Le Cordon Bleu - Written Exam Results

Some of you have been asking about the written exam results. Finally. Yesterday the cuisine results were posted on the board in the Winter Garden. According to our student number.

There were two parts to the grading. First, the fill-in-the-blanks recipe. I got a 100/100 on this section. The second part, multiple-choice and true-false I scored a 92/100. Not bad, but not perfect. Leaving me room for improvement.

The wine exam results are still being processed. I shall report those as soon as they come.

Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #28; Practical #28

Chef Philippe Clergue is one of the most beloved chefs at Le Cordon Bleu. At the end of instruction #28 the class basically gave him a standing ovation. Loud claps. And a couple whistles. Made Chef blush.



Instruction #28

• Warm goat cheese salad with bacon
• Veal escalope à la viennoise, fresh pasta with tomato sauce
• Chocolate and orange mousse

To continue the joy. When I walked into practical this morning Chef Philippe stood there ready to proctor. I was happy.

We first prepared the pasta dough – to ensure ample resting time. Flour, semolina – preventing elasticity – salt, egg, water, and olive oil combined. Briefly kneaded. Covered to rest.

Brown salt slab bacon to start the sauce. Sweat onions and carrot. Add bouquet garni, flour, and tomato paste. Cook slightly. Deglaze with tomatoes that have been peeled, seeded, and diced. Add some garlic. Top with chicken stock. Sugar for the acidity. And salt and pepper for seasoning. Once the liquid comes to a boil. Cover. And finish in a 180 degree Celsius oven for about 20 minutes. Strain and reduce.

The sauce was straight-forward and simple. In general, I liked it. The Italians were all up in arms today. Pointing out the erroneousness. Need I remind them that we are in France? At a French cooking school?

Veal escalopes accompanied the pasta. Lightly breaded and pan fried in clarified butter.

The ensemble à la viennoise – hard boiled eggs. Capers. Parsley. Black olives. Anchovies. And lemons. Decoratively passed on the side.

The starter – warm goat cheese salad with bacon – is a common French dish. Baguette slices with broiled goat cheese and crispy bacon would make anybody’s mouth water.


Crottin de Chavignol was today’s goat cheese choice. Hailing from central France’s Loire Valley. Although produced in an A.O.C. region the rules are a bit loose. Allowing for frozen curds to be used, for example. Taking away some of the genuineness. Nonetheless, this is a quintessential, French chèvre.

Chocolate and orange mousse book-ended the other side of today’s veal. The key when melting the chocolate is to use a spatula and not a whisk. This will prevent light coloration. Retaining a rich, chocolate color. Orange salad and candied orange peel make for a great accompaniment.

Le Cordon Bleu - Practical #27

There is a new chef in town. For two weeks.

Chef [insert name] is new to the Le Cordon Bleu family. French. With work experience in New York, San Francisco, Asia, the UK, and naturally, France.

He has been hired to run Le Cordon Bleu’s Seoul-campus restaurant. His two weeks in our Paris school has been to get a sense of the LCB teaching style.

I think he disagrees completely. A progressive chef, he lacked the enthusiasm for classical dishes. His modern palate, forced him to change recipes. From. Top. To bottom.

Speaking English and French (and probably some Chinese). He talked non-stop throughout practical #27. In every practical I have had him he has talked non-stop.

Most students don’t like him. He can be a bit gruff. Too straight-forward. And condescending. I am still not sure if these are his intended characteristics.

I like him. This is common for me. The teacher that everyone loves – I can’t stand. The hated professor of the group – my favorite.

Personality aside. And bad chat timing. He gives us information. Philosophical information. Like how fish stock is poetry and needs to gently come together. Releasing the essence of fish.

The best tidbit of information that I have picked up from Chef is, taste is like a triangle. An equilateral triangle. Meaning. There is a base – a wide base. From which you slowly build. Up each leg with two – complementary, not dueling – flavors. Until you reach the zenith and the last – encompassing – flavor develops.

This actually made a lot of sense to me. Helping me better structure flavors, dishes, and tastes.

Chef will be gone after this week. So I will soak in what I can.

Filleting a Fish

There has been some discussion about filleting fish. Thrown off carelessly. As though we all know how to do this.

I was not much of a fillet-er pre-Le Cordon Bleu. Mainly because I didn’t know. To help everyone get aligned with my newly acquired skill – here is a step-by-step.

Today's specimen: Sea Bream (daurade).


Snip off all the fins.


Make a small incision in the belly. Rip out the guts.

Scale (de-scale) using a scaler (de-scaler). Scraping from tail to head. The opposite direction they lie to pluck off

Cut around the head on both sides.

Make a small slice down the back bone on each side. This will serve as a guide when cutting the fillets.

Using a fillet knife, cut the fillet away from the skeleton. Gently pulling back as you cut. Keep the knife horizontal to the skeleton as you cut.

Take out the gills before using the head for the fumet – fish stock.

Pull out all the bones with fish-bone tweezers. Careful not to take too much of the flesh. Here is where you would skin the fillets if you wanted to.

When using the carcass for a fumet be sure to rinse them thoroughly. Until the water runs clear and all the blood has drained from the bones

Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #27

Of the 90 – or so – recipes that we learned during Basic Cuisine, 10 have been chosen for the final exam. One of which must be prepared in two and a half hours.

Today’s sea bream marked the tenth possible exam dishes. Dishes taught after today will still be graded in practical, but will not show up on the exam. That relieves a little bit of pressure for the balance of Basic. Pulling our focus on the ten chosen dishes. And away from what is yet to come.

Sea bream, or daurades, is usually a saltwater fish. Although some freshwater varieties exist. Sea bream is actually a general term for six or seven different species. Generally speaking. Small. White fish. Tempered flavor. Allowing for versatility.

Quickly pan fried in olive oil. Today’s sea bream was served with an anise-flavored, butter sauce. Garnished with slowly stewed fennel and dill.

Chef Lesourd – in good form – also prepared guinea fowl with cabbage. A rustic, one-pot, dish. Onion, carrot, garlic, slab bacon, and sausage accompanied the title’s ingredients. Covered. And roasted for an hour and a half.

The items were decomposed and individually layered into a buttered soufflé dish. Covered and baked for an additional thirty minutes. Turned upside down to unmold. Layers exposed.

Dessert reminded me of McDonald’s apple turn-overs. Our version. Pears sweetened with pear brandy. But. Deep-fried nonetheless. Served with raspberry and apricot coulis.

Instruction #27

• Sea bream fillets with fennel
• Guinea fowl with cabbage
• Fried pear filled puffs

Paris' No Walk Zone

Paris is swelling. Not bloating from heat. But billowing with people. Tourists.

There have always been parts of the city that I have avoided. Making sure I don’t get sucked into a load of gawking tour-bus rabble.

As we approach summer – the true European vacation season – I can tell that my no walk zone will expand. Quarantine even more of the most touristed city in the world.

The crowd that gathers at the foot of the Eiffel Tower is a good indicator of the tourist season. I usually walk past this point four or five times a week. Recently, I have noticed the increased activity.

Tourist – however – also bring some comfort. Knowing that you are not the only foreigner. Being able to find a fellow American. And surrounding yourself with novices. All help to dismantle isolation.

Crossing the Seine along with my elevated- métro line. Line number 6 – on Pont de Bir-Hakeim. Renamed (originally pont de Passy) to commemorate the battle fought by French forces in Bir-Hakeim, Libya. In 1942, against the Nazi Afrika Korps.

Making my way to the Natural History Museum in the 16th arrondissement.