Category Archives: Cordon Bleu Paris

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:

1. When boiling seafood, the water should be as salty as seawater (yeah, makes perfect sense now you mention it)
2. 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)
3. Wear gloves when gutting a pigeon, you will look like you just performed an autopsy, which technically you have
4. Cut up the bones for stock as small as possible so that you get maximum caramelisation, and therefore flavour
5. 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)
6. Reheat your pea purée at the last minute otherwise it will lose it’s colour
7. Season your pea purée with salt – no pepper
8. Cook mushrooms twice
   1. First time in a hot pan with nothing in it, just lightly season with salt – this should draw out as much liquid as possible
   2. Second time in a pan with butter
9. Never season your meat before you colour it in the pan
10. 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)
11. With your jus
    1. Before adding water to your bones, strain the fat off so that this is not running through it at the end
    2. Do not push it through the sieve (like Jamie Oliver does), otherwise it will be cloudy
    3. Strain it twice at the end to remove any impurities
12. 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