Last Night's Cooking Class at La Cuisine Paris

I have to write about the cooking class I gave last night at cooking school La Cuisine Paris, where I work part-time. It was a group of ten people from the Czech Republic, all expatriated to France.

I've only met one other Czech in my entire life, when I first arrived in Paris and we were both struggling to learn how to conjugate the subjunctive.... Anyway, she was friendly, dynamic, open & fun. So was the group of Czechs last night. Are they all like that??!! (Kidding!) Last night's group was also keenly eager to work, participate, & get "it" done. The "it" was last night's menu consisting of:

Velouté de courgette au lait de coco /
Cream of zucchini soup with coconut milk

Daurade grillé, confit de fenouil d'anis et de vanille, confit de pomme de terre et sauce à l'orange "fondu" à l'huile d'olive /
Pan seared sea bream, fennel "confit" with anise & vanilla bean, potato "confit" & "melted" orange juice-olive oil sauce

Fondant au chocolate aux épices d'hiver /
Molten chocolate cake with warm winter spices

Keep in mind it was a two hour class, including the dégustation (tasting). After having given several two-hour classes over the past year, I can say that teaching & preparing all of this within two hours is ambitious. But guess what. That's what we pretty much did. The old "work hard, play hard" spirit was alive & kicking in this group. The first hour and a half was spent concentrating on the tasks at hand....and the last half hour was spent enjoying the fruits of labor when everyone could sit down and taste each dish, with a glass of white wine in hand.

What a pleasure working with people so eager & interested. The same is true of another class the day before - a group from the American Women's Club. If you haven't checked out La Cuisine Paris yet, I hope you do. It's a different kind of school. In a Cheers kind of way. "Where everybody knows your name".....in other words, the welcome is warm, it feels like home, and "Ted" and "Diane", alias Olivier & Jane, are there to take care of your needs, with total sincerity and a smile on their face. Bravo to them for doing a lot of things right with their cooking school. Makes me happy to be in this line of work. C'est tout...that's all I wanted to say today. What....you expecting something else?!


Address:
89, boulevard Saint Michel
75005
www.lacuisineparis.com

:/dma