Today we talked about the southwestern part of France, focusing on the Bordeaux region. The region has become very famous for its wines, in part because it has been blessed with great geography (the confluence of two rivers forming an estuary and proximity to both the ocean and a dense forest). The Bordeaux region is [...]
Posts under ‘French Food’
Week 20, Day 1: Haute Cusine 1
We’ve been talking about Classical French cuisine in our Tuesday classes for the last couple of weeks and now we’ve progressed into the world of Haute cuisine. In class, we define haute cuisine as French high-style cookery featuring fine foods that are professionally and elegantly prepared in an appropriate manner. Taking that one step further, [...]
Week 19, Days 1 and 2
Because of the “Guest Chef for a Night” event, I was only able to attend last week’s lectures. Since I missed both days of cooking lab last week, this post doesn’t contain any pretty pictures or interesting stores of butchering lamb barons. I’ll keep this one short and sweet and present just some of the [...]
Week 18, Day 2: Provincial French 2
Today we moved into the heartland region of France and spoke about Touraine and the surrounding area, including Anjou, Orleans and Poitou…all considered to be part of the Loire Valley. This is a very fertile and picturesque area (well known for its chateaus), often referred to as ‘the garden’ of France (hey, just like New [...]
Week 18, Day 1: Classical French 2
Chef J began class today by talking about the evolution of French cuisine from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance period. Owing a great debt to the work of La Varenne, author of the revolutionary cookbook “La Cuisiner Francois” and considered to be the father of classical French cooking as we know it today, French cuisine [...]
Week 17, Day 2: Provincial French 1
For our first class on provincial French cooking, we covered the northwestern provinces of Normandy and Brittany. As Chef C explained, the ‘big 3′ items that define the cuisine of Normandy are dairy products, apples and seafood. The dairy products that come from Normandy are of a very high quality…milk, cream and creme fraiche are [...]
Week 17, Day 1: Classical French 1
After nearly 4 weeks away from the CSCA kitchens, this Tuesday marked the official beginning of the 2nd half of my culinary school education. The days of alternating baking and food basics classes are over…for the next 7 weeks or so we’ll be learning all about French cuisine. My Tuesday classes will be devoted to classical French [...]
