Walls in France: Cooking class

Earlier this week, Tutu and I took a cooking class with Bruno d’Angelis at the Ecole de cuisine de La Mirande in Avignon. When we arrived at the hotel, we were directed to an open, bright terrace and invited to enjoy coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice and croissants as we waited for the course to begin. The school coordinator, Olivia, then escorted us down to the lovely kitchen that would be our classroom and our dining room for the remainder of the day. Three French gentlemen and two women from Belgium joined us as we were introduced to our instructor, chef Bruno d’Angelis. We all donned our chef aprons, grabbed our knives and started to prepare the meal…sea bream with ponzu sauce and crunchy cabbage, followed by filet of pork served on sautéed fennel with anchovy and tomato sauce and then pistachio cake with sautéed strawberries and strawberry sorbet!

Since Chef Bruno is French and the majority of the participants were French, the class was in French, but Olivia was on-hand to help out with explanations in English if needed. Tutu and I managed to do quite well, thank you very much, with the French and followed the chef’s instructions. He did the “heavy-lifting” in the kitchen, and we, the students, were encouraged to do the prep work and join in on whatever we wanted to do. So, basically, you could cook as much as you wanted to. The chef showed us the techniques he wanted for the different dishes and we followed his lead. When he pulled out the 14 pound fish (head and all), everyone deferred to him to be in charge of cleaning it! It was a cool process to observe, but I sure was glad that I didn’t have to do it. The chef ended up slicing the filet into very thin pieces that we later marinated in the ponzu sauce and ate raw!

As we all became more comfortable in the kitchen and with each other, we started to chit chat and take pictures of each other and our surroundings. We also took notes about the recipes and the new things we were learning. For example, the pistachio cake called for beurre noisette (or nut butter) which I guessed was a special kind of butter, but soon learned that it was butter that was heated up on the stovetop until it had the color and smell of nuts! At about noon, a distinguished Frenchman entered the kitchen and was greeted with enthusiasm by Chef Bruno and the French participants in the group. According to the man who joined us, it was time for an aperitif so Olivia scurried about gathering glasses and chilled bottles of white wine. My mom and I soon learned that the man was Christian Etienne, a well-known chef here in France who had stopped by to check out the class! Unfortunately, he was unable to stay for lunch, so he departed after a glass of wine.

We all then sat down at our workspaces that had been transformed by Olivia into a dining table to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Chef Bruno prepared the plates with our help and we served each other. Olivia cleared the plates and poured the wine, as we analyzed the courses. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the raw sea bream – lots of Asian flavor, crunchy cabbage and a sweet kick provided by the vinegar chips that we slaved over. I am not a pork person, but I loved the fennel and could have just had a plate of that accompanied by the shallots we had cooked in a salt bed. Apparently, the pork was great though because everyone else cleaned their plates! The pistachio cake was chewy and crunchy at the same time and absolutely delicious with the strawberries and sorbet. We ended the meal with coffee and lots of compliments about our cooking skills! We thanked Olivia and our chef for a wonderful day and fabulous memories. Watch out Julia Child and bon appétit!