Michelin
is a motor Tyre company which does anonymous checks on restaurants and
chefs. It publishes each year a list of world wide classy restaurants
and places to eat and their chefs.
Their stars are very much valued.
There
are just a few of 3 star Michelin chefs in the world. We can count them
on our figures. Many chefs commit suicide when their stars are removed
or denied.
It’s a matter of honor and prestige .
One such chef is Alain DuCasse. He has 3 stars to his credit .
.He runs several classes here in Paris.
One such class is of desserts. I got this gift from Sri on my birthday .
I
reached on time and there were some 10-12 students along with me .we
were given one thick heavy cotton apron and some papers to write notes
on ( with pencils of course ) . the recipes were also printed and
given to us but in French .
Wow the kitchen is master class.
Each and everything there was WOW .
The
man himself is simplicity personified. Here we think this big man who
gets written about in big mags and papers must be pompous and snob
nosed. But no he was simple smiling but also very strict with is
students.
The first step was to create the base pate ( base pie dough)
He had already made boxes with required amount f butter / cheese/ cream / flour etc,.
The
students were asked to come one by one . he made sure that all of us
got hands on . among the students 2 were professional chefs.
2 -3 others were like me who had this class as a birthday gift.
A few were running their own restaurants .
The
rest were house wives. U can see that they belonged to the upper
echelons . many female students had grace and they were just ‘
housewives’ . I can imagine how they run their kitchens so much class
and grace .
Wow what a class what grace alain had while cooking .
He was so strict he used to come over and look behind all our shoulders to see if its fine or not .
He
had a couple of students who to used to come in / clean up /arrange
and leave quietly. The class lasted 4 full hours and we had to stand the
entire time . it took a lot of effort from all of us to scrub/ whip/
cut / knead / boil/ stir . The ovens were transparent ( scrubbed squeaky
clean ) so that we could see the flour rising .
We
did pate ( base ) for pies , creams with berries for fillings /
profiteroles( its like a bred filled with cream ) / éclair stuffed with
cream … the usual popular French desserts
When we were cooking I felt it is going to be too sugary and heavy .
The last piece was when we sat down to taste .
At that time it tasted not that sweet but yes a bit heavy thanks to heavy cream and butter.
What
he says is right- we won’t make all such dishes daily so when we do it
once in a while why not use 100 % butter and cream. Why spoil it with
low fat cream and butter which wont taste so rich.
The
kitchen utensils/ the spoons / the table/ the cutlery were spic and
span. No wonder he is a star chef. I have taken pics and will try to paste them.
The
apron was given to us as a souvenir . it was a worthy gift. Now I cant
wait to bake my own desserts in my own oven in my own house .
