Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Cooking class

For those of you who know me, you know I am a bit of a night owl. I prefer sleeping in and staying up late, so tonight's cooking class was right up my alley.

When I woke up this morning, my throat was a little scratchy, and my head hurt a little. No time for getting sick, but I also thought I should take it easy so I didn't really get sick. Spent most of the day staring out the window at the Notre Dame cathedral, and people watching. Roger made lunch, and then i headed out to my cooking class.

My friend Paula Lambert who owns The Mozzarella Company in Dallas recommended the class which she had taken at the Electrolux Kitchen in the Palais de Tokyo. http://www.art-home-Electrolux.com I usually try to take a cooking class while I am in Paris, and this sounded really interesting.

Side note...Lisa Kelley, thank you! You sending me that NY Times article saved my butt! I couldn't log on to my home computer where all my info about the class was stored, but that article mentioned the Palais de Tokyo, and it all worked out...thanks a ton for thinking of us!

So the concept is Electrolux (think Viking in the US) is the sponsor for this workshop, and they are also partners with this pop up restaurant called Nomiya (think like an uber upscale 48 Nights) with an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower, like you are up there with it, nothing obstructing it. There is a vegetable garden, and then the restaurant. The restaurant only seats 12, reservations are only available 1 month in advance, and it is only open for about one year in total. This is something pretty special. Since I didn't know to try to make reservations, going to the class was the next best thing.

When I walk in, Raphael, our instructor for the evening asks if we have met before. I say I don't think so, but he looks familiar to me, too. More in a minute...it really IS a small world!

Here is the menu: roasted chicken with white wine jus, celery root puree with chestnuts, sweet potatoes with sauce verde, endive salad, roasted parsnips and roasted chervil root. Dessert was a chocolate-orange mousse, caramelized orange clafoutis, and kalamata olive ice cream. Very interesting.

We broke into teams, and I went for the protein station. I don't often debone chicken, or break it down for that matter, because we don't have much call for anything other than the breast at Parigi. The guy next to me, a cutie named Paul (spoke no English), broke that bird down FAST! The adorable girl on the other side of me, Vivian from Taiwan, was a little squeamish about the whole thing. She did good though in the end, especially given that she is mostly vegetarian. We deboned that bird, and seared it, and finished it in the oven. Not my most challenging class, but definitely enjoyable. A little bonus was that I asked what Raphael was planning to do with the bones. He said throw them away. I asked if I could have them, he said yes, and voila! We have a chicken stock in the making! That is SO going to come in handy for Christmas eve dinner!

After everyone finished their dish, we plated it, and sat down for dinner. Going around the room we told where we were from, and what we did. That is when Raphael and in figured it out. He makes chocolate for his profession, and I had met him at the little gourmet boutique downstairs from our apartment last year. I bought some of his white chocolate with peppercorns for Chad...crazy! I am telling you this is one small big city.

All-in-all, great day. New friends (gotta love Facebook), and a nice evening doing something totally different.

Night for now!

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