It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to go and watch a ‘Guest Chef’ at my school – you need to be very quick to get your name down on the list. When I saw that Yannick Martin from Hôtel Matignon was coming to give a demo, I am ashamed to say that I didn’t realise this was the official residence of the Prime Minister of France – yes, I thought it was an hotel!
I decided that rather than write every single instruction down, I would just note down a couple of interesting points that were new to me that I could also share with you:
- When boiling seafood, the water should be as salty as seawater (yeah, makes perfect sense now you mention it)
- Before you start to debone a pigeon, burn off the feathers with a blowtorch (still freaks me out when you see birds in the butchers here in France, with their heads and feet still attached)
- Wear gloves when gutting a pigeon, you will look like you just performed an autopsy, which technically you have
- Cut up the bones for stock as small as possible so that you get maximum caramelisation, and therefore flavour
- Leave the skin on a black radish as it looks very attractive on the plate (just don’t ask me where you could buy a black radish)
- Reheat your pea purée at the last minute otherwise it will lose it’s colour
- Season your pea purée with salt – no pepper
- Cook mushrooms twice
- First time in a hot pan with nothing in it, just lightly season with salt – this should draw out as much liquid as possible
- Second time in a pan with butter
- Never season your meat before you colour it in the pan
- Always add pepper at the end, otherwise it will burn in the oven creating a bad aftertaste (actually the Barefoot Contessa taught me this one, but nice to have the theory backed up elsewhere)
- With your jus
- Before adding water to your bones, strain the fat off so that this is not running through it at the end
- Do not push it through the sieve (like Jamie Oliver does), otherwise it will be cloudy
- Strain it twice at the end to remove any impurities
- Only cut herbs once – slice through them VERY finely so that you don’t have to go back over them (as you do with a mezzaluna). Check out the main course picture below, you will see just how finely these should be shredded.
Of course, I must include the obligatory shots of food, makes a nice change not to show pictures of cake. Not bad for a couple of hours work. Here is the starter, I think I was missing some of the mayonnaise on my taster plate as I thought it was a little bit bland. Also realised that in pâtisserie classes, we do have a much easier time in this second heatwave that we are having. At least we don’t have pans of water boiling on the stove for most of the demo – not nice when it was 37ºC outside today, I’ve sweated in places I never knew I had sweat glands.
Carpaccio de poulpe, pomme verte, céleri et champignons, vinaigrette Maracuja – or – Octopus carpaccio, Granny Smith apple, celery, mushrooms, Maracuja vinaigrette
The main course was much more delicious in my opinion, now all I have to do is get myself and invitation for dinner!
Pigeon rôti sur coffre, purée de petit-pois, girolles et cerises noires – or Double breasts of squab roasted on the bone, pea purée, golden chanterelle mushrooms and black cherries
