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A Week Cooking Class in France
offered by supplier M15832 (view this supplier profile)
Key Information:
Tour Duration: 7
day(s)
Group Size: 1
- 8
people
Destination(s):
France
Specialty Categories:
Food & Wine
Cultural Journey
Season: January - December
Airfare Included: No
Tour Customizable: No
Minimum Per Person Price: 2000 Euro (EUR)
Maximum Per Person Price: 3000 Euro (EUR)
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Tour Itinerary:
Day 1, Sunday Evening: Welcome to our cooking school this early Sunday evening, for the welcome feast I have prepared for you If the weather is fine, we will enjoy our aperitif outside, in the shadow of Notre Dame de Louviers, then segue into the timbered dining room for our multi-course meal. This will be your first sample of the exceptional flavors and aromas that you will be immersed in during your week at our cooking school.
Menu: Homemade Orange Wine, Country Potatoes with Fresh Cheese and Herbs, Steamed Fillet with Herbed Mustard Sauce, Salad with Classic Vinaigrette, Cheeses from Sophie Callebert, Cake of Hazelnuts from the Garden, Berry Sorbet.
Day 2, Monday: At 10 am you will put on your apron and head to the professionally appointed kitchen, where a luscious display of locally produced ingredients awaits - depending on the season, there might be gorgeous bunches of asparagus and heads of fresh garlic from Baptiste Bourdon, Swiss chard and tiny spring beets from Monique and Jean-Claude Martin; delicate lamb chops from Brittany, via Mr. Dragonelli’s butcher shop, or late-season scallops, still in their shell, from the English Channel.
I will open the class with a discussion of kitchen etiquette and the care and feeding of knives, then we will do a tasting of different salts. This class will include the following techniques: choosing, caring, preparing seafood, fish stock, macerating, poaching, egg yolks as thickener, steaming, sautéeing, the use of garnishes.
Menu: Carrot Purée with Cumin Crisps, Asparagus with Hazelnut Vinaigrette, Bourride, Salad with Classic Vinaigrette, Cheeses from Francois Olivier, Rouen, Sautéed Berries with Fromage Blanc Ice Cream.
After a break, you will return to our cooking school. To begin this afternoon’s class I will discuss the importance of buying locally produced ingredients, and the importance of a relationship with growers and artisans. I will then do a tasting of artisanal made nut oils. During this class the techniques will include marinating, wood-fired grilling, roasting, custard-making, making a classic vinaigrette, caramel. Tonight we will also experience a very special cheese tasting with Artisanal cheese maker Alain Madonna.
Menu: Beet Soup with Cream Clouds, Wood-fire grilled, marinated pork chops, Braised Coco Blanc with garlic, Salad with an Almond Oil Vinaigrette, Alain Madonna’s Goat Cheese, Caramelized Oranges with Candied Zest, Biscotti.
Day 3, Tuesday: Welcome to the world of Pain au Levain! This morning we will make “pain au levain” or French sourdough bread, together. I will discuss flour and the “science” of sourdough. After getting your hands in the dough, and flavoring it with everything from dried fruits, to nuts, to freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, to herbs and spices, you will thoroughly understand the hows, whys, and wheres of sourdough’s flavor and texture. When your breads are comfortably resting in their rising baskets, we will turn to the kitchen and prepare lunch.
Here I will discuss the importance of fresh herbs, which will include a garden visit, where we will taste heirloom herbs. Techniques in today’s class will focus on roasting and the art of layering flavors - browning, reducing, simmering; I will also address the subject of heat - when to use more, when to use less, to preserve the integrity of ingredients.
Menu: Omelette Basque, Roasted Guinea Fowl with Citrus, Salad with Walnut Oil and Sherry Vinaigrette, Cheeses From François Olivier, Rouen, Coconut Cream with Caramelized Pineapple.
* You will prepare a pepper bread for Wednesday evening’s wine tasting
Immediately after lunch: Chocolate Tasting, Pastry Demonstration - pâte sucrée and its uses. Afternoon and Evening Free.
Day 4, Wednesday: 8:30 - We leave our cooking school for the lively cacophony of a village market in the town of Le Neubourg, twenty minutes by car from Louviers, through lush farmland. After coffee at the market, you are free to peruse this wildly colorful, aromatic world yourself and purchase something for our picnic lunch, or accompany me as I hunt for what is best and most seasonal. I can give you tips here on how to choose the best seasonal produce, the finest most fresh seafood, the best meats and sausages. You will also have a chance to purchase artisanal products, from honeys and herbal remedies to spice bread, freshly made jams and linen tea towels, made from flax produced in local fields.
We will all return from Le Neubourg with laden baskets, which we empty on the kitchen counter and transform into a picnic lunch. I’ve got local cider chilling, for us to enjoy alongside. I will discuss shellfish and how to prepare it, as well as cutting vegetables for maximum flavor, and general vegetable and fruit preparation. We will do a tasting of artisanal meat products.
Picnic Lunch Menu: Steamed Normandy mussels, Avocado with Pistachio Oil. And the rest depends on serendipity, what we’ve all found at the market!
Wednesday Evening - a wine tasting with caviste Hervé Lestage who will share his passion for fine, carefully produced wines, which we will taste along with the simple dishes you have prepared.
Menu: Crudités with Lemon Oil, Pepper Bread, Pâté, Cheeses from François Olivier, Zaleti.
Day 5, Thursday: Visit to Rouen, the urban heart of Normandy and antique capitol of France, noted for its artisanal made faience, or pottery. We will visit an artisanal cheese shop and have a tasting with owner Francois Olivier, then go on to see the Augy family, who makes the stunning faience de Rouen, or local pottery which was first commissioned by Louis XIV. While many artisans paint the pottery, the Augys are the only artisans to actually create their own dishes before hand-painting them, and we will see it all.
After a fine and lovely contemporary bistro lunch you will have free time in this shopper’s mecca. We arrive back in Louviers just in time to change for dinner. An extraordinarily delicious surprise prepared expressly for you.
Day 6, Friday: Today you will prepare a sumptuous meal that will bring together everything you’ve learned and experienced during the week. I will demonstrate and discuss foie gras, fattened duck breast, the proper preparation of apples, pastry. We will do a tasting of foie gras. Techniques today will include searing and pan-roasting, braising, making and rolling out no-fail pie pastry; peeling and coring apples.
Menu: Macaronade My Way, Magret (Fattened Duck Breast) with Blood Orange Sauce, Potato Galette with Minced Herbs, Braised Romanesco, with Garlic and Lemon, Garden Salad with Honey Vinaigrette, Cheeses from François Olivier, Rouen, Tarte Tatin.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Also see tour packages in:
Europe
France
Food & Wine
Cultural Journey
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