Category Archives: Cordon Bleu Paris

Did you know that there are only 19 more Fridays before Christmas?  Can you hear the sound of sleigh bells ringing?  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

Well there is no time like the present to start practising a chocolate and pistachio bûche (or log to you and me).  Remember that when working with chocolate, the most important thing is to have a cold environment – doing this on a day where the temperatures reached 30ºC was no mean feat.  Certainly the incessant whisking of egg whites does not help with regulating one’s own body temperature, so again, I spent the afternoon sweating like a pig.

I used to to love chocolate, I also used to love cake.  You’ll notice I use the words “used to”, there is nothing like spending 6 weeks’ constantly tasting the stuff that can put you off for life.  I think this is a bit like those parents who discover that their children are smokers, so rather than just going off the wall, what they do is make them smoke a packet of 20 one after the other hoping that this will be enough to make them quit there and then.

Anyway, I digress . . .  The bûche itself is a pistachio-flavoured genoise sponge layered with chocolate ganache.  It looks great and was fun to make but I didn’t really like it, I think it has something to do with the weather – I would much prefer eating this snuggled up on my sofa in the cold winter months with either a glass of red wine or a mug of steaming coffee.

I encountered a brand new ingredient today – pistachio paste.  This is something so green that it would be used for Elphaba’s make up in a stage performance of Wicked the Musical.  It looks quite gross but smells amazing and certainly does the job of giving a pistachio colour and flavour.  Anyway, it was fun to make and I might just be whipping up a few of these bad boys for Christmas presents!

View from above

View from the side

Everybody’s bûches – mine is on the right second from the bottom

Again, we had the pleasure of Chef Daniel Walter taking us for this practical.  I nearly forgot to mention that our whole session was being filmed!  Just like me, one of our classmates is taking a sabbatical and her company are filming a number of colleagues from her business who have taken time out to pursue their passions.  I can’t wait to see it, if I’m not infringing copyright, I’ll post a copy here.

Classmates

I’m also delighted to announce that Chef thought my bûche was the best in the class – I kept it simple with regards to the decor, but I am learning that it’s best to stick with classic decorating techniques (coupled with the fact that I’m not very good at piping swirls!).

Best in class

There was no way on earth I was going to cycle across Paris with this thing swinging from my handlebars, so what did I do with it?  Well, there is a cuisine student whose locker is very close to mine.  She lives in a bookshop that houses impoverished artist all of whom appreciate any leftovers from school so I was more than happy to hand it over to her – at least I know it would all be eaten!

All packaged up for the journey across Paris