Lenôtre.

A few of the things I wanted to do most in Paris when I decided to move here, was to somehow be in an art course and to take a French cooking class. After much research, neither of these options seemed truly viable, as they are fairly expensive, and tended to run into scheduling conflicts with French language courses and my work schedule.

Jen has taken a few cooking courses over the years, and as Luis' dad, Manfred, is a retired professional chef [who has worked in top restaurants all over the world], I have picked up a few sous chef talents since moving here. I was generally satisfied as I had learned proper knife-wielding technique, and some true-blue French recipes [crepes and quiches... I think there is a post somewhere in October about that].

However, I was very blessed to have received a very thoughtful and generous gift from my employers, Luis and Jennifer, for Christmas: a 'bon cadeau' or gift certificate for a cooking class of my choice at Lenôtre French Ateliers de Cuisine. Courses are offered in every way, shape, and form. They have pastry classes, which were very intriguing and tempting, but ultimately I decided that I wanted to learn to prepare a full French 'Menu Creatif.'

For three and a half hours this past Thursday afternoon, after some initial trepidation as I realized I have zero French kitchen jargon, I really enjoyed myself with this class. I was one of four pupils; two French women, one obviously a wife of leisure, and one Taiwanese tourist. Our chef professor was such fun, and patient with my accented French as I asked him repeatedly "how much of what?" that he wanted measured.

I can now successfully create a three course French meal [entrée, plat at dessert] consisting of: cannoli pasta stuffed with a crab and zucchini mixture with a citron herb sauce, back of rabbit stuffed with and olive and caper mixture with a white wine reduction sauce, and a balsamic strawberry pastry dessert.

Life is good.