Here are the highlights from our second and final week of Nouvelle Cuisine, beginning with Foie Gras with Endive, Asparagus and Red Cabbage: The foie gras was dusted very lightly with flour and quickly seared in a very hot pan. Foie gras is best served while it’s still quite rare and even though I felt [...]
Posts under ‘French Food’
Week 25, Day 1: Nouvelle Cuisine 1
Fearing that classical French cuisine had become far too pretentious for its own good, in the early ’70s a pair of food critics began to lay the foundation for what would become the ‘Nouvelle’ cuisine movement. These two critics, Henri Gault and Christian Milleau, felt that many chefs were ‘abusing’ food and not paying proper respect to [...]
Week 24, Day 2: Provincial French 8
For our last day of Provincial French cuisine, we covered Alsace-Lorraine, arguably the region of France that has the least French-influencing cooking. As you can see from the pictures below, this cuisine is heavily influenced by German cuisine, no doubt due to the region’s proximity to the German border and some other important historical factors [...]
Week 24, Day 1: Garde Manger 2
Here are the highlights from our second day of Garde Manger, beginning with this salad of sliced duck breast, endive, watercress and chili-spiced walnuts that I helped to prepare: It was a pretty easy (and tasty) dish to put together, however, I’m in no rush to repeat it at home…I blame the watercress for that. It’s not [...]
Week 23, Day 2: Provincial French 7
We’re nearing the end of our 8 week Provincial French unit and with the heavy hitting regions like Bordeaux, Burgundy and Provence out of the way, we’re covering some of the ‘lesser known’ regions today (lesser known to me, at least, but having never been to France, I’m far from an expert). We discussed the mountainous [...]
Week 23, Day 1: Garde Manger 1
Garde Manger (GM) in modern times can have lots of meanings depending on the type of the restaurant or kitchen. Historically, the GM was thought of as the ’keeper of the food’, with the position coming into prominence in a time before refrigeration existed. The GM became an important kitchen function in these days becuase so much of the food that passed through [...]
Week 22, Day 2: Provincial French 6
Our tour of France continues this week with a stop-over in Provence, located in the Southeastern-most part of the country. The region’s cuisine is directly influenced by its close proximity to both Italy and the Mediterranean Sea and features heavy usage of tomatoes, olives and olive oil, garlic and seafood. Ratatouille: Ratatouille is a dish consisting [...]
Week 22, Day 1: Haute Cuisine 3
Let’s just get right to this week’s food, shall we? Petite Pojarski (Miniature Faux Cutlets): Ground chicken (plus some additional flavorings and breadcumbs) that have been shaped into little miniature cutlets and balls, then fried. Just like McNuggets, only better. Potage Bagration (Cream of Veal with Macaroni and Cheese): I was totally not into the [...]
Week 21, Day 2: Provincial French 5
We’re still on our culinary tour of the Southwest region of France, a region known for some of the things that I mentioned last week (foie gras, truffles, mushrooms, Bordeaux wine) plus many of the dishes that we prepared in today’s class. Brandade de Morue (Salt Cod Puree): This is salt cod that’s been pureed [...]
Week 21, Day 1: Haute Cuisine 2
The format for today’s class deviated a bit from our normal routine. We didn’t have too much new material to cover during lecture so we spent some time reviewing some things that we’ve learned over the last few weeks. Normally, right before we enter the kitchen after our daily lecture, Chef J assigns recipes out to each of us, [...]
