What better way to start off my chateaus than with the beautiful building on 8 rue Leon Delhomme.  As you can see it says it was founded in 1895 and I don’t think they have done too much in the way of remodeling since then.  In fact, one of my friends, Warren, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney and is going to the one in London next and he said both of those campuses are MUCH nicer than the one in Paris. Maybe I should have gone to the one in Boston…

Although the school’s interior might not be anything to write home about, the classes are awesome.  There are two types of classes – demos and practicals.  During demos the chef shows us how to make the dish we are going to make in practical. All of the students take notes on the technique the chef uses since we are only given an ingredient list and not a recipe.  Also, whenever the chef asks us a question or says hi to us we all have to say “Oui Chef” of “Bonjour Chef” it’s sort of weird, but I like it.  Here is Chef Bruno making pasta during one of our demos, he is my favorite – so organized and so cute in that old man cute way.  He also humors me when I speak “french” to him.

After demo we have practical where a small group of 10 students go into the kitchens and cook.  Both demo and practical are three hours.  Demos normally only go about 2.5 and the chefs normally make 2 or 3 dishes, but practicals almost ALWAYS last the full three hours and we only have to make one dish. (Sometimes I even feel rushed…) Our class schedule is completely random – some days we have 9 hours of class and other days we have no class.  The only constant is we don’t have class on Sundays. Also, if any of you come visit me you can come with me to demo and listen, take notes, and even taste the food! When my mom and Sally were here they came to demo with me when the chef made poached chicken.

Here is what we have made so far:

1. Potage

2. Turbot with Veloute de Poisson (Please note this started as a whole, fresh turbot. Meaning I had to filet it, cut off it’s fins, cut outs it’s gills, remove it’s stomach… barf)

3. Poached Chicken with Sauce Supreme and Rice au Gras

4. Quiche Lorraine

5. Pissaladiere

6. Poached Eggs with Albufera Sauce & Puff Pastry

7. Crab Bisque

Just so you know, the pissaladiere is the only picture of food I actually made.  I normally don’t bring my camera into practical so I mainly have pictures of the chef’s food.  Their food is much prettier so it’s probably better I post their dishes than mine. I have no idea what we are making this week, but I will find out tomorrow morning!