Letter From Paris
Paris Kiosque - June 2008 - Volume 15, Number 6
Copyright © 2008 Harriet Welty-Rochefort - Used with permission.
Chef Patrick Terrien, a tall, slender, white-haired Frenchman, has an engaging
smile, a quiet sense of authority - and only two hands, although sometimes it
looks like he's got many more.
He'll need all the hands he can get (he's got two others
in the form of his Brazilian assistant, Celia Miranda) for the dish he's
preparing and cooking at the prestigious Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris for a class of
15 students from the International Journalism Program at Sciences Po, a prestigious French
university from which sprang several French presidents and a great majority of the
country's top business and political leaders. The journalism students are
from a class called « Reporting on France » that I teach ; their assignment is to
attend and report on a Cordon Bleu demonstration for their local newspapers, whether in
Canada, Hong Kong, or Brazil.
Chances are that some of the students may come from a country that has a Cordon Bleu.
Founded in Paris in 1895, the prestigious cooking school, whose president is André
Cointreau, a direct descendant of the owners of Cointreau liqueur and Rémy Martin
Cognac, now has 30 schools in 15 countries with approximately 20,000 students representing
more than 70 nationalities. Spreading the renown of French cuisine and transmitting French
« savoir faire » in the culinary arts is one of the major missions of the
Cordon Bleu. At a cost : a two years course at the Cordon Bleu in Paris for « Le Grand
Diplôme » (cooking and pastry) comes with the hefty price tag of almost 35,
955 euros. The « Diplôme de Cuisine » without the pastry descends to 21, 900
euros. Armed with their diplomas, Cordon Bleu graduates become chefs, food journalists, or
work in other food-related professions, where they are, of course, unofficial
ambassadors of French cuisine.
For the demo dish, the Chef has opted to make « milk-fed veal simmered
in a casserole with pearl onions and baby carrots ». Read the recipe title carefully : the
veal is « milk-fed », the onions are « pearl » onions and
the carrots are « baby ». The dish is not hard, he explains.
It's one that home cooks (especially French home cooks !) can easily
make.
The Chef is hardly going to apologize for selecting something basic and he
doesn't need to. First of all, this is an international group of students
whose idea of French cuisine is most probably limited to the sandwichs au jambon or
fast food they eat on the run because they don't have a lot of money to
spend on food and they're pressed for time. Secondly,
they're at an age where Mom does the cooking so what would they
know ? This is a unique opportunity for them to see all the myriad steps that go into the
preparation of a typical French meal that could be served, as the Chef points out, either at
home or in a restaurant. To pep up this traditional French dish, the Chef has added a
« pistou » sauce made from basil, garlic cloves, and olive oil.
As he skillfully and effortlessly manipulates pots and pans, Chef Terrien, who worked as
Sous-Chef de Cuisine in the Nikko Hotel restaurant under the direction of world
famous French chef Joel Robuchon and owned a Michelin starred restaurant in Tours, gives
the student audience a valuable piece of advice that food snobs, aching for sparks and
fireworks and ostentation, too often ignore. « It's not the complexity
of the dish that's important. It's the quality of the
ingredients and the care you take as you make it. » For example, the Chef says he
chose veal for the demonstration because it's tasty and not always readily
available in other countries. « Veal », he points out, « should apply only to
a calf nurtured in mother's milk. The skin should be pale. »
That's for the product. As for the care in making it : « Bad
cooking can spoil a perfectly fine piece of veal, » he affirms.
Amen, amen, I muse, thinking of the many times I've totally forgotten a
hard-boiled egg or a wonderful
stew-in-the-making as I chat on the phone in another
room and am reminded of what's going on in the kitchen only when I
smell a burned odor...
Or the number of times I've wondered why it
seems to be so hard to find something as simple as a perfectly delicious tomato salad. Yes,
the Chef is right. If you've bought the best products and keep watch
(surveiller) over them as you cook, you're already on your way.
« No » to distraction » as you cook !
Illustrating his own advice, the Chef keeps a close watch over the two skillets holding the
cutlets, a third pot containing the baby carrots, and a fourth with the perfect little pearl onions.
All are getting different treatments at the same time lest the meat turn out overcooked and dry
or undercooked and inedible, the carrots and the onions too cooked and mushy or
undercooked and hard. That's for the cooking. Then
there's the seasoning : a dash of rosemary, thyme, (how much ? not too
much because it will drown out the other flavors), a bay leaf, salt and pepper (to taste). The
students gasp as the Chef throws a nice hunk of butter (not too much, not too little) into the
carrots which, he explains, is needed for flavor. « We're in
France, » he smiles, « so we need to put some butter in the cooking. »
He delicately places the rosemary and garlic and onions directly in with the veal in the
traditional French way and adds a bit of sugar to the onions to make a natural carmelized
sauce. By now, the students are literally salivating and happy to see that the Chef has taken
out 15 plates on which he's artistically arranging his creation. On each
plate, he distributes a few small pieces of veal, surrounded by the baby carrots and the pearl
onions. Contrasting with the white of the veal and the onions is the green of the rosemary in
the carrots and the green of the pistou sauce he drizzles on to them. « The
sauce, » says the Chef, should always be on the side of the dish, not directly on the
meat. »
« Is this easy ? » a student asks, with a touch of skepticism in his voice.
« It doesn't look like it ! »
« No, you just have to do it right, » the Chef laughs.
« It's a question of being very careful... and of love. » He
advises the students not to try things that are too complicated and to recognize that cooking is
an art. « Cooking is not an exact science », he adds. « There are so many
variables, the thickness of the meat, the temperature of the oven. It's
dynamic. »
« Are there days when you don't feel like cooking ? » another
student asks.
« Yes, » replies the Chef, again with a mischievous smile. « When
I'm sick ».
And, what would you eat on your last day on Earth ? Chef Terrien pauses, then replies with a
dreamy look : « Oysters... and coquilles Saint Jacques ». And then for
dessert I'd have either a tarte aux fraises or chou à la
crème or an éclair. »
« With that, » he concludes, « I could leave in peace. »
Harriet Welty Rochefort is the author of
"French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French"
and
"French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris."
French Toast was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "wise and devastatingly
funny". For world-famous chef Alain Ducasse, her second book French Fried
"in a lively and hilarious style ... gives an inside look at the world of
French cuisine and wine." Both books are published by St. Martin's Press.
She is currently working on her third book about the French.
Coming to Paris? Harriet gives
tailormade wine and cheese tastings to individuals as well as to university
groups. For more information, visit her webpages:
www.frenchfolio.com and
www.understandfrance.org .
If you've had some funny, startling, satisfying, or dismaying
food experiences in France you'd like to share,
you may contact Harriet directly at
harriet.welty@hwelty.com.
Editor's Note:
Dear Readers, while our writers are always
delighted to hear and to receive comments, both about their columns in the The Paris Kiosque,
as well as your experiences in Paris,
they are unable to answer requests for travel information.
Thank you for your understanding.
