I have always loved food. As a baby, I had the cheeks and fat rolls to show it! Cooking is a relatively new passion (developed since moving to the UK) and I find it intersects beautifully with my love of travel! John wanted me to further explore this passion and suggested I go to cooking school. Not just any cooking school, but Le Cordon Bleu which has a London campus! I gratefully jumped at his offer. I applied and was accepted to Le Cordon Bleu to begin Autumn 2016!
The day I accepted LCB’s offer for enrollment, I found out I was pregnant. This was turning out to be quite the adventure 🙂 I started courses when I was 9 weeks along and just coming out of the haze of morning sickness…thank goodness!!!
Le Cordon Bleu London in beautiful Bloomsbury Square!
I opted to do both Cuisine and Pâtisserie, which meant a full course load of 40ish hours per week. I would learn the basics of French cooking and baking. The LCB curriculum is made up of three progressive levels: Basic, Intermediate, and Superior, of which I did Basic. I learned a TON in the Basic course and am very happy with my choice to stop after completing this level. That being said, I was 21 weeks pregnant when I finished, to go any further would have been pushing it especially on my feet in those hot kitchens!
First day of school!
We had three main types of lessons: lectures, demonstrations, and practicals. Lectures happened roughly once per week and covered a specific topic such as wine, cheese, flours and sugars, etc. This was to give us a knowledge base from which to pull. The main instruction came in the form of demonstrations and practicals. Demonstrations are three hour lessons in which the teaching Chef cooks the dish you will prepare in the subsequent practical. The classrooms are awesome–think full kitchen at the front with mirrors on the ceiling and a video feed to get a close-up of what the chef is doing, like a live version of the Food Network in which you can ask questions! We were given ingredient lists, but no methods for each demonstration. Methods we had to write down for ourselves as the chefs created the dishes. After the three-hour demonstration, we went into the kitchen for our practical where we had to reproduce exactly what the chef had demonstrated. Each kitchen accommodated 16 students and a teaching Chef. As we were reproducing the dishes, the teaching Chef would walk around and critique our methods. At the end of the class, we had to serve the prepared dish at the appointed time. The chef would critique the presentation and the taste–it could be quite nerve-racking!
From our first demonstration: knife cuts!
I was very nervous the first time I stepped into a practical kitchen. We didn’t even have to turn on the stove or oven–it was three hours of knife cuts. This seems like tons of time, but most of us struggled to deliver a plate of carefully sliced veggies because the standards are so exacting. We would have to reproduce five of these cuts on our final exam in addition to a full dish and all within a strict time limit. Talk about pressure– I feel like anytime I stepped into a LCB practical kitchen, time magically melted away.
Product of my first Pâtisserie practical: fruits!
In Pâtisserie, we got to use the ovens much sooner–it was all about baking! One of our first practicals included Crème brûlée. We learned how to top it with a beautiful basket made of sugar. It was very encouraging to have such a photogenic product from such an early lesson.
Pâtisserie Practical: Crème brûlée with a sugar basket
Each course (Cuisine and Pâtisserie) culminated with a written exam and a practical exam. The standards for the practical exam were very strict, including a time limit enforced by point deductions from the final grade (you lost so many points per minute you were over the time limit). As we went through each course, three of our practicals contained a potential exam dish. For cuisine, the potential dishes were Lemon Sole, Trout, or Chicken Mousse. For Pâtisserie the options were a Lemon Tart, Coffee Eclairs, or a Charlotte Au Cassis. For our practical exams, my class ended up with the Lemon Sole and the Coffee Eclairs.
Pâtisserie Practical: Tarte au Citron. This was a potential exam dish.
First up of the potential exam dishes: the Tarte au Citron. Each practical dish contained several elements to build and test our skills. The Tarte au Citron had a shortcrust base, lemon curd, candied lemon peel, and merengue. Plus, we got to use the blow torch :). Every dish we did at school had multiple elements and built on each other as the course progressed.
Tarte Aux Pommes: one of the best parts of cooking school is taking home your schoolwork!!!
What we made in the practicals, we got to bring home with us! This was especially nice because after cooking all day at school, I really didn’t feel whipping up a fancy dinner at home. John was traveling to the US for work quite a bit at this point, so he missed out on a lot of the goodness!
Jalousie Aux Poires Et Creme D’Amandes
Being pregnant in cooking school was tough (especially on long days), but I was very fortunate that I had a fairly easy pregnancy that interfered minimally with my studies. And that my studies did not interfere with my pregnancy! LCB was extremely supportive and I am thankful for that. Fortunately, I got through most of the programme without anyone (besides the school administration) knowing I was expecting! I wasn’t trying to hide it–I just wanted to be treated like everyone else on the course. I was delighted when I got some surprised looks (even from some of the Chefs) when I wore my “Baby On Board” Tube button the day we received our final marks and had our Chef reviews.
Bande Feuilletee Aux Fruits De Saison
The one exception to all of this was the lesson on Les Abats (edible glands and internal organs). The soaking of the organs in water to remove the toxins is what got me. And then there were the smells. I couldn’t stand the smell of entrails–especially at 8am. I could deal with filleting a fish at 8am on a Saturday, but I couldn’t handle innards. After going to the demonstration, I opted to skip the practical. Other than that, the hardest thing to deal with was pregnancy brain (my classmates saved me a few times here) and collapsing (intentionally!!!) on the couch at home at the end of a long day. Thank goodness I had brought food home with me!
Crabe Farci A L’Anglaise (this crab was alive when I started!)
Some of the dishes we created were a bit old fashioned (this crab dish being one of them). However, lots of different skills were utilized here here. I had to kill a live crab, cook the crab, and use the light and dark meat for different purposes, hard boil an egg, finely chop herbs, etc. Although I’ll never make this dish again, the building blocks are useful. I compare it to diagramming sentences–this is not something you have to do in the real world, but the elements that go into it are fundamental and used regularly.
Coffee Eclairs
Although some of the dishes I won’t be preparing at home (I’m looking at you, consommé) some of them I am very much looking forward to recreating. One example: coffee eclairs. Eclairs are made using choux pastry, which is actually started on the hob. It can be a bit tricky, but if you get a good rise in the oven, you are golden. This ended up being our Pâtisserie final, along with buttercream piping.
White Bread Rolls
Some of the practicals were more enjoyable than others. I LOVED learning to fillet a fish. Having lived in Singapore and living very close to Billingsgate Fish Market in London, I find it empowering to know that I can go in and pick out any kind of fish (flat or round) and take care of scaling it and filleting it myself. Our final exam in Cuisine ended up being the Lemon Sole. During the allotted time, we had to scale, fillet, and prepare the fish and do our knife cuts using a couple of potatoes. Talk about pressure!
Before and After: Filet De Sole Duglere aux Epinards et Champignons de Paris. This was another of our potential exam dishes.
Other lessons were less enjoyable, such as the consommé lesson. Consommé is a clear soup that is packed with flavour (ours was beef) and is clarified with a process using egg whites. The one piece of advice: don’t boil the consommé. If you do that, it’s ruined. What did I do? I turned my back on it for one minute and turned around the find it boiling. It was so discouraging to have messed up so early in the lesson. Even more frustrating was the fact that the teaching Chef saw this and curtly let me know it was “ruined” with his French accent. Needless to say, I won’t be recreating this dish at home!
Charlotte au Chocolat
Most of practicals, however, were very enjoyable. They were stressful because of the time issue and the chefs’ standards, but they were enjoyable nonetheless. Nothing was more satisfying than successfully completing a practical and taking a photo of what I had created! Except for maybe eating it!
Gateau St Honore (St. Honore is the patron saint of bakers)
I learned a lot whilst studying at Le Cordon Bleu and not all of it was cooking. I learned what it takes to be a chef. We had to wear chef attire to every lecture and demonstration and full chef attire (including apron, hat, hairnet, and safety shoes) in the kitchen for each practical. Chefs clothing is incredibly comfortable but can be incredibly warm, especially with all of those layers! There is even a neckerchief for sweat control!
Tired after an evening class. I was about 18 weeks pregnant here…
I gained a lot of respect for those in the food industry during my studies. I had no idea that most kitchens are run with such military precision with a strict hierarchy and a “Yes, Chef” can-do attitude. And, I had no idea the kinds of hours that people in food service work and, more importantly, how exhausting those hours could be. I thought being a chef was all about creativity, but the reality is until you reach “Head Chef” you are recreating someone else’s dishes.
Pistachio and Chocolate Macarons
One of the biggest changes in my behaviour since finishing at LCB is the fact that I now rarely go off-menu or request alterations to a dish. LCB made me respect the creativity and thought that goes into each item on a menu. A chef has painstakingly designed a dish to taste a specific way and for the flavors and textures to play off of each other. In short, it’s a work of art. I don’t ask the saxophonist in a jazz band to stop playing because I prefer the sound of other instruments, why should I (without allergies, etc), alter a dish a chef worked hard to create?
Piping practice for my Pâtisserie Exam. This is a whole can of shaving cream!
Earning my certification at LCB was the hardest course I have ever undertaken (and I have a Masters’ Degree!!!). It was physically demanding, mentally taxing and emotionally challenging every single day. Every time I would create a dish for the Chef to critique, I felt like my heart was on the plate. I was beyond exhausted (being pregnant didn’t help) and had to stand on my feet in a hot kitchen, with sharp knives and hot pans and try not to cut of burn myself. Before LCB, I was used to being graded on written tests, papers, and projects (in their finished state), not on my methods of creation and something I made with my hands. My biggest physical worry was a paper cut! And in the kitchen, I was used to having unlimited time and sometimes a glass of wine in my hand! This experience stretched me and I am beyond thankful for it. And I loved it.
After completing (and passing!!!) the courses, we are anxious to find out if we are having a girl or a boy!!!
Thankfully, I (and Baby Candeto) passed both the Cuisine and Pâtisserie courses! After the final exams, the chefs sit down with you and go through your performance over the term. They encouraged me to continue my studies, which was flattering. However, it is now time to focus on preparing for Baby.
I am so thankful for the experience to study at LCB and for the Chefs and classmates that made the experience so wonderful. The skills I learned I use daily because, hey, we all have to eat 🙂
John and CB's Most Excellent Adventure 