their products. It's very design. Very cool. And very accessible because you can actually walk around it to see! As silly as that may seem, normally, you wait in line & nudge forward seeing a little at a time until the clerk gets to you....and you may not have had a chance to see everything yet!

And surely, my choice was made easy because I immediately spotted one of my favorite patisseries: une tarte au citron meringué (lemon meringue tart). So I inevitably had to try it ("market research", you know!). An order taker greeted me to take my order. I ordered. I went in line with my ticket. I paid, and my (designer) box of goodies was ready before I knew it. Very efficient. Having someone take your order like this is also novel for Paris....times they are a changing!

Absolutely, positively, the most géant madeleines I have ever seen!

Everything is cleverly color coordinated - from the paint on the wall, to the employee uniforms, and to the packaging. This all contributes to its "special experience" feeling. It is quite apparent that a lot of planning has gone into such a concept. I so appreciate seeing such things - it's forward thinking and modern. Bravo to the chef and his team! I can't wait to go back. I will warn you though - it's not cheap. I would also add that it's worth every cent, considering the artisinal quality and creativity behind its products. Definitively worth a drop in, or even a trip there. Enjoy!

Address:
La Pâtisserie des Rêves par Philippe Conticini
93, rue du Bac
75007 Paris
telephone: +33 (0)1 42 84 00 82

:/dma

Macaron Caramel au Beurre Salé

2009-09-16T10:45:00.036+02:00

OK everyone, here it is. I'm sharing my recipe for Macaron Caramel au Beurre Salé. FINALLY! It is absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite flavor. The recipe is my adaptation - based on two very good sources: (1) The Pierre Hermé Macaron book, and (2) Chef Thierry Jamard, our pastry chef teacher at Ecole Ferrandi. Without further adieu, here we go:

But wait, what is a Macaron anyway?
I somehow feel a need to answer this question first! Not everyone knows what a macaron is, right? How to explain? Well, it's a specialty cookie that apparently has roots in Italy but it is definitely a "Paris thing", and the macaron madness is quickly spreading around the world. Simply put, it is a small round almond cookie sandwich with a filling (often a ganache, but confitures and other fillings can be used, such as caramel butter cream which is explained here). The original macaron is small in size, but they can also be made large, stuffed with fruit and used in a multitude of ways. And a french macaron is not to be confused with what we call in the States a macarOON (the latter being the coconut cookie).

This is a macaron...

And now, let's get started.
_________________________________________________________

List of special materials & ingredients you need:

Piping bag & tip size 11 mm
Copper pan or other solid pan for making a good caramel
A Kitchen Aid or other mixer. This piece of equipment will get you the most professional results, but good old-fashioned whisking will do as a substitute (be prepared for an intense work-out!).
Poudre d'amande (ground almonds) - you can't make these without it.
A tamis, or sift, for sifting the ground almonds & powdered sugar.
The cookies themselves are colored and flavored with two ingredients: yellow food color and coffee extract. If you can't buy the coffe extract, I would take a couple of double espressos & reduce it until it's thickened. Then, it's "winging it" as far as quantity goes. You can do without these, of course, and end up with a nice macaron but the color will be dull and that "je ne sais quoi" taste will be missing (the coffee enhances the caramel but you don't taste it per se...)
Thermometer

There are 3 parts to this recipe: The cookie, the filling, the assembly. You can do these in stages over a couple of days, if you don't feel like spending 2-3 hours at a time to do it all at once. Yes, these are labor intensive & time consuming...but oooohhhh so worth it!

Yield: 70 - 90 macarons (depending on the size you make)

The Cookie Recipe & Instructions

I've also broken down the cookie recipe into 3 parts:
Part A - Almonds & Egg Whites
Part B - The Italian Meringue
Part C - Mixing A+B and Cooking the cookies

Mis-en-Place: (1) Line cookie sheet with either parchment paper or Silpat, (2) Put piping tip into piping bag (3) Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

Part A - Almonds & Egg Whites
300 g ground almonds
300g powdered sugar
Sift these & put into a large bowl. Mix well. Set aside.

110g egg whites
15 g yellow food color
15 g coffee extract
Weigh & stir these in another bowl. Set aside & proceed to Part B.

Part B - The Italian Meringue
300g sugar (castor)
75g water
90 g egg whites

Weigh the whites into the bowl of your KitchenAid with whisk attachment. Heat sugar & water in a pan ultimately to 118°C. However, when the temp reaches 115°C, you will turn on your KitchenAid to start whisking the whites on medium speed. When you reach 118°C back in the pan, the whites should be at a medium peak stage. S-l-o-w-l-y (I mean slowly!) pour the hot sugar/water mixture into the bowl of the KitchenAid while it is whisking. Continue whisking until the temperature comes down to 50°C. While the KitchenAid is mixing proceed to Part C.

Italien Meringue at 50°C

Part C - Mixing A+B & Cooking them

From Part A, add your egg whites to the ground almond & powdered sugar bowl & stir.

Once the Italian Meringue from Part B is ready, fold it gently into the mixture from Part A (shown above). Put into a piping bag & pipe out small circles (not too close because they spread a little while cooking). You can cook them immediately 12-14 minutes. Remove to cooling rack. Can be frozen like this for later use. The size of my cooked cookie is between 3.5-4cm (around 1.5 inches).

The Filling Recipe & Instructions

Mis-en-place: (1) Put tip into piping bag, (2) Take butter & cream cheese out of the fridge hours before you will use them for the filling.

300 g castor sugar (or as fine as you have), weighed directly into copper pan
335 g crème liquide (called whipping cream in the USA), weighed directly in another pan
65 g beurre demi-sel (salted butter)
+
170g regular butter
120g cream cheese (Philedelphia)

Make a good caramel with the first 3 ingredients: caramelize the sugar "dry", ie, pour about 50g of sugar into a copper pan (or other pan) & heat until completely melted. It'll turn a light brown color. Add another dose of 50g sugar & stir with a wood spoon (or heat-proof spoon) until melted. Repeat until all of the sugar is used. Careful not to overcook & burn the caramel -- it happens fast. For beginners, I think it's best to take it slowly & to cook on lower heat. It takes longer to do but it's almost fail-proof this way. And you need to stay at the stove the entire time...it's too sensitive.
Towards end of the caramel cooking, heat the cream to a boil.
Remove pan with caramel from the heat & add the butter, taking care not to get burned from any bubbling projections that may arise here. (Seriously.) Add the hot whipping cream & stir. (Again,be careful - it gets bubbly). Put back on stove & heat to 108°C. Pour into a flat pan (brownie sheet or something like this). Let cool slightly & then put a layer of film on top of the caramel & let cool completely; put in fridge until it is cold, or store in fridge until ready to use.

Pouring cream into caramel...and taking a picture at the same time...what I won't do for you guys!
Weigh softened butter & cream cheese in the bowl of your KitchenAid with whisk attachment. Whisk on med speed 4-8 minutes. The texture will become light & fluffy yet will hold its form. The butter lightens in color. Add half the caramel & whisk until incorporated. Add the rest of the caramel & whisk. Careful not to over whisk it.
Immediately put the filling into piping bag with tip #11. Either use immediately or refrigerate for later use.

The Assembly

Mis en place: (1) If you have stored the caramel butter cream filling in the fridge, bring it to almost room temperature before using (1-2 hours).

Now, the fun part! Pipe a generous amount of the caramel butter cream filling into one cookie (the inside part). Top with the other cookie shell.
_____________________________________________________________

The assembly is the best part, because after that, it's time to test...

Just as it should be: a cookie with a slight hardness that gives into a moistness, with an explosion of caramel in the middle. Enjoy!

:/dma

Culinary Arts Schools & Career Changing

2009-09-10T12:30:00.000+02:00

Here is the 3rd and last installment of the series of posts about cooking school in Paris and the culinary arts. See post #1 for a description of the full time programs I attended. See post # 2 for a review of Ferrandi & how I chose to go there.

Q: I'm considering making a career change also....how's it going for you? Are you glad you did it?

A: I feel very fortunate to have the ability to follow my dream. I'm still extremely glad I did it, 3 years into it. However, it is really hard work!!! This is a profession where you are on your feet all day, there's lots of heat at the stove, lots of pots & pans clanging away in the kitchen, and lots of cleaning up. So, forget the glamorous image that celebrity chefs can give...in reality, you're gonna sweat & run around a lot!

Another factor to consider is age. It's recognized that this is a "young persons profession"....it's very true. The average age of the people preparing food in fine restaurants is probably around 25 (and generally under 30), if I took a guess. So, have I experienced any age discrimination? Well, maybe. It's hard to say. A lot of people find it curious that I wanted to start this in my 40s, and they think that maybe I won't have the stamina for it (but they don't know the genes I inherited from the Rabideau-Manderfield clan where working like a dog is considered normal!)... I know that others seem to think it's almost courageous (their words, not mine) to do this at my age. My point is this: age is a factor in this game....just like Lance Armstrong is considered ancient for Le Tour de France at the age of, OMG, 37! Just like Nadia Comminich was done with her gymnastics career at something like 30! (Anyone remember Nadia?) Obviously, there are exceptions and some "old" people do just fine, and maybe even great. I'm just saying that don't have rose-colored glasses on if you're considering making a career change at the age of 40, 45, or 50....Make sure you're fit, it helps if you're athletic & coordinated (yes hand-eye coordination is important here as well), and don't even consider it if you have joint pains already!

Here's something else to consider: working in a restaurant kitchen is still a male-dominated profession. (Here in France, that is...I have no idea what it's like in the U.S. since I never worked there in this profession!). The number of male chefs far outweighs the number of female chefs...which means you can run into lots of testosterone, ego...and such. So be ready for some hot tempers. I was told once by someone I was trying to get hired by, 'women cooks are just plain calmer'. I think this loosely sums up what I'm trying to say about a kitchen full of guys.... Please understand that this is a general point that I'm trying to make. I did have one male chef welcome the idea of having a female enter the kitchen as he thought it'd change the dynamics nicely...which I suppose also supports the general point I am trying to make here!

Another point of consideration: I would add that it's not an easy profession to learn because the training format is very much in the style of military training. It's hierarchical, male-based (still), and there's little room for opinion when you are a student. That's OK if you understand that this is only a temporary stage....of learning. While working in a restaurant as an intern, I had a sous-chef (2nd in command) explain to me, "I must be critical of everything because this is the only way people improve". (OK, but did he also need to display signs of a stark, raving-mad lunatic, at times??!!) Yes, working in a kitchen can feel like a "negative reinforcement" environment instead of "postive reinforcement" one. If you're not used to that, it will crack you in a second. Having thick skin will carry you far! Or you must quickly learn to get thick skin to stay sane! I guess there are enough reality cooking shows on tv now to give you an idea of the stress that can exist in the kitchen...

Final point to consider: the starting pay is virtually minimum wage. The working hours in a restaurant are very long (typically double shift services from 8ish in the morning until midnight or beyond, with a short 1.5-2 hour break before dinner, multiple days in a row). It's a lot of work, for little financial reward (initially anyway....I guess there's always hope to become the next Charlie Trotter...).

Wow, there are a lot of not so nice things here. Well, trust me, there are also some really great things...otherwise I would've gone back to the office by now. I simply wanted to share with you a slice of reality that I didn't have available to me at the time I was considering a career change. Sure, I did my research, but I didn't really understand what I was getting into until I got there & experienced it first-hand. Therefore, I thought I'd write about it with the hopes that it helps someone else better understand the game. And therefore, play the game better.

Before

After - Pommes Anna

Let me finish the question with the things I love about this profession....I love learning how to handle "raw materials", be it celeriac, a whole fish, artichokes, a rack of lamb....etc, etc. I love learning which cooking technique is best for which cuts of meats or ingredients. I love demystifying french cuisine, which appears at first glance to be snobbish at its base, but it turns out to be very approachable (hearth & home). I love learning to respect the codification of the french cooking techniques & all the prior generations who figured these things out & documented it. These are the starting blocks of countless other world cuisines. I love the challenge of putting together a well-balanced menu (tastes, textures, nutrition, portion sizes, colors, etc). I love trying which wines taste best with what menu. I love what food represents -- it represents bringing people together, no matter what culture you are from. It represents tradition and the passing down of information from generation to generation. It also represents taking the old & mixing the new. It means playing around in the kitchen trying to figure out why something works or doesn't. I love building on what I've learned or tasted and trying to come up with my own twist on it. I love reading what others are doing because it's constantly evolving and ever-changing. I love to see the free spirit of american cooking and I also love the long held traditions of french cooking. I see a place for both of these esprit. Sometimes together on the same plate! I love the fact that this is a life-long learning profession....there is absolutely something new to learn each day...I love to see reactions on people's faces when they taste something good....and I also love to see people's reactions when I can demystify the techniques ("is that all there is to it?? This is so good...and that's all it takes"? some will say!) - I love that! I love working with generous people & generally speaking, people working to prepare food for others will tend to do it from their heart. OK, getting back to the question. It's a tough road, but the rewards can be rich. So, the answer is yes, yes & yes!

Must end on a sweet note....wasabi & white chocolate ice cream, pistachio & strawberries, by Chef William Ledeui (Ze Kitchen Gallerie, 75006)

/dma

Michel Bras & Omnivore New York

2009-09-07T21:14:00.010+02:00

"Cooking is the fulfillment of oneself, to share."

"To cook is to put your heart into your work quite simply: beautiful products, perfect cooking, delicate seasoning. One or more guests invited, and you are on your way. How I love the food born of emotion that has more to do with love than science." Michel Bras.

A rich sentiment. No surprise. It comes from one of the world's greatest contemporary french chefs.

For the full article, click here.

Michel Bras will be a guest chef at the Omnivore New York food festival starting September 13th. Yes, it's the same Omnivore group as Deauville (OFF4). This time they are co-sponsoring an event in New York. It's the first time that Omnivore is reaching over the Atlantic. Bravo!

Wish I could go....to either Laguiole or New York! And I hope to hear back from anyone lucky enough to have the chance...

Related links:
Michel Bras (a great website)
FIAF - Omnivore New York

Credit for pictures above:
Michel Bras website.

/dma

Sheila Lukins

2009-09-03T21:23:00.006+02:00

I'm saddened to hear the news that Sheila Lukins has passed away this week at the age of 66. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in June. And three short months later, that's it, she's gone.

Her book, "The New Basics Cookbook" influenced me immensely. This book was a collaboration between her and Julee Rosso back in the late 80s. They also worked together on "The Silver Palate", which sits on my shelf as well. I didn't get into Betty Crocker (was it too sterile or too old fashioned?...already too industrialized??), and I didn't have access to Julia Child's book....but my sister Fran discovered this (substantial) treasure & shared it with the family.

"The New Basics" helped get me started in entertaining & cooking adventures. It nicely unveiled its mysteries. It made obscure ingredients & party planning accessible, even in my 20s when I had no idea what I was doing! To boot, it's an entertaining read. How often did I sit down with that book simply to read it? And guess what, there are no pictures!! Unheard of in a cookbook, isn't it? As you can see, it has some drawings instead that I understand Sheila Lukins did herself.

My first beet purée came from it, to the initial horror of my parents when I decided to bring it to a Thanksgiving dinner that included screaming toddlers who were more content to be flinging food around than tasting it! (Luckily, no disasters, even with the white carpet/white walls in the dining room...). My first ginger pork loin & spring risotto came from there. In fact, a lot of firsts came to me from this book. I think this is the most used cookbook I own. Just look at the state it's in. I do take care of it, but it's gotten a lot of use! A bit frazzled around the edges. Definitely in need of a re-binding. And full of scribbled notes. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Isn't it true that authors or artists can influence you but you may never know the creator first-hand? Yet it feels like I know Sheila...through her work. I feel like she was my first cooking teacher after I moved out on my own...(besides mom who I called often). To this day, I go to that book to seek inspiration. And for that, I will always remember her, and say my secret thanks...because, even if she was still with us, she would not necessarily know I felt this way. But what a a sign of a great teacher.... those who create and share and encourage....with the hopes that it inspires others...to step out & try new things....

/dma

Amouse Bouche - Verrine Méditerranée

2009-09-02T15:42:00.004+02:00

I had the chance to try out an amouse bouche (appetizer) idea on a group of very nice people last weekend at a summer get-together. I presented this appetizer in a small glass, called "une verrine" in France....Serving appetizers in this way has been wildly popular here over the past three years, or so. It's been a trend, for sure, and one I still like.

This verrine is a layering of (1) tomate confite (slow roasted tomatoes that become naturally sweet as they roast) & tangy sun dried tomatoes, (2) whipped goat cheese with a hint of lemon & (3) caviar d'aubergine (roasted eggplant purée). These flavors are hugely popular in this part of the world, very Mediterranean, and are natural pairings with each other. Honestly, I never grow tired of them, individually or together.

This is a light- & fresh-tasting appetizer, the way an appetizer should be. It's intended to whet the appetite, not kill it. It should leave you wishing you could have just one more spoonful or two....but you can't, it's gone. So all you can do at that point is simply look forward to what's next! If this is the feeling you leave your guest with, then you have successfully served an amuse bouche the french way. (By the way, amuse bouche literally means to amuse the mouth...tickle it pink!)

It's especially good when you grab all three layers in one spoonful...

I'll be keeping this one in my recipe box -- a "go to" for summer. And spring. And early fall. And probably even in winter....when I want to be transported back to the feeling of sunshine, blue skies, and warm days. Voilà. Verrine Méditerranée was born!

The optional shrimp dipped in pesto sauce is always good

/dma

ESCF - Ecole Gregoire Ferrandi - Culinary Arts Schools in Paris - Part 2

2009-08-31T07:04:00.004+02:00

To continue from the prior post on this rather lengthy topic....more Q&A on cooking schools in Paris, and on a cooking career in general...

Q: Do you think the French will be willing to hire an American with a certificate from Ferrandi?

A: You need a work visa to work in France legitimately, if you are not French or from an EU country. You can also work in France legitimately if you have a student visa. As a student, you can be hired for internships and part-time work (with a restricted number of hours of work per week) without any problems, it seems. However, once school is over, it is a challenge to find a legitimate job here without that work visa. I've witnessed "travaille noir" (illegal work) without the visa, but it's not necessarily steady or reliable, and if in a restaurant, I've seen people move from place to place to avoid problems. Despite that, I would say this is fairly common practice.

The other option is to try to find someone (a company) who will sponsor you. This can be difficult because oftentimes the french companies/restaurants themselves don't understand all the administrative steps that are required to process the work visa request....plus there's a cost to do this....so it's easier for them to just hire a local. Other companies, usually big hotels & such, have the right staff who are well trained in processing the paperwork. I have seen a couple examples of sponsorships happening....so it's not impossible! It's just not necessarily easy. This hasn't been a problem for me since I am married to a Belgian, and that gives me the work visa I need. (I'm very fortunate.)

One more thing to add. Based on my experience, when I tell people (french people in the profession) that I went to Ferrandi, their eyes all light up, and they almost unanimously say "that's a great school; that's the best; students from there are well trained". I'm not exagerating. Other french people, not from the profession, haven't heard of Ferrandi!! They are the type who probably know more about "les grandes écoles" (France's equivalent to our Ivy League).

Q: How does Ferrandi compare to other programs in Paris such as Le Cordon Bleu, or The Ritz, or

Difficult for me to say. I can only respond about what I prefer & why I chose Ferrandi....

Before deciding on Ecole Gregoire Ferrandi (called Ferrandi for short), I visited Cordon Bleu & The Ritz. I didn't get a good vibe from either places, but the manager of admissions for the Anglo program at Ferrandi (Stephanie Curtis) was very welcoming & extremely available to explain the Anglo program. My decision was actually easy because I could understand what the Ferrandi program would offer (which I explained in great detail in my last post; refer there if you want to know more!). With the other programs, I didn't clearly understand what they were offering as far as content goes....however, their fee schedules were crystal clear! And, oh yeah, the kitchen at the Ritz LOOKED awesome! (It is a very, very beautiful kitchen...)

The strongest selling point for me at Ferrandi was the amount of time spent actually learning in the kitchen. Ferrandi offered the most hands-on learning time in the kitchen. When trying to decide on which school to attend, I used these criteria: (1) total hours spent in the kitchen, (2) class size & student-to-chef ratio, (3) placement services for internships & work, (4) course content (what skill level will you leave the program with - which techniques do they cover?) (5) teaching approach used (Is it demo only? Do you work alone or on teams?), (6) Reputation of the school. And of course, (7) cost plays a big factor, but that's easy to understand from all programs.

I don't know anything first-hand about the Ducasse program, the pastry program in Perpignon or any other program!

View from Ferrandi's 4th floor - early morning when everything is all calm & peaceful in the world! Just wait a few hours when you find out there is no cream cheese in the delivery & you're trying to make American style cheesecake for 35 covers (people) for the restaurant's lunch menu!! That's when the fun begins!

Heirloom Tomato Salad - 1st course de luxe

2009-08-25T21:15:00.007+02:00

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes....it's finally the season to enjoy une tomate vrai (a REAL tomato). I love tomatoes. You love tomatoes. We all love tomatoes, don't we? Well, most people do anyway - I'm highly suspicious of people who say they don't like tomatoes, generally speaking...I mean, what's not to love? I think that the real problem with people who don't "like" tomatoes is that they've never really tasted a home-grown fresh-from-the-garden, drip-all-over-your-mouth-when-you-bite-into- it, kind of tomato!

So, tonight when I was preparing dinner, it was a great pleasure to honor our table with les tomates d'éte (the summer tomatoes). Real tomatoes. You know they are real when you can easily peel the skin off with a knife. And that's the preferred way to eat them, according to my dad. I quite agree.

Heirloom varieties I found in Paris: Ananas (yellow) , Noire de Crimée (dark), Sicilienne (red)

This salad is as simple as it gets. Find a great tomato from your local farmer's market, garden, or neighbor. Make sure it's not been refrigerated since that'll ruin a tomato (my opinion). Peel. Then, slice. In any sense you like (horizontal, vertical, in quarters....). Drizzle a high quality, fresh olive oil on top. Sprinkle with fleur de sel & piment d'espelette (or smoked papkrika). Add some basil, and buffalo mozzarella cheese if you want to die & go straight to heaven.

The rest is all in the tasting. Enjoy the explosion of taste in your mouth. (This is what summer tastes like!) I suggest that you have a good loaf of bread next to you...so that you can mop up all of the tomato juices that will end up on your plate! But if not, I think it's quite OK to drink the juice....it's certainly OK by me.

It comes around only once a year....summer that is, along with all of its fresh tomatos. Enjoy it while you can! Every day, if possible.

/dma

Ecole Gregoire Ferrandi - ESCF - Culinary Arts School in Paris - Part 1

2009-08-21T12:09:00.002+02:00

I receive quite a few emails from people asking my opinion about the culinary arts schools in Paris, and about the profession. I've been responding individually, and happy to do so....however, this is extremely inefficient!! From all my prior year's experience in the office, with perpetual goals to optimize, to improve processes, to save cost, etc, etc, I know that my current approach just does not cut it! So, I've decided to write a post about it. If you are considering going to culinary arts school, as a career-changer or not, and are considering Paris....maybe you will find this helpful. After reading this, if you still have questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment on the post. Someone else is probably wondering the same thing...!

Q: I'm considering going to Ecole Ferrandi. What do you think of the program there?

A: Well, Ecole Ferrandi (a school run by the Chamber of Commerce of Paris) offers several programs (covering 13 different professions), so it depends on which program you're considering. There are different programs for boulangerie, patisserie, cuisine (cooking), charcuterie; there are programs for adults, for young kids; programs that are part-time, full-time, etc, etc. See what I mean?

I can only respond about the programs I attended. I attended 2 different full-time programs for cuisine - cooking. The first one is referred to as "the Anglo progam" and then I also participated in one of its french programs, referred to as "the Sup program".

The Anglo program is aimed at adults & is international in profile with a class size of up to ~12 students. The age bracket is from the early 20s to no limit (our class had a 50 year old!). The program is english-based, and provides translations to English if needed.

Let me say upfront that I found the Anglo program to be excellent - the content was excellent & the chefs I learned from are top notch, highly professional, and very demanding. I've described the program that I went through in some detail (below). However, I understand the format has since changed slightly so it's best to contact the school to see how much of what I described below is still contained in the current program.

When I went there in 2006/07, it was full-time Mon-Fri for 9 months followed by a 3 month internship at a restaurant...so 1 year of solid training in total. We were in the kitchen learning cooking techniques 4 days a week and were in the patisserie learning pastry techniques 1 morning (5 hours) per week. We had wine & cheese + food pairing classes 1 morning every 2 weeks. We also spent some limited time learning theory in a classroom. Once every 2 weeks we ran the production kitchen (meaning we ran the kitchen for the school's restaurant) which enabled us to see first-hand how a restaurant kitchen works. The weeks we weren't in the production kitchen, we had a day where we prepared a "regional menu" for our own class. This gave us an opportunity to, as a class, prepare a 6-7 course tasting menu for our class that focused on a different region of France. This gave us a chance to learn about the specialty dishes & products that come from the markedly different regions of France. On top of that, we went on a few "field trips" to such places as Rungis (one of the world's biggest markets), to the Champagne region, etc., to Brittany, etc. What else? Oh yeah, a guest chef was brought in to show us some of his favorite recipes (we were very fortunate to have Pascale Barbot be our guest chef!)

This program is intended to prepare students to earn the school's certificate that is given after passing the school's written and practical exams. The testing was a bit stressful, but everyone passed & got their certificates at an award ceremony. The "Anglo program" can also prepare you well enough to pass the national C.A.P exam (see question below about C.A.P), although that's not a requirement of the Anglo program. A few of us took this additional test anyway. Some of the other programs at Ferrandi require the student to pass the C.A.P exam.

To do this program it is highly recommended that you understand french. Many cooking terms are french to begin with, and plus, you would be living in France....so if you had a little french under your belt, you could enjoy life outside of school more, and you could absorb as much culture as possible.

The Sup program (at Ecole Supériure de Cuisine Francaise) is a 2-year full-time program intended for students less than 25 years old and its class size is up to ~12 students. Other requirements: it's only in french, it requires that you have passed the C.A.P testing, and you have to pass an entrance exam. It's mostly french students, although it attracts a few international students as well. This program alternates between learning at school for 6 months & learning in a restaurant for 6 months as an intern. While at school, students spend half their time in the classroom learning about hygiene, law, marketing, etc, and that prepares them for their project plan which they must develop & present as a sort of dissertation at the end of the program. The other half of the school time is spent in the kitchen to hone the skills (starting at a review of base techniques and developing into advanced ones). The thing that's especially unique about this program is that students are responsible for creating and realizing their own recipes at the school's production kitchen. This makes it comprehensive hands-on learning about ordering & receiving ingredients, inventory control, running production as a chef de partie, training the commis on your recipes, and analyzing the cost of production. Each week there are three consecutive days of production at the school's restaurant with new, never-before-done recipes each day (created by the students, as I already said). So you learn a great deal about flexibility & speed, and it requires creativity. And there are weekly "debriefings" where each service at the restaurant is analyzed, critiqued & customer feedback is provided (for the food & service). I should have mentioned another very important aspect of this program: you work hand-in-hand with the front-of-the-house crew. The students learning the art of service are "partners" with the students learning the cuisine. It's definitely a cross-functional, team approach to service. There are even rotational assignments (where a kitchen student will work as a server & vice versa.). Finally, in the Sup program, the student class (cuisine) receives at least 2 demos from some of France's top and most interesting chefs (from Ze Kitchen Gallery, Le Bristol, Le Meurice, L'epi dupain, just to list a few off the top of my head...). We also went on a few field trips (food festival in Deauville, etc).

I think this program is also top-notch. It's very rich and extremely demanding. Talented & demanding chefs are also running this program. You cannot however, even consider this if you are not able to speak french. My level was intermediate at the time I took this....and let me tell you, it was a killer! But I'm glad I did it. I learned alot. (By the way, I did the kitchen part only.)

Q: Which program is better?

A: The answer is "it depends". It depends on what your ultimate goal is. As you can see, the programs differ vastly. The Anglo program is going to teach you what you need to know to get launched into this profession. It's the starting point. With this training, you will generally find a job as a commis. The Sup program will help get you moving in the direction of working for yourself, or on your own project if that's what you want. But more likely, the next step is working in a restaurant to gain more experience. Students from this program are generally hired at the demi-chef de partie or chef de partie level. (These are my views of what happens after each program....obviously there are some brilliant people from the Anglo program who can be hired as chef de parties, and some in the Sup program who could be hired as commis....) Because there's simply more practical time spent learning in the Sup program, the kitchen skills you pick up there are simply more (logical, isn't it?). You can't do the Sup program without prior training or experience in the field. As a career changer, I could not have considered registering straight away for the Sup program because my baseline was not yet there. You can, however, do the Anglo program with no prior experience (which is why I did this one!)

Both programs are very, very intense, rigorous, and physically demanding. Equal in that regard!

Q: What is the C.A.P & do I need it?

A: CAP is an acronym for le Certifcat d'aptitude professionelle (Certificate of Professional Aptitude). This is something very specific to France. It represents a certain level of qualification that a worker has in a determined profession. There exists around 200 specialties for the C.A.P. in the industrial, commercial & service sectors. It's a french national certification. For Cuisine, there is a practical exam & written exam (math, history, literature, etc).

Some professions, like boulangerie, require that you have a C.A.P - Boulangerie it in order to operate a boulangerie in France. (Oddly enough, other professions, like cuisine, do not require the chef to have this certificate in order to prepare & sell food!) Outside of France, I don't think this certification means much. Inside of France, it's clearly more important (and mandatory depending on the work sector). For working in a kitchen, some employers require that you have this and others won't ask.

This is getting entirely too long, so I'll continue it some other day...

/dma

Shrimp, Feta , Tomato & Casareccia salad - easy pasta salad for a hot summer night

2009-08-19T16:36:00.028+02:00

Pasta salads are a pretty common thing for summer, don't you think? There are tons of recipes out there, yet American-style pasta salad seems to have a few things in common: it has got to have the pasta(!), it needs some sort of a vinaigrette (could even be creamy), and it gets tossed together with vegetables and other assorted stuff (like cheese, salami, or shrimp, for example). It's very versatile (I think we can pretty much throw anything in there), it can be done ahead of time, and it's served cold. I think all of these characteristics are what makes a pasta salad perfect for those hot summer days like, well, today. (The forecasters got it right today...they said it'd be 35°C...and that's just what it is....95°F...)

Making a pasta salad is nothing complicated for sure, and isn't it nice to do something simple? That's what a hot summer day with no air conditioning can do to a person! Simple yes, but that doesn't mean the taste is simple. Au contraire...it can be explosive and downright tickle-you-pink delicious. But that's only if you can find the freshest of ingredients.

Here's my recipe, in case you're tempted to try a new variation. The vinaigrette is actually based on a spring roll dipping sauce....with a bit of added olive oil to make it more vinaigrette-y. What this means is that it's light & fragrant, it's got a little twang (from the garlic & fish sauce) and it can easily coat the most sauce-hungry pastas such the type called casareccia, without leaving a heavy oily feel. I think that's the part I like most about this particular salad.

I'm not into promoting things on this blog, but I have to admit that De Cecco brand pasta is my favorite pasta. This particular noodle has lots of nooks & crannies where the sauce gets all nicely tucked away in...but, of course, any shape pasta can work.

Served with a green salad, this is a very satisfying dinner. Not too filling, but plenty enough to make a meal. The quantity in the recipe below will make 5-8 servings (depending on if it's a main dish or side dish.) Don't worry, however, if you don't have 5-8 mouths to feed all at once. You can always make a smaller quantity, of course. However, the leftovers are worthy of looking forward to...it holds well enough for the next day's meal. (And isn't it nice to have a left-over that you actually look forward to eating?)

Pasta Salad Ingredients

250 g dry pasta, casareccia or other type
75 g Greek black olives, oil-cured
100 g feta cheese
500g whole cooked shrimp (weight with the heads), or 225g when peeled
110g or 12 petals of tomate confite* (optional, but adds that explosion of flavor)
1 ear of corn, cooked & shucked
a bunch of cherry tomatoes*
1 bunch fresh basil or cilantro

* Note: tomate confite is a tomato that has been peeled, seeded, quartered and then slow roasted in the oven. I used tomate confite which is hard to see in the picture since they're all diced up, but I also used the inside core (the seeded part that I removed from the tomatoe before roasting it). It was really good....but if I didn't already have roasted tomatoes in my fridge, I could've just used cherry tomatoes.

Vinaigrette

Juice of 1 lime
1-2 TBLS sugar (to taste)
2 TBLS fermented fish sauce (nam pla)
1 TBLS white vinegar (or unseasoned rice vinegar if you have it)
2 small cloves of garlic, pressed
1 tsp dried pepper flakes (more or less to taste) - or fresh jalapeno minced to taste
olive oil, to taste (~1/4 - 1/2 cup)

Cook pasta, rinse in cold water, drain & reserve in big mixing bow. Get all other salad ingredients ready: pit the olives & cut into slivers, cook & remove kernels of corn from the ear, cut the cherry tomatoes in half or quarters, peel & de-vein the cooked shrimp, and dice the feta cheese.
Prepare the vinaigrette: Cut the shallot into a very fine dice & put into small mixing bowl. Add the lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, white vinegar, garlic & pepper flakes. Stir. Adjust flavoring to taste. OK to do ahead of time (it will soften the shallots this way). Just before serving, whisk in the olive oil, a little at a time until it's a light consistency. Keep adding more if you like a heavier oil taste. Season with salt & white pepper to taste.
Pour some of the vinaigrette over the pasta & vegetables. Add the finely chopped basil or cilantro, and gently mix together. Add more vinaigrette until very well coated. Can serve immediately or refrigerate before serving.

Enjoy!

/dma

Finally, an answer on the fond de commerce

2009-06-30T10:25:00.005+02:00

It's been a tumultuous path....ups and downs....highs and lows...good news followed by bad news followed by good news.....followed by more waiting....and at last, we have the answer.

In the end, the boutique/café/kitchen I had hoped to set up in the 14th arrondissement in Paris is a disappointing non. It's not for lack of trying, I can assure you. I've had lots of support on the effort for which I'm deeply touched and forever grateful.

We crossed many hurdles on this little journey, but there was one hurdle that could not be surpassed, and that is to receive the landlord's approval to upgrade their facility. It's really mind-boggling to us - this thought that we offered to put in a respectable investment into the landlord's property to improve it, and to bring it up to hygiene standards for my business, something that they require in their own contract...(urgh) - and he said no to the offer.

Not only did he say no, but he said it s-l-o-w-l-y. Couldn't he have just told us that two months ago, straight away??

I suppose it's for the best. This was my immediate reaction. Who knows what future problems we may be avoiding....with the renovations work (I've heard a horror story or two), or with the unresponsive landlord himself (if we needed to ask anything from him, including trying to sell the place ourselves someday...)

OK, so I've got this great, big disappointment on my hands. And I feel like I've wasted a million years to get to nowhere....except we have gained valuable experience, and learned a few things along the way. Isn't that always what we say in situations like this??!! Well, there is a thread of truth to it!

I'm back on the hunt...looking for a good fond de commerce. There's even more on the market at the moment.....so, stay tuned, we'll see what happens next! All good things in their own time...

:/dma

10pm in Paris - View from our Window

2009-06-22T00:22:00.002+02:00

Notice how light it is ? ....at about 1o:oo o'clock at night. In fact, these photos were taken on the longest day of the year: June 21st. I absolutely love how long and drawn out the nights are at the moment.

Summer in Paris: it's where the evenings take their time, and the days get off to an early start. (The days get an early start....not necessarily the people!) When the sky is clear, and nothing but blue, Paris is as special as we all imagine it to be. Especially if the temperature hovers at a comfortable 20°C (~70°F), as it has been lately. Catch the breeze and enjoy it while you can. Terrasses are in full swing, with some people preferring full sun and others the shade. Parks are packed. Even the perky and peppy dogs are, well, perkier and peppier!

I still can't get used to seeing reflections of sunlight so late into the night because where I come from, dusk hits around 8:30ish and by 10pm, it's totally dark. On second thought, maybe, I can get used to it! Vive la difference!

:/dma

Sushi on the Seine

2009-06-17T10:58:00.018+02:00

Thanks to my friend Ayako, I recently started eating maki-sushi regularly...as in more than once a week. I've always loved sushi & I would eat it from time-to-time....just not as regularly as lately. It has all been for a good cause, though: to practice the new sushi-making skills she had so kindly taught me! As we all know, practice makes perfect. I'm still happily practicing this craft! Those around me are happy, too, with all my practice sessions.

Here are some photos of this latest adventure. I think my favorite pictures are those taken on the Quai (quay) of the Seine River, where the sun was setting slowly, boats were passing by, and we had a nice quiet moment together, eating some freshly-made sushi, sipping a nice glass of champagne...and enjoying a summer evening in Paris.

Mis en place

First sushis made!

Vegetarian maki-sushi (cucumber, carrot); Must be Ayako's...it's perfect!

Salmon egg maki-sushi with roasted red pepper, zucchini and carrot

More salmon egg maki-sushi

These are also very, very good with smoked salmon and avocado. Next on my list to try is raw salmon or tuna, if I find a good quality supply. And why not crab meat or shrimp...? It seems as though the possibilities are endless. And if that's not enough reason to love these treats, they taste great, they are light & healthy to eat, and they make a perfect summer meal when you don't want to be turning on the oven. (Very important here in Paris when most apartments are not equipped with air conditioning!) Thanks again, Ayako, for sharing this technique with me. Your generosity is abundant!

Sushi, anyone? ;)

:/dma

Burrata Anyone?

2009-06-15T15:08:00.014+02:00

Burrata cheese is so good that I decided it deserved its own post. From yesterday's recipe, you know that I'm a fan. I hope you are able to find Burrata at your local store because this is one cheese worth trying. And I honestly can't see how anyone would NOT love this cheese... It's seriously good.

Here's a link to a definition, if you like: wikipedia burrata (english)

In short, it's an artisinal fresh cheese having a mozzarella-like outside with bits of mozzarella and crème on the inside. It comes from a region in Italy called Puglia....and originally, it was wrapped in a leaf of a tree coming from that region. And the leaf would actually be bright green, proving to everyone and the world that this cheese is so fresh that the leaf hasn't even started to change colors yet! OK, so today they use plastic....tant pis!

Take it out of its packaging & untie it. The shape is very odd, but just set it on its side. It definitely looks better that way. Consider it a "cheese brioche"!

Burrata is best eaten at room temperature and immediately after it's made. And, it's best shared with a few close family & friends, each having a spoon in hand. Placed in the center of the table, everyone can dig into their own little corner of the cheese pouch. And that's when all its rich, buttery, creamy goodness comes seeping out. Take a look at what's inside:

All you really need is a high quality olive oil to drizzle on top. Add a few ripe tomatoes, some sea salt....and you're practically in heaven! Enjoy!

Address:
There are several specialty Italian stores that sell Burrata. There's also a fromagerie located here that is selling it at the moment:

La Fermette de Chloe et Gabriel
86, rue Montorgeuil
75002 Paris
Tél. 01.42.36.70.96
Cost: 23.80€/kg
One Burrata sac (shown above) will weigh ~ 200 - 300 g.

:/dma

Tomato, Orange, Avocado & Burrata Millefeuille

2009-06-14T11:25:00.004+02:00

Here's a quick, delicious first course - perfect for this time of the year, BUT ONLY if you can find perfectly ripe tomatoes, oranges and avocados!

The other essential ingredient to the success of this dish is an italian cheese called Burrata. Burrata is a cow-milk based cheese similar to buffalo mozzarella cheese, but with a softer texture and taste. It's in season at the moment, according to my local fromager (cheese monger). Burrata cheese is amazingly delicate and mouth-watering good. I highly recommend you try it, if you are lucky enough to have access to this wonderful cheese.

As it goes, this idea came to mind because of my continued fixation on citrus & avocado pairing. It's loosely based on the Cocktail d'agrumes et Crevettes recipe previously posted (only no shrimp here, and instead, a nice ripe tomato that tastes like ripe tomatoes should). Yum!

Ingredients - 8 people

2 ripe avocados
4 vine-ripe tomatoes
2-3 succulent oranges
2 balls of Burratta cheese (approximately 300 g)
fresh basil
salt & pepper
lemon juice
vinaigrette

Steps:

Pit the avocado and slice thinly in the horizontal sense. Cover with lemon juice to prevent discoloration.
Peel and slice horizontally the tomatoes.
Peel and slice horizontally the orange.
Remove Burratta from its wrapping and place in a flat container (since once you pierce into it, it will leak all over! Trust me, you're going to want to capture all that rich flavor...by the spoonful!).
Make a simple vinaigrette (optional). I didn't use a vinagrette here, and it was absolutely delicious, but I offer that as an idea. You can spoon the vinagrette over the avocado, tomatoes and oranges before assembly.
Assemble so that the millefeuille takes the shape of a tomatoe stack. Season each layer before adding the next.
Top with a spoonful of Burrata cheese & a slivers of chopped basil. Season with pepper.
Add an infused oil such as basil oil or chive oil to the base of the millefeuille. Serve with a baguette.

Enjoy!

:/ dma

Whirlwind of activity

2009-05-18T12:44:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone. I wanted to say thanks for your interest and for all the 'positive thoughts' you have sent me during my search for a fond de commerce. It's been a tumultuous couple of weeks. I thought I had finally found a good start-up place (which I didn't even have time to write about yet), but as quickly as I stumbled across it, I "lost" it to another guy, faster at the draw by leaving a deposit check. Yes, the fun of real estate. I picked myself up by the bootstraps, continued pondering my current options, and even started to explore others. A week later I couldn't believe it when I received a phone call saying that the shop I had wanted was available after all - due, apparently, to credit problems of the prospective buyer. Perhaps a sign of a tightening banking system? Who knows, but suddenly luck seemed back in my favor!

We're now in the process of finalizing an offer and trying to confirm that the landlord will approve of the changes we'd like to make to the place. (If not, it's back to square one...) Yesterday was an interesting day. I met a kitchen designer and a wine vendor, thanks to our new friend from Chevreuse (more on his restaurant later). This morning I have an appointment with an architect, thanks to another American friend in Paris. Things are moving, hopefully not prematurely. I'll certainly write more about the new place after it's a bit more settled (I'm hoping for the best). For now, I wanted to say, please continue to keep your fingers crossed & send more of your positive thoughts my way, s'il vous plaît!

:/dma

Recent Production

2009-05-11T21:28:00.001+02:00

Things have been just a bit hectic lately and I haven't had time to post as many things as I'd like. At least I can share a few photos from the kitchen activities:

Ravioli production: squid ink & egg pasta with tomato filling

Cod filet, gros langoustines, ravioli, ginger froth & fennel -- before & after addition of bouillibase broth

Mini muffins: lemon poppy seed

An "everything" bagel...hits the spot every time!

Tarte au chocolat

Spring's Bounty Salad

Strawberry Gaspacho (sweet-savory)

Bon Appétit!
:/dma

Salon Saint Michel - Promos

2009-05-07T15:12:00.012+02:00

The past few weeks have brought on some promotional activity at Salon Saint Michel.

Salon Saint Michel is one beautiful, 19th century Haussmannian-style apartment in the heart of historic Paris. It's privately leased, but it has authorizations for commercial-purpose uses. Therefore, its three beautiful and attaching rooms are available to be rented for small executive board meetings, or private events such as dinners, lunches, cocktails, etc. (from 4 to 32 people for dining and up to 35 people for cocktails). With wrap-around views overlooking the Seine River and Place Saint Michel, it feels very special indeed. It's a true, hidden gem in the city, if ever there was one.

It also contains the office of CCN (Chef Culinary Network), from which owner Michel Cloes operates. Michel and I have been working together, on and off since last November, trying to develop our mutual interests. He has these three beautiful rooms he'd like to rent out and I have a bunch of desire to provide a high-quality food service for his guests when he rents out these rooms.

Michel started up a website: Salon Saint Michel. Check it out to see some really nice pictures of the place. (BTW, I would totally agree with you if you said you've seen better pictures of me! But c'est comme ça (that's the way it goes)!

We've developed some printed promotional materials to explain the service concept and menu ideas. So, in the past couple of weeks, it was time to start opening up the place to prospective clients. And just that was done with an open-house breakfast and cocktail. There is one more breakfast scheduled next week.

I only have a few photos of the breakfast & none of the cocktail, but I can tell you we put a good little effort into these events so far. Over 200 macarons were made (pistachio, lemon and caramel with salted butter), several bottles of champagne were opened, and lots of nibbling and chatting went on. Soon it's time to see if we'll bear any fruit from these labors.

If anyone is interested in using this space, or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Feel free to also contact Olivier (+33) 01.56.81.22.60 - just let him know I sent you!

:/dma

Colette

2009-04-30T07:45:00.004+02:00

My search for a "fond de commerce" started just a few blocks away from where we live. The second place I ever looked at continues to be of interest for various reasons that I'll explain later.

The owner's name is Colette. A name more french than that is not possible! She's an interesting character. She used to work in the Marketing Department of a high tech company, but her job was eliminated when she was in her early 50s. "Instead of collecting unemployment" she said "I decided to look for a business to buy and run". And that's exactly what she's been doing ever since.

She picked this location because it has tourists, students, and business people in the neighborhood. She decided to sell low cost sandwiches, salads, paninis, and plats du jour (daily specials) because she saw this as a good niche to fill. Her street sign gives a first clue about what she sells: it has a knife, fork & toque. She posts her daily specials on an outdoor chalkboard. She uses every other free space on her outside storefront area to describe her sandwiches & their "formules" (formula, or lunch meal specials). Finally, she has written in big bold letters on her window "English spoken here. Se habla espagnol." She also speaks German and Russian. Pretty amazing.

Being so close to our apartment, I've walked by there several times. I've gone in several times and we've had several sit down discussions. I've observed how she interacts with customers. She is friendly. She greets them with a smile, and sometimes offers a handshake. I don't want to say that this is not typically french, but I'd say she stands out from the crowd! I think it helps explain how she has grown her business so nicely over the past years.

So why sell? Because her son, who works at a reputable restaurant on the Champs-Elysée, is going to open a gastronomic restaurant. She wants to work with him on the project, as does her husband, a butcher by trade.

Colette's place has its pros and its cons. It has a very small seating area. During the day it seats up to 16 people sur place (dine in area). That's 16 people Paris-style (as in side-by-side, squeeze in to sit down & eat with your neighbor). I'd say it's really 12 people, seated comfortably. The kitchen needs a full upgrade (ie replacement), but its size is adequate . There is a basement, even bigger in surface area than the main floor, but it needs some serious electrical work, given its wires dangling absolutely everywhere. A "little" problem to fix...

Those obviously are some cons. On the positive side, her business is running well, as far as small businesses go. It's well organized & it's ready for taking over. It has potential to develop into something more my style.

I wish the store itself was bigger....in proportion to its asking price. We shall see. One thing is sure, however, at this point in time: low-priced, comfort food is selling well in today's turbulent economy.

:/dma

Pierre Hermé's "World Peace Cookies"

2009-04-26T16:50:00.012+02:00

Today I joined the bandwagon - the WPC bandwagon. World Peace Cookies, that is.

So the story goes, Pierre Hermé created this recipe when he worked at a restaurant called Korova. It was Dorrie Greenspan, however, who published the recipe in her book Baking: From my Home to Yours. The story further goes that it was Dorrie's neighbor who, after tasting her cookie, said something like "these are so good....in our house we call them world peace cookies because we're convinced that if everyone ate these, world peace would ensue"....or something to this affect. From that point on, a new name was born.

What these cookies are in fact is a sablé chocolat (a choclate shortbread). The dough is very dry, as you can see from the photo. They contain not a single egg. The chocolate content is higher than the butter content. Not too bad for the diet, in my opinion, as far as cookies go. And very chocolaty! It has one secret ingredient, fleur de sel, which give them that little je ne sais quoi (I don't know what). Special. Chocolate & salt go very, very well together...

I highly recommend making these. I am apparently lucky because I read a few posts on the internet and some have had extremely crumbly dough (difficult to work with) or flat cookies. I'll take luck anyday! By the way, this is a roll into a log, refrigerate & slice-before-baking kind of cookie. I threw the logs into the freezer that last 20 minutes before slicing (out of a 3-hour total rest period in the fridge). And I cooked them in a convection oven (165°C) for 13 minutes instead of 12. Seemed to work well this time. I'm not sure if those are clues into anything valuable, but I thought I'd share that anyway.

Here's a link to the recipe by Dorrie Greenspan. World Peace Cookies. (Actually, it's a link to someone's blog that Dorrie herself refers everyone to.)

It's definitely worth sharing some of this peace in the world.

/:dma

Fava Bean, Spring Peas & Capellini - A Fast, Delicious Dinner

2009-04-24T21:36:00.002+02:00

No matter what industry you're in, you might agree that simplicity can lead to greatness. Unfortunately, sometimes to create something simple involves a lot of behind-the-scenes work. (And perhaps only the creator would know how much work it took to make it look that "simple".) Last night, however, I made something that was actually very simple and it didn't take a lot of work....how's that for great?!

This dish was put together in about 30 minutes or less, with about 6 key ingredients. And I must say that it was satisfying beyond description. It's loaded with spring freshness, if only because of the fava beans and peas. These little guys count for everything in this dish! A twist of lemon adds a nice zing. Freshly chopped tarragon and cilantro add another dimension of zing. The "sauce" is made with a splash of chicken or vegetable stock, a pat of salted butter, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and a pinch of piment d'espelette (red pepper from the southwest of France/northwest of Spain). C'est tout! (That's it!) What a way to highlight the freshness of fava beans & peas.

Ingredients (6 people)
capellini pasta for 6
fava beans, 2 kg (~ 4.5 lbs), unshelled
green peas, 1.4 kg (~ 3 lbs), unshelled shell, or a couple of cups of frozen peas
tarragon, fresh - 1 bunch
cilantro, fresh - 1 bunch
juice from 1 lemon
chicken stock (or water)
salted butter (or regular butter)
walnut oil, or high quality olive oil (optional)
piment d'espelette or sweet/spicy paprika (to your taste)

Steps:
1) Prepare the vegetables. Shell the fava beens, blanch them in boiling, salted water ~1 min. Drain, plunge into ice water to stop the cooking, and drain. Peel off the rough skin from each fava bean & set aside. Shuck the peas. Cook al dente in salted boiling water a few minutes. Drain & cold shock them (cold water) & set aside.

2) Bring water to boil. Chop herbs. Juice a lemon. Shave the parmesan cheese (if needed). Cook & drain pasta.

3) Into a saucepan, heat some stock (or use some water from the pasta cooking if you have no stock). Add some salted butter until melted. Add the cooked, hot pasta into this pan & swirl until every noodle is coated. Add the fava beans & peas. Add the lemon juice, herbs, parmesan cheese & seasonings. Swirl. Throw in some extra fresh almonds, if you have them! Add more stock or butter/water if necessary. Pour a light sprinkle of oil around. Serve immediately.

:/dma

Les Amandes Fraîches - Fresh Almonds

2009-04-17T18:38:00.021+02:00

Today I was out & about, hitting the pavement, checking out parts of the 15th arrondissement (district) as a potential location for setting up shop. Along the way I came across a little store, an "Epicerie Libanaise" (Lebanese grocery store). It was an inviting store front that lured me in to see what new items it might have to discover. Many of its products I could not understand because of packaging written in arabic. Then there was a display case of prepared foods that I could understand, with my eyes at least, but it was much too early for lunch.

As I was leaving, however, I noticed a box just sitting there. A small crate actually. I asked the shop owner, "How much are those fresh almonds?" I wasn't sure if they were actually for sale, or just part of the store's inventory. He was really pleased with my question, which surprised me. He started talking about how these were the very first almonds of the season. I asked where they were from. He said "Lebanon", and then he continued talking about how fresh these were. (Having walked into a Lebanese grocery store, I kind of assumed they were from Lebanon....and I was hoping for a more specific answer....!) However, he was so caught up in talking about these almonds that I eventually dropped my intended follow-up question, "but where?"!

He quickly explained that these are at the highest price point they will ever be because, simply, they are at their freshest. They were 8€/kg, in case you're wondering (~$5.50/lb). After this, the almonds are less good because they are less fresh, and the price will go down, he explained.

Then, he asked me, "do you know how to eat these?" I said no. I've already worked with fresh almonds in the past, but I wasn't sure where he was going with this. Then he simply took a bite of one, green skin (or should I say fur), and all! It sounded all crispy- crunchy. My knee-jerk reaction was "pas possible!" (no way, I can't believe it!). It really did take me by surprise. He said, "si, si" (yes, yes). And he added, "What's really good is to eat these with a cold beer. But only when they're this fresh. Otherwise, you have to get the nut out." And with that, he ran away & quickly returned, putting me a handful of whole almonds (peeled) in my palm. "Here, take this. You seem to like almonds!"

There was a girl in the middle of paying for something while all this transpired, and without blinking, she reached into the crate, grabbed one & popped it into her mouth. I was a little shocked by her brashness, but I curiously watched her reaction at the same time. She said with a smile, "a little bitter....but yes, a beer would be great with these". And out the door she went.

It was my turn to try one, at the shop owner's insistance. It was surprisingly fresh tasting. Not as "almondy" as I was expecting. Definitely "wet" & moist & slightly bitter. I still couldn't get over eating that green casing. In fact, it's a strange concept to not only eat the green casing, but also, the shell itself. Today, it's all moist, but this is the same shell that eventually dries out & becomes light golden brown, as I had been accustomed to seeing back in the states.

I bought a small sac full to bring home. I wanted to share this almond taste test with Eric. We tried them, as recommended, with a beer. But not just any beer. It was a Belgian specialty brought from Brussels last week by some dear friends..... It was unanimous. Fresh almonds are a unique treat and they make for a very unique aperitif (before-dinner drink and appetizer). We couldn't eat them every day, but we're still glad to have made this discovery.

:/dma

Langoustines Epicées , Mousseline de Carottes, Sauce Coriandre

2009-04-15T10:35:00.007+02:00

Spiced Langoustines, Carrot Mousse & Cilantro Sauce.
It's been a while since I've posted anything food-related. The search for a restaurant around town has taken up lots of my time. That's not to say I haven't been in the kitchen lately. Au contraire! I've also been cooking up a storm over the past few feeks. And I simply have to post this. It's one very, very deliciously exceptionally good dish. It's a take off of something I learned a couple of years ago while working at Hélène Darroze (2-michelin star restaurant in the 6ème) . When I was at the restaurant, I always prepared the langoustines (Norwegian lobsters), cooked them & made the sauce. Somebody else on the vegetable station always prepared the carrots. And yet somebody else put all the pieces together on the plate (usually the Second, 2nd in charge). All of that was before the server could rush it out to the customer while still piping hot. Wonder no more why such restaurants can cost an arm & a leg....it's all that attention to detail & perfection...!

The languostines taste just like lobster, maybe better, if that's even possible. (When they are as fresh as the ones we had, as in still hyper-actively moving around when we bought them at the outdoor fish market, then I guess it's possible! Being that exceptionally fresh & alive did, however, make it really, really difficult to deal with back at home. I'll spare you the details. Let's just say that Eric had to leave the kitchen.)

Chef Héléne Darroze has posted this recipe in several public, free magazines & you can find it on line if you're looking for the authentic deal, including exact proportions. Here, below, is my adaptation. In english, but without any specific quantities! (Only because I didn't keep track of them.)

Ingredients (for 8) - Inspired by Hélène Darroze; adapted recipe

Langoustines ~3-5 per person depending on size
carrots 1 - 1.5 kgs
navel orange ~1 piece
butter/cream (but not if you're watching your cholesterol...humm...)
cilantro 1/2 bunch
spring onions - a couple
demi-glace (veal or chicken)
white wine
favorite spice blend, cajun spice blend, etc.

Method:

1.) This is my version for preparing the carrots & I like how it worked. Steam carrots & section the orange. Purée the cooked carrots in a food processor. Add the orange sections to processor one at at time until you get the flavor just right. Same with the juice. Add until you end up with a nice, fluffy consistency. Not watery from too much orange juice! Season well. Passer au chinois. (Pass through a fine sieve filter.) Can be done ahead & re-heated at low temp in the oven, or used right away while still hot.

2.) Remove shells from langoustines, but leave the tail end for decoration. You could easily use shrimp in place of langoustines. Before pan-frying, dip the langoustines in your favorite spice blend. I used something from Morocco called ras-el-hanoute, a ground spice blend of over 35 spices typically used to make tagines.

3) Sauté the langoustines in duck fat, olive oil, butter, or your preferred fat. To test for doneness, touch the langoustine. (Yes, touching food for doneness happens all the time at restaurants...but don't worry, my finger is clean. ;). They should be firm to touch, but not hard (ie, overcooked). Removed from pan when cooked.

4.) For the sauce, this has been adapted for the home kitchen. The results are just as satisfying. De-glaze the pan with some white wine. Reduce. Add demi-glace (you can buy this at Williams Sonoma's in the states, or G. Detou in Paris, etc). Add chopped spring onions & chopped cilantro. Monter au beurre. (Add a few knobs of cold butter to sauce pan, off the heat, and swirl until melted. This will add a richness to the flavor, give it a nice sheen, & get it to a nice consistency. A real french cooking technique for any sauce! Or skip this step if you are watching your cholesterol....uuurrrghhh....)

5) Assemble: Put a few spoonfuls of carrot purée on your plate. Top with langoustine or shrimp. Spoon some sauce all around. Don't forget to season with salt & pepper.

Voilà. Fine dining at home.....let me know if anyone tries this out. If not, just call me & I'd be happy to private chef it for you in Paris! Or, for the real deal, head straight to Restaurant Hélène Darroze. I highly recommend it. And believe me, I can't say that about every place I've worked at!

Address:
Restaurant Hélène Darroze
4, rue D'Assas
75006 Paris
http://www.relaischateaux.com/darroze

/dma

Sofia

2009-04-03T13:19:00.011+02:00

Sofia is an energetic, very attractive, middle-aged women. She speaks with an accent that I later understand is Greek. She is the current owner of a traiteur/restaurant (catering company & restaurant) that she is selling because her husband wants her back, as she explained to Eric. Unfortunately, on my first visit there, she had told me she is selling because of stomach cancer. Yikes. I'm hearing all sorts of personal stories on this search. I can see why her husband is anxious for her to sell.

Her store is located on one of the city's most active, or should I say vocal, markets. It is abuzz with activity six days out of seven. Vendors are assertively trying to out-shout each other with the day's bon marché (deals). People from the neighborhood are buying their daily needs. Tourists can be spotted in the crowd, taking in the scene and trying to stay oriented. It's all hustle-bustle.

Sofia has been in business the past twenty years. She looked me straight in the eye and said, "you know when I arrived here, I could speak not one word of french. Not one word." And yet it appears that she has done very well for herself. Her storefront is small - it has a refrigerated counter that displays what she sells: hummus, olives, feta spreads, tarama, tabouli and other such greek/mediterranean/middle eastern "comfort foods". There are several tables in the room, also, that can seat up to 20 people. I see potential for private dining or private events at night, something she doesn't do at the moment. Her preference is definitely the catering side. The decor is pure greek: typical blue and white everywhere. (Another yikes.)

When I saw the kitchen for the first time, I thought I was going to die. Of excitement that is. The kitchen is bigger than the storefront!! It's big. Really big. AND, it has a cold room in the basement. What a dream. Except, the closer I look, the more I realize that it, too, has lots of "potential" and would need a lot of upgrading. However, letting the creative thoughts flow, I can envision running cooking classes here, and having the dégustation either in the dining room or even in the kitchen. I can also see using all that glorious professional cooking space for some serious production -- it's the most spacious and adequate kitchen I have seen yet (in proportion to the size of the business I'm searching for). Most kitchens in Paris are very small, miniscule even, and I can hardly understand how centuries of cooks have tolerated it! But somehow they have. This is one incredible kitchen, even in its current state.

Sofia wants to show us the wine shop a few doors down - to let us see how the owner has remodeled his space, and to give us an idea or two if we want. She knows everyone there - rounds of kisses to everyone. Even walking the short distance from her place to his, she's talking with everyone. She's like a magnet - everybody wants to talk with Sofia. Her smile is warm and wide, but even more so, it is sincere and amazingly light-hearted.

After the tour, including a visit upstairs to a small two bedroom apartment included in the monthly rent, we sit outside to soak in the atmosphere. The market is still abuzz. The early spring sunshine is a welcome relief and warms us up. She drops a plate off at the table, a sampling of what she makes and she insists we try. Very delicious! She wispered to me, "I'll show you how to do it all, but if you buy this place, you have to promise me you'll keep selling some of these things. My customers would never forgive me otherwise!" With a wink, she disappears. She's not really serious, but I can tell, she's hoping to find the right buyer as well.

This was quite unexpected - to find this spot I mean. It has great potential, great space, and I love the thought of having fresh produce at my fingertips absolutely every day!! It needs a lot of work to turn it into something "mine". Hummm...need to make a few more visits to figure out if it's right. Not sure if I see myself working directly on a market, and the store is located behind a stall of a market vendor...but who knows....will keep an open mind. It has potential.

Yvette

2009-03-31T18:25:00.008+02:00

Yvette owns a small cafe/bar/restaurant on a quiet street in an even quieter arrondisement (district) in Paris. When I met Yvette, I immediately liked her. She is friendly, sincere, talkative, inquisitive, and she feels like family. In fact, she could be my french aunt! We instantly had something in common. She comes from Pau, where we were married six years ago. I think that touched us both, equally.

On my first visit, I walked in the door, and a man was standing at le zinc bar sipping a beer by himself, reading the newspaper. Nobody else was around. It was about 4pm. Yvette then appeared out of nowhere and we met for the first time. I started explaining why I was there - that I was searching for a small café or restaurant to potentially buy. I was a little relieved when the man left so that I could talk more privately with Yvette. Immediately, however, a lady walked in with a small dog in her arm. The lady's name is Paule. She gave kisses to Yvette & sat down in what appeared to be "her" seat. Her miniature dog took the opposite seat, and turned himself around in the chair to face the street, eager not to miss any of the activities. From that point forward, it was a conversation including three of us. No privacy here! But that's OK. Paule and Yvette were obviously good friends. They seemed to be about the same age: mid-sixties, give or take. I eventually learned that this was the case with most of her other customers as well (being good friends, I mean, although being in the same age bracket is probably true as well).

Yvette has been running this particular place for the last 18 years. It's an old place. Still untouched from decades ago, or more. Maybe a half century. It would need lots of TLC, but oh what potential! It feels like a well worn-in shoe. Behind the bar are all the small glasses and barware, but there is also the presence of one giant espresso machine. I'm practically sold on that machine alone! Such a serious looking machine. The seating area is small, and feels just right for what I'm looking for - it has 16 seats. She gave me a short tour of the place. When she showed me les toilettes (bathroom), I let out an uncontrollable "ohmygod". She said, "oui, un toilet turque" (yes, a turkish toilet). I couldn't believe I was still seeing one of these things. My first encounter with one was actually in Turkey about ten years ago. Let me just say that I preferred not going to the bathroom on that particular pit stop than to try such a crazy toilet! It was the most backward, foreign thing I had ever seen in my life! (For those not having the pleasure of seeing or using a turkish toilet, let me explain: it's basically a porcelain base set in the floor of a stall, or "bathroom" and it has a drainage hole. That's it. Sometimes, there are little feet positions outlined in the porcelain to give you a clue. Arguably, these are more sanitary than the standard pot toilet. And to the person who said this, I replied, rather sarcastically, "Right". )

Back to the tour. Next stop was to the cave (basement room). Two of them in fact. I felt awkward going down the stone stairecase. It is old, narrow, somewhat steep, and has a rope for holding onto instead of a hand rail. I could hardly keep up with Yvette! The basement is dry - a good sign. The floor is all dirt. Just like they all used to be. Her first cave is filled with her treasures -- her wine collection. Gevrey-Chambertins, Pouilly-fuissés, and of course, others such as Madirans and Jurancons from the soutwest region. I was dying to check out some of her old dusty bottles that must've been there for 18 years....but we couldn't get anywhere close to them with all the stuff in between. The other cave was used for soft drinks & beer. She stocks Leffe on tap and Duvel in bottle. A good sign. Back up the stairs, she is leap years ahead of me!

On to the kitchen. Another "ohmygod". Long and narrow and full of "potential". And sorely in need of a commis (assistant). She's a one-woman show and I don't quite know how she can do it. I couldn't. She pours the wine or makes the coffee at the bar, she seats the customers at the table, she takes the order, she prepares the meal, she clears, she cleans up and settles up the tab. She's basically open from 7am until closing (around midnight), 6 days a week. Did I already mention she's easily in her mid-60's?!

Eric came with me on the second visit to Yvette's place. We learned a bit more about each other. It turns out that Yvette arrived in Paris in 1958 to start working in a café, with three kids in tow. Maybe that puts her closer to 70? We had dinner there. It was a slow night for dining, but there were several men having un verre de vin (a glass of wine). Her customer base is almost 100% locals. Not many tourists crossing this particular street.

How to describe this cafe? Yvette is from the southwest, so her menu has magret de canard, foie gras, and other traditional fare. The lighting is harsh just like it used to be - it serves a function rather than providing ambiance. The wine is exceptionally good and ridiculously affordable just like it used to be. The food is hearty and enriching. But above all, the experience is rich. Not so much because of what we ate or drank (although good), but because of what Yvette did: she welcomed us into her home and treated us like family.

I love this old place. Need to make a few more visits to see if it fits my concept.

:/dma

The Start of my Search

2009-03-26T18:04:00.004+01:00

For the past month or so, I began to consider the possibility of starting up my own business in a professional space outside our home kitchen. I'm thinking of a small café kind of spot that would offer lunch (perhaps to go or dine in), and that would also offer private events at night a couple times a week (private dinners or parties, wine tasting, cook book review, private cooking lessons, demo of product/equipment/technique, etc, etc) . If this sounds a little like Le Yumming....or La Salon Saint Michel (two small concept projects I've been involved with this past year), well, at least I'm being consistent! I continue to migrate towards these thoughts, and this tells me something.

Searching for a restaurant or local (commercial space) for sale in Paris has been a really interesting journey. My search started out small & quiet (right around the corner), and then it expanded quickly to most of Paris. I have a few criteria: the kitchen must be adequate to handle the things I want to make (sweet & savory), it must have extraction au norm (ventilation to code) to allow me to cook properly or should I say legally, the seating capacity must be small (less than 20-25) so that it's manageable, and ideally, it will also allow me to have some sort of a personal life (I might be dreaming a little here....) And with all of this, it must have location, location, location & be at the right price...good luck!

I've seen some interesting places and some really scary places on the market. All of them have one thing in common: each of the owners is a character. So, in my next few posts, I'm going to write about some of the characters I've encountered on this little journey.

I'm happy to say that it feels like I'm going down the right path. We'll see later on if this really turns out to be true, but for the moment, I'm enjoying the ride. A bientôt. Until next time.

A sign of spring seen yesterday while crossing town, going from one appointment to the next, just after a light rainfall, and just before the temperature dropped back to winter!

/dma

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T21:09:00.019+01:00

Here are some green macarons. (Pistachio to be exact.) Just in time for St. Patrick's day!

I would love to share the recipe with you for these pistachio cookies, but I asked my favorite macaron maker, Pierre Hermé, if I could post it on my little blog. And his office (not him, really) said no.

Haven't I learned my lesson yet? The one that goes "it's better to ask forgiveness than permission"? I'm really only kidding....when it comes to copyright laws, I'll stay close to the line. It's just too bad they didn't say yes.

In case you're interested, the verdict on the pistachio vs caramel au beurre salé is in: I don't think anything can knock the caramel off its pedestal (for me). Don't get me wrong; the pistachio is "pas mal" as the french like to say (meaning 'not bad'...in fact, this actually means it's good instead of its literal translation!).

Getting back to the 17th of March...instead of seeing the Chicago River turn green, or having a green beer (which might have been the case back in the states), here's a french way to celebrate the day: with a shamrock macacron!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

/dma

Comfort Food & Real Estate

2009-03-10T20:27:00.008+01:00

When you're trying to go down a new path, and you don't know if the road you're taking is the right road....or if you'll ever get to your destination, for that matter, it can feel a little unsettling. Trust me on that. It's how I've been feeling lately.

Today I did something to see if I should "be turning right", instead of left, so to speak. The last road I took wasn't working out like I had hoped. That's been the unsettling part, seeing as I had invested a lot of my time trying to go down that road.

"Turning right", to continue my little analogy, is to re-consider if I should work for myself after all....but this time in a professional kitchen outside our home. This line of thinking is what brought me to the office of a commercial real estate agent who specializes in "locaux" (spaces for rent).

Here's what I learned: it's pretty difficult to actually buy a property outright in Paris (called "les murs", or walls). I was told by the realtor that very few go on the market and it's a waste of time to even look for such a thing. What you buy instead is called a "fond de commerce" (business), and you own it, but then you also pay a monthly rent...to the person who actually does own "les murs". I initially struggled a bit with this concept, partly due to the french, but also because it's just a bit foreign. And I can't tell you how funny this conversation played out in french with the realtor (a true Laurel & Hardy "who'se on first" kind of moment, I kid you not). Eventually, he understood my confusion, saying, "yes, we are more a latin country. We don't do it like the anglo-saxons do". And then I stopped getting hung up on the word "vendre" (to sell), in the "normal" context of what I'm accustomed to. As the agent further explained, "that's OK, this is the system. And when you go to sell it to the next person, it all works out".

I am pretty much a novice at this - it's the first time I'm looking to buy a business in a major European city. (Or any major city for that matter.) And it's only the 2nd business we've looked into buying - the other was in Staunton, Virginia a long, long time ago. Anyway, the realtor gave me two local addresses. One was just off of Place Saint Michel and it was so miniscule & such a tourist trap that I discounted it on the spot. The other one is just down the street from us. This one looks like a possibility. Now it's time to ponder it all, and to do my "due diligence". Is this the road I should be taking? Good question. Where is that magic-8 ball when you need it?

Meanwhile, I made some brownies to help me think this over. A little American comfort food never hurt anyone!

Deep dish brownies with peanut butter swirl & walnuts
(every bit as rich & chocolaty as they look)

:/dma

Cocktail d'agrumes, crevettes, et avocat

2009-03-09T10:50:00.033+01:00

This can be roughly translated as "Shrimp & Citrus Cocktail with Avocado". It's something that Chef Laurent Chareau presented at the Deauville Omnivore Food Festival last month (see photo at bottom of post). As he was preparing it, my mouth was salivating....honestly, it was uncontrollable. I mean, these are the tastes & flavors that I absolutely adore! I couldn't wait to try this one at home. He didn't present a specific recipe as much as simply throwing together the dish. The concept is very simple, as you'll see. Here's my interpretation:

Shrimp & Citrus Salad with Purée of Avocado
(inspired by Chef Chareau; interpreted by me)
4 servings

Salade Part
2 grapefruit
1 navel orange
1 blood orange
1 lemon
16 decent sized shrimp
1/4 small red onion, diced finely
fresh herbs (flat parsley, cilantro or mint) - chopped

Section the citrus so you have no skin or pith. (Resist the urge at this point to eat all of your hard work....the oranges & grapefruit sections will look and smell sooo good.) Leave the orange & grapefruit sections whole, but dice the lemon. Peel & de-vein the shrimp. Cook the shrimp if raw (BBQ anyone?). We are BBQ-deprived here, so we buy them already cooked at the local outdoor market. They are super fresh & very good. Put the citrus sections & shrimp in a bowl. Reserve the extra juice, or just drink it while nobody's looking! Add the red onion & fresh herb. (I'm especially partial to the mint....) Add vinaigrette just before serving - enough to generously coat all the fruit & shrimp.

Vinaigrette:
olive oil
vinegar (balsamic) or lime juice
ginger, lemongrass, garlic clove (optional)
salt
soy sauce (optional)

Put your preferred acidic liquid in bowl (vinegar or lime/lemon juice/citrus juice). Add salt. Add chunk of peeled ginger, lemongrass & garlic clove to infuse. Wisk in olive oil (use 3-4 times more olive oil to the quantity of vinegar you have.) Filter solids before using. Make sure it's got a good acidic tone. Throw in some soy sauce if you like. (I did.) Vinaigrette should be a somewhat thick consistency.

Avocado Purée part
3 medium avocados
lemon juice
cumin, tabasco sauce, salt & pepper (piment d'espelette preferably) - to taste

Remove pits & pulp from avocados. Squeeze lemon juice over the avocado to help prevent it from darkening in color. Use a hand blender & mix until the consistency is smooth. Season as you like with tabasco sauce, cumin & salt/pepper. (Careful with the cumin....not too much otherwise it can overpower all the other flavors, in my opinion). Resist the urge to eat spoonfuls of the guacamole....it's so tempting, but you're almost there. Only the assembly left!

Assembly:

In a martini glass or other glass - put layer of shrimp/citrus salad on the bottom. Season. Add layer of avocado purée. Sprinkle with piment d'esplette or spicy/smoked paprika.
Decorate the avocado purée with anything crispy. I used fried carrots in the "martini glass" and then I tried roasted hazelnuts. Chef Chareau used rice crispies fried in saffron butter and he also used roughly chopped roasted cashews (two different dishes). I would love to try the rice crispies...doesn't that sound kind of funny?
Instead of a martini glass, you can use a regular plate (shown here with hazelnut topping):

Conclusion:

This is every bit as good as it sounded. In fact, Eric & I each had one as an entrée (first course) last night, and then proceeded to immediately assemble a 2nd one instead of refrigerating the left-overs! One was plenty-enough.....we just couldn't help ourselves. This is a wonderfully, light-tasting first course. The acidity from the citrus mixed with the sweetness of the shrimp mixed with the richness of the ever-so-slightly seasoned avocado....is a great blending of flavors. I will make this again and again....with pleasure. Thanks Chef for sharing this great idea with us.

OFF4 - 2009 Chef Chareau Demo

Chef Chareau's Cocktail d'agrumes, crevettes & Avocat

:/dma

Michel Roth said he liked my poched egg!

2009-03-03T14:53:00.020+01:00

I got a phone call late last week asking if I'd be interested in doing a breakfast. It would be for about 12 people. A sit-down. I said yes. We settled on a simple menu. A day later, the twelve people turned into six who would "trickle in" instead of dining together. And then a 2nd cuisinier (cook) was added to help do coffee and such. So my motivation went from OK to low in the course of a few days that this thing evolved. Finally, the day of the event....it turned out to be a very slow trickle....of just 3 people. However, one of the three was Michel Roth! Suddenly, all the mise-en-place became somehow worthwhile.

Michel Roth is the chef at L'Espadon, the restaurant gastronomique of the l'Hôtel Ritz, and with Monday's release of the 2009 Michelin Guide, his two-star status was officially announced. I still hold a high regard for those who have achieved the Michelin mark, despite some of the controversy that surrounds the Guide. I was pleased to meet Chef Roth (as brief as it was) and even more pleased to prepare something for him to taste. He arrived around 10:30am, much too late for breakfast, and yet he still kindly sampled my "oeuf poché façon Bragance, mediterannée" (poched egg in a half-tomato with a ratatouille). Me simply bringing it out to him with a "voila" might have had something to do with this! Guess what. He said he liked it! It pleased me to hear such words from a two-star chef. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy, and that's probably all it is, but still, it's not everyday that a chef etoilée samples your food. Pretty cool.

Somebody please remind me next time to take a picture of the chef! Even if the encounter is brief. I'll have to get some advice from Ulla on how to do this better...
:

OFF4 - Ominivore Festival 2009 Deauville

2009-02-27T13:47:00.005+01:00

This week I attended something called OFF4 2009 - Omnivore Food Festival that was held in the Normandy coastal town of Deauville. It's a relatively young event - it just had its 4th year. Deauville is an easy two hours by train from Paris and is better known for its annual American Film festival in September. However, I suspect that OFF will put Deauville on the map for another reason!

I love the Omnivore Food Festival. I think it's a great event. It's attended by professionals in the industry - chefs, cooks, vineyard owners, restaurant owners and the like - but it's also open to the public. The two-day schedule was filled with highly talented and creative chefs (young and old) who shared their savoir-faire (know how) and philosophies. The music was modern, the vibe was good and the stage was well-equipped with a mega-projection screen suspended in the air, allowing everyone to have a good view, even back row seats.

In each 35 minute segment (approximately), these guys (yes, all were guys...) either gave an actual demo (anywhere from 1 - 7 dishes) while being interviewed (not easy!) -- or -- they participated in a "one-on-one" talk, seated at the couch area over a cup of coffee (called Café Confidences by the festival).

Demo with Chef Laurent Chareau

Café Confidences, with Pierre Hermé

I appreciated the caliber of the demos. The chefs assume you already know the basics. My head got a little overloaded, however, just a couple of times, and not because it was mostly in French. The logic occasionally slipped into lapses of complexity when the more avant-guarde chefs explained their subject. I should say tried to explain. It actually became amusing in all its complexity, where, at some point, the explanations went around in circles, out there and back again, still not fully understood....finally, the interviewer, equally perplexed at times, reached out to the audience for help to understand some of the more obscure ingredients or ideas being used!

And I was at a momentary loss when occasional terms were used very casually, such as "yuba", "umami" and "methyl cell" (that's New York speak for "methyl cellulose", you know, because...well, it just is). These moments were rare however, and the caliber of what was shared was consistently high and extremely professional. I enjoyed the Café Confidences for different reasons. They were simple and straightforward: questions were asked; responses were given. The dialogue was all highly personal, anecdotal and refreshingly honesty. No recipes given here, but better than that, we gained an understanding of someone's philosophy and integrity.

I attended the festival one day last year with Ecole Ferrandi (as part of the Sup 2nd year class). Everyone was impressed. In fact, throughout the rest of the school year, we tried to recreate some of the ideas we had seen that day. This year we also came home equally inspired to try to recreate and reinterpret. I'd say this is definitely a sign of a good event.

The first guest was Pierre Hermé (of my macaron addiction), and it continued with others such as Alexandre Bourdas, Laurent Chareau, Bertrand Grebaut, Emmanuel Renaut, Jacques et Laurent Pourcel, Mads Reflund, Franck Cerutti, Peter Nilsson, Jaques Marcon (son of Regis), several Italians, one chef from New York (David Chang), and chefs from Denmark and Spain - including Adrian Ferra, last but not least. Here are a few highlights:

Pierre Hermé, Paris

Asparagus, egg, parmesan - Bertrand Grebaut

Chef Bertrand Grebaut - Agapè, Paris 75017

Salad Caprèse - Stephano Baiocco (Italy)

Brandade de Morue, PDT Vitelotte (Cod and Purple Potato)- Riccardo Camanini (Italy)

Eel, seared foie gras & mango - Katsumi Ishida (Lyon)

Explanation of how dish was created - Jordi Butron (Spain)

Ferran Adria - el Bulli (Spain)

The MC - who did an oustanding job! (Don't know his name though)

The take-aways for me were:

Figure out what inspires you - it's where you can draw creativity. The Scandanavian chefs highlighted this point with the greatest flare and enthusiasm. They are absolutely crazy about nature - the changing of the seasons, the first fish eggs of spring, the first onion greens pushing their way through the spring snow, feeling the water on your face at the beach, walking in the forest....these are things that have inspired their plates.
Stay open-minded. Always. Even if the idea sounds strange initially, or avant-guarde (examples: eel and foie gras with mango, or "dirt dessert"...it's not really dirt, it just looks like dirt since it represents the forest! Refer to #1 above...well, maybe you "had to be there" for that one, and unfortunately,no photos to help explain!).
Food artistry = a combination of perfectly executed technique + elevated artistic presentations.
Don't be afraid to think outside the box. Strange ideas or concepts can lead to "creativity". We saw some pretty amazing creations.
You won't suit everyone's taste, so don't even try. Do your own thing. I saw several chefs who seemed to embody this notion. They have launched new horizons by doing their own thing. And they have done it quite successfully, too, according to their own definition of success (ie, not necessarily financial).
Simplicity on the plate - people want to see & understand what they're eating (even in the molecular food world). Modern. Clean. Simple.
Push the limits of comfort zone, but bring us back to something familiar.
New ideas come from questioning everything without prejudice. No assumptions; no presumptions; no thoughts about why something can't work...a child's approach to seeing the world can perhaps lead to more creativity than a rational-minded approach!

Donc, voilà. These are my interpretations of the event. None are necessarily revolutionary, per se. Haven't we heard some of these thoughts before? (ie, "think outside the box"....stay "young at heart"....etc, etc). It still serves a purpose to me, however, and that is to refresh my memory - something I need from time to time. Looking forward to OFF5 2010, announced to be held again in Deauville. Bravo.

P.S. Wondering what Omnivore means? Click here to see if you were right!
P.P.S. There's also a wine expo at OFF, but I didn't have time to check it out...too bad.
For more information about OFF, see their website (in french): Omnivore
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