Insights from a French Chef

I find the French Chef B. so hysterical and lovable that I've actually started jotting down the funny things he says in my notebook, right alongside my notes for how to make cheese or pickle cucumbers. Some of his comments are so classic "French chef", straight out of a movie.

A few snapshots of his daily musings in class . . .

During our tasting on Cheese Day, the chefs arranged this spread of various cheeses for us to taste, compare, and discuss. French Chef B. holds up the log of fresh goat cheese. "Zees is really bland. Zees doesn't turn me on very much." He proceeds to tell us that fresh cheeses need the addition of herbs and spices for extra flavor, so he rolled the second log in chopped fresh herbs (a you can see above). He moves on to the soft-rind cheeses. "Zees is a crappy Brie. Anything that comes in a can, be suspicious." Takes a bite of the Camembert. "Mmm. Zees, zees is just like eating butter. A piece of cheese and a glass of wine, now zat is good living."

On Sandwich Day, we made Reubens with brisket we had cured earlier. "Zees is a very fatty cut of meat," French Chef B. explains while trimming a whole lot of fat off of the briskets. "Now, fat is good. You'll die from it eventually, but in the meantime, enjoy it!" He cuts off a piece (of meat, not pure fat!) and eats it.

Our sandwich platter: Reuben on the left, portobello on focaccia on the right, club in the middle, egg salad tea sandwiches up front

He moves on to the vegetarian sandwich we'll be making with portobello mushroom. "Portobello mushroom is an invention! Do you know zees? I never heard of portobello mushroom until I came to United States. It's just an enlarged cremini mushroom, you know? But you can make a lot of money off of zees thing!"

Today he cooked a big pot of delicious lentils to go with the duck confit we had made. "We eat lots of zees in Europe. Lentils are very healthy for you, you know? But I cook them with bacon. We French always use bacon. I guess it is a good thing I am not Jewish, I could never live without bacon." Don't worry Chef, some Jews couldn't live without bacon either--like Zack!

More of the food I've been making with the help of French Chef B.'s many words of wisdom. . .

On sandwich day, we also made cold soups. This cantaloupe soup that I made was nice and refreshing, but I kind of felt like it belonged in a smoothie cup instead of a soup bowl.

Today, we made our own pickles--and that doesn't just mean pickled cucumbers. My traditional sweet-and-sour pickle chips are on the left; pickled pineapple with dried cherries, dried cranberries, and mint on the right. We'll taste them once they've pickled a few days...stay tuned.