Paris : Modern Cuisine

Upon entering the cooking school tonight, I'm not sure what I was expecting. Our teacher was a young Frenchwoman named Emilie who had worked in Michelin-starred restaurants. However, unsatisfied with that life, she took a break and ended up working for La Cuisine, where she is now happily working.

But, I'm not sure why she's happy here because the students were going crazy and running around like chickens with our heads cut off. She seemed a bit overwhelmed at times, too.

Instead of cooking individual meals, we cooked together to create the following:

Cold melon soup with Espelette pepper and crusty Bayonne jambon

Duck breast with an apricot and rosemary sauce

Mashed potatoes with garlic and rosemary

Vanilla crème anglaise, meringue and caramel in an inverted "île flottante" ("floating island")

For a moment, I was in charge of cooking the duck breasts, seen here among the apricots and rosemary. This pan was incredibly heavy due to the generous portions (which is not a bad thing).

When we finished preparing, we began to eat, one plate at a time. We would plate, paying special attention to the presentation; eat; and restart with the next course.

Most of my classmates followed Emilie's example, but I felt adventurous for the main course, so I stacked the duck on top of the mashed potatoes instead of putting them side by side. I thought that this was a classic presentation method, but after class, Emilie told me that she was impressed by my presentation.

This inverted "île flottante" is a special plate. Of course it deviates from the standard version of this place since I keep calling it inverted, but that's not what makes it special. Apparently, Emilie comes from a long line (or maybe a short line - whatever, she has chefs in her family) of chefs and this specific recipe was created by her father. I was touched that she shared a family recipe like this.

Despite the odd teaching method, I was rather impressed by the meal, especially the main dish and the dessert. I didn't love or hate the soup, but I'm not sure I will be making it at home. At the end of the meal, I was so full that I was afraid that I was going to puke. It's just that everything was so delicious and I wanted to eat everything on my plate. I couldn't stop eating - it was that good. Well, at least for the next class, I will know how much I should (or shouldn't) eat.