pardon my french

Brought to you by the letter "Z"

My last finals at Le Cordon Bleu are complete. I have been looking through my notes and binders and laughing at how detailed my notes were from the first days. "Put wet paper towel under cutting board to prevent sliding" and "cut leeks length-wise to rinse out dirt in tepid water." Intermediate was more streamlined. Finally in Superior, my notes usually consist of something like this:

1) confit tomatoes

2) butcher meat

3) jus

4) farce

5) oven--180

…and so on

While each step would have its own page in Basic, now we just know what to do. When I see "confit tomatoes," I know I have to put on a pot of boiling water. Set an oven to 90-degrees Celsius. Cut the stem out of fresh tomatoes, and score an "x" into the skin on the opposite pole. Prep an ice bath. When the water boils, drop in the tomatoes for just a minute or two. When you see the first break in the skin, take them out and put them directly into the ice bath. Let them sit for a few minutes, not more than five. Then peel the skin. Cut into quarters, remove the seeds, put into a bowl. Toss the tomato petals with olive oil, salt and pepper. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Lay on the petals skin-side up. Throw a few sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf and a smashed garlic clove on the sheet as well. Let it dry in the low oven for at least an hour (why you do this first, because it takes so long). And that's "confit tomatoes." 

So many other random tidbits we've learned. You probably knew the best times to eat oysters are in months with the letter "r." But, did you know that lobsters can outlive humans? Apparently, they can live over a hundred years when their claw meat alone can weigh 800 g--without the shell. Never boil squid ink if you add it to a sauce, it gets grainy. Boil beans in unsalted water so they don't fall apart. Water and ice with salt is colder than water and ice alone. If preparing ahead of time, use clarified butter or egg whites to keep phyllo dough or brik pastry from getting soggy. Meat should rest at least half the cooking time before slicing. Bordeaux is the land of "eau" (water) because its two rivers running through it. Jasmine flowers are more fragrant at night; this is when they are harvested for jasmine extract. Oh, and the incredible, edible egg. I have learned more than I ever thought about this omnipresent ingredient (stay tuned for my interview with a big wig in the egg industry).

There's other things too, like the difference between a royale and a flan; a charlotte and chartreuse; pesto and pistou. I won't bore you with those. All of this learning, practice and more practice culminated in our Superior final exams. First was cuisine…

My grandfather jokes that when they would hand desks out on the first day of school, "Zimmer, Thomas" was always sent into the next room to find one. Zimmers are all too familiar with being last in line. For the cuisine exam, Hugo and I, holding down the bottom of the alpha order of "Group A" were literally sent into the next room. While Arora through Reis were in 1PS (first floor), Simoes and Zimmer were in 2PS (2nd floor) with four other people from Group B. (Notice they even start with Group A…the alphabet really does control a lot!) This is all fine and good, except since day one Group A has been together. We are the Grand Diplome students and our group has principally stayed the same. It was somewhat strange to be in the kitchen on our final exam without Garima to my right, Dimitri to my left and the rest of the crew. 

Everything happens for a reason, of course. Each kitchen is named for an important influence in the history of the school. 2PS happens to be the "Julia Child" room. I never took too much notice of this before, but standing at the door waiting to be let in and hit the ground running, I was staring at the plaque. I smiled and thought the perhaps she was looking down on our little room…

Four hours later, my heart was pounding like there was a bongo in my chest. Four amuse bouche and four main dishes were out the door and on the way to the jury, four chefs from outside LCB. It happened so fast I couldn't even take a photo of my plate. All I have is the photo of the diagram we are required to present:

On the left: eggplant "ravioli": sautéed slices of eggplant stuffed with shallot, confit tomatoes and mushrooms topped with a few drops of lightly whipped cream and roasted red pepper puree, and those tiny red squares are a brunoise of fresh red pepper.

Middle: slices of white and dark meat of roasted guinea fowl over a guinea fowl jus.

Right: a slice of seared duck foie gras wrapped with a thin slice of cantaloupe. On top, a fig stuffed with a stewed spring onion wrapped in phyllo dough on bed of arugula tossed in a light vinaigrette. Finished with a drop of honey over the fig and a drizzle of port reduction. 

The amuse, not pictured : ( , was a puree of white Paimpol beans with ginger, a layer of cilantro lime jelly, topped with salted cantaloupe "caviar" (made with the world's smallest melon baller)

When they took my plates away I felt good. Honestly, I've never felt such pressure and it was a huge releif to see them walk out the door on time! I executed everything the way I planned in my timeline I wrote out the night before. I think (and hope!) it tasted good. Our start and finish times are staggered every 10 minutes so we can present our dishes hot. Of course, I was the last person in Group A to present and leave. I didn't get to see what the rest of my group presented, except for Hugo's. There were no triumphant high-fives or yahoos. Surely, I was glad to be done, but I felt a little sad walking home. Alone. Having not slept well the night before, I just went to my apartment and passed out.

The next morning, Group A was all back together tying on our aprons and donning our hair nets for our pastry final. Our final day in the kitchen. The pastry exam is not staggered like cuisine. The groups start and finish together because nothing needs to be hot. We all talked about how strange yesterday was to be separated (OK, maybe I brought it up!) and that it's nice to finish together on our final final. 

We walked in the room to find Chef Nicolas Bernardé, the head of Pastry and LCB's only MOF. He told us to be done by 2:30p and "bon courage!" Six hours later, without incident or catastrophe, we each stood before a sugar sculpture to present to the jury. 

My sculpture was a orchid growing out of rocks:

close-up of the flower, view from side & back

Before we left, Chef Bernarde gathered us all around and told us that graduation will be hectic with so many people…"and champagne"…so, he wanted to talk to us as a small group. He said enjoyed working with us and to "think back on our first pastry class," taking 3 hours just to make little shortbread cookies.

Garima interjected, "that was with you, Chef!"

"Ohh, you start with me. You finish with me," Chef smirked.

He told us to remember that to be a true artist, we must work with not only our hands, but our head and our heart. And finally, "so you are finish now and maybe you leave Paris. But, you come back. You come here and you say, 'hi, Chef. OK?'" 

"Oui, Chef."

High-fives, hugs and cheers. 

We were done. Nine months together. From rustic vegetable soup to full menus. From shortbread to sugar sculptures.

Cheers, Group A!

Garima, Noor, me, Dimitri, Hugo, Chef, Chris, Helena, Diana & Pedro