Voyage en Normandie

What great timing to visit Normandie after our Normandie regional menu. Jacob, Amanda, Chris/Canada, Andrew, and I rented a car and drove there after our regional menu.

Hi Jacob!


We got a bit lost and didn't get into Deauville until about 1030pm. And the reception was closed so we had to call a number to get our key.

Our hotel during the day. It was super cheap - something like 45Euro/night for an apartment with a kitchen that roomed 5 people.

Most of the restaurants were closed but luckily found a place where we ordered muscles and sea bass.




Of course, Cidre !


The next day we drove along the coast to see the bunkers that were still there from the war.








Then off to the American Cemetary. A bit chilly...?








The Cemetery was quite beautiful and peaceful actually. A very good experience.

For dinner, we wanted to go to one of the Michelin restaurants in Normandie. We had reservations around 9pm but got ridiculously lost. I decided to drive tonight and with it being so dark and being in the middle of nowhere with endless peripheriques, it was not the most fun-filled activity. BUT I have to admit it was nice to drive in open air instead of being in the city.

Long story short, we couldn't find the place and they didn't want to seat us after 930pm. We drove to Caen, I believe, and ate at a crappy Italian restaurant because we were too hungry to keep searching for another restaurant. We ended the night drinking cidre and Calvados - alcool that Normandie is known for. We all learned that we never ever want to drink Calvados again and just to keep it for cooking. I felt so sick!


The next day we had just enough time to see the Bayeux tapistry. Amanda is a history nutcase - (she knows so much even down to the dates) The Bayeux Tapestry is a 50 cm by 70 m (20 in by 230 ft) long embroidered cloth which explains the events leading up to the 1066 Norman invasion of England as well as the events of the invasion itself. (Thx Wiki).

Walking around Bayeux




Info and photos about the tapestry here.

Le Menu Regional: Normandie

Le Menu Regional are one of my favorite things to do at school. On top of spending the time preparing and cooking these dishes - we actually get to sit down and eat it with our chef. An amazing and enjoyable experience. Julie and I worked on the first course together.

Crème de brocolis aux tourteaux


Simple as it may seem, the tedious part is making sure not any bit of crab shell and cartilage ended up in the dish.

Bar entier cuit dans une croûte de sel aux deux pommes




Soles Grillées, salsifis crus,, beurre meunière


Canard rouennais en deux services, pommes soufflées


Might I add that blood was added to the sauce...


Crazy Eldar/Israel


Tartes aux pommes macérées au lait d'amandes, Sorbet à la bénédictine


Bon Apetit !

And on this weeks Wednesday night restaurant service:

Cou d'agneau confit, macaronade, jus d'agneau tranché

Wrapped in crepine and braised for a long time








We survived!

Burger night

So what do you do when you have a bunch of culinary students that have a craving for burgers?

Have a burger night!

The birth of very delicious burgers made with gouda or bleu cheese, bacon, arugula, and of course bread from Poilane:













Bon Apetit !

First restaurant service - it's just soupe, right ?

Wednesday nights will now become regular restaurant service for the Anglophone class at Ferrandi. My first dish (working with Andrew) was to be Crème de céleri, fricassée de champignons

Simple right? It is just a purée of céleri rave. And you know, brunoise of some mushrooms. Well... I dunno what the fuck happened but we ended up in the shit and didn't have time to eat dinner. Well actually I do know what happened - we are rookies and need to learn organization above all things. That is what can screw you - a big bordel of a station, and slow mise en place can really get you.

Since this is only the beginning, my French was extremely limited - actually I barely knew any culinary French vocabulary. I had problems translating the recipe (all our materials are in French). I ended up peeling like a head of garlic instead of 1 gousse of garlic which means 1 clove. I was thinking why do we need so much garlic ??? It was like common sense went out the window when I was just thinking too hard on following the recipe.

Anyway, eventually I finished my part of the recipe... but from what I heard, Chef yelled at my buddy Andrew pretty bad. It sounded a little something like this:

"Never again, Andrew. NEVER AGAIN !" Insert action of throwing a ladle in our soup and having it splash everywhere.

I wasn't quite there for that one and don't know the details of how that came about. But in the end, our soupe tasted delicious and our orders were sent out as my chef always says:

Hot, Seasoned, and ON TIME!

We obviously didn't have time to take photos. But here are the leftovers we made for our classmates.


Quail


Which turns into this


Anglo B




Petits Fours from Pastry

Miscellaneous events in the kitchen

In other news - we started moving into creating other dishes like squid risotto and volaille.

Oh la la!


Eldar "tirer"-ing the poulet




This was quite a long process to create - it is chicken farce surrounded by chicken and veg. Very delicious.

Le Menu Regional: Provence

So my fantastic program at school includes regional menus. Every other week we have the pleasure of learning the wine and food for specific regions in France. Our first menu was for Provence.

Anchoïade


Petits Farci à la Provençale


So this was my dish. Being a rookie, I took a long time doing this recipe. I have never even used a meat grinding machine before. This was a fairly simple recipe, however, there were many steps to it including canneling the legumes, videring them and stuff them. Unfortunately for my rookie ass, I didn't have enough time to reduce the sauce. Nonetheless, it was still good.




Filets de rougets à la crème d'olive et marjolaine, fine ratatouille


Ok - so FUNNY STORY. Eldar was making that olive foam sauce you see above. It was in a bahut and chef told him to put it in the bain mairie. The bain marie is a water bath which we leave on our plaques. You put in other bain-maries filled with sauces, soups, etc that need to stay heated. So Eldar says to chef,

"So you sure you want me to put it in the bain-marie?"
"Yes, Eldar, put it in the bain-marie."

So HE POURS THE SAUCE INTO THE WATER IN THE BAIN-MARIE. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA. Ahhh, what a classic story to live down.


Aïoli de Cabillaud, minis fenouil et Épinards sautés à cru



Daube à la Provençale




Gros macarons au citron, Sorbet citron


And of course, what else but to finish avec un express ?


Bon Apetit !