French Cooking Class at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

I took a French cooking class at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts‘ Cook! and the City program recently and it was the perfect way to get my mind of stressful week. I’ve dined at their student-run restaurant many times in the past and I always enjoy the atmosphere, the daily menus, and the quality of the food. It was nice to be in their professional kitchens while their full-time students were working nearby. Chef Bernard, our instructor, was encouraging, humorous, and very knowledgeable.

Our menu:

Appetizer
Pissaladiere et sa Salade Rocquette, Vinaigrette au Citron
Pissaladiere with arugula salad, lemon vinaigrette

Timbale de Mousse de Coquilles St Jacques au Beurre de Basilic
Scallop Mousse Timbale with basil butter sauce

Main Course
Aloyau d’Agneau a la Provençale et sa Creme d’Ail Rôti
Gratin Daugphinois, Poêllée de Champignons de Saison
Oven-roasted lamb sirloin Provençale with roasted garlic creme sauce
Scalloped potatos, sauteed seasonal mushrooms

Dessert
Soufflé a la Liqueur d’Orange
Orange Brandy Souffle

Out of the four courses we made I’ve already practiced making two of them at home since the class. I enjoyed the soufflé so much that I made it twice in the week following the class. Click below to see all the photos.

Pissaladiere:

This was my favorite dish. I dreamt about the moist dough and the savory flavors for days afterwards. I’ve made several batches since the class.

Important lessons in French cooking from Chef Bernard:

Use butter generously, or as Chef Bernard put it, “don’t be cheapo”.
Never use low-fat versions of ingredients like milk and cream. “Your dish will not taste good”. My mother echoes this by saying that the fewer processing steps your ingredients went through the better. Reducing the fat content in ingredients requires processing, so just use the regular stuff.

Making the scallop mousse:

I’ve seen Julie and Julia, so I knew that butter was a core ingredient in French cooking. However, the amount of butter used was still shocking. Look at that!

Scallop mousse, garnished with basil and caviar. See the beautiful strips of basil in the butter sauce? I chopped that. Best part of the dish. Probably.

Lamb sirloin with scalloped potatoes and three different kinds of sauteed mushrooms

Here Chef Bernard was telling us about the difficulties of serving soufflé at a restaurant. He said that in order to prevent the soufflé from falling immediately, restaurants have a “secret trick”. When we asked him about the secret trick, he said “me no speak English!” We pried and pried, and eventually he said they will modify the ingredients such as reduce the egg whites, which is the ingredient that makes the pastry rise. I recently saw a picture that a friend posted of a soufflé she ordered a restaurant, and oh boy, was that soufflé perfect. Perfect shape and no signs of falling. I definitely raised an eyebrow because I am now a soufflé expert and I know what they did.