Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #1; Practical #1

Bananas. Mangos. Tandoori, satay, and turmeric spices. All greeted us.

I could tell right of way that Superior was going to be different.

Chef Clergue welcomed us to the final term. Encouraged us to work harder than ever. And opened the door for flexibility. He mentioned now that we’re in Superior we have the right to interpret the recipes our own way.

Practical Chef Frederick expanded. Superior is all about your creativity – how you see things. What you make of it.

We are still required to make specific recipes. It’s the how – and to some degree, the what – that we have free-reigns.

Instruction #1

• Cauliflower and shrimp tabouleh, cilantro and peppermint
• John Dory fillets with red spices, wild rice with tropical fruit
• Banana baked in its skin, sorbet, hibiscus and rum sauce

The entrée was straightforward, but delicious. Couscous mixed with cauliflower, broccoli, shrimp and cucumber. Tossed with cilantro, parsley, peppermint vinaigrette that found its acid from lime juice. Finished with sun-dried tomatoes, mint leaves, and whole shrimp.

I’ve never had wild rice with tropical fruit before. I was pleasantly surprised. Brunoise mango popped throughout the red riz sauvage.

Tandoori and satay spices perfumed the kitchen as the sauce got underway. Started with a typical fumet. Brought exotic with spices, mango trimmings, and lime zest. Foreign as the sauce may have seemed. It was returned to France with a butter heap in the end.

I enjoyed the hot-spicy, spice-ful flavor of the fish. The sauce was still a bit too buttery for my taste. Here, for example, is where my creativity can step in. I can create – or discover – an alternative to finishing the sauce with butter. A method that would still give velvety volume.

Final example. The first example is Chef’s traditional plate. The second, my plate. Alternatively finished with fresh spinach salad and lime vinaigrette.

Bananas seasoned with brown sugar – cooked in their skin. Accompained banana sorbet. Finished with dried bananas – thin slices baked for one hour per side at 90 degree Celsius.

I was motivated by today’s work. And the direction Superior has promised us. Part delivered by LCB. Relying more on our creativity. It is going to be all about what I make it. Where I allow my imagination to go. How involved I keep myself. And most of all, the amount of fun that I create in the kitchen.

This is going to be a lot of fun!