CIA French Cuisine Boot Camp Day 5: Bistros, Brasseries and Hangovers

Day 5: Bistros, Brasseries and Hangovers

Team's dishes:  Endive salad with roquefort and walnuts, coq au vin (red wine braised rooster), fresh egg pasta with herb butter, sautéed petite peas and pearl onions.

Author's note:  OK, it's been AGES since I posted about days 1-4 of my French Cuisine Boot Camp experience at the CIA.  Part of this initially was reluctance to see this series end, just as I'm reluctant to see every one of my boot camps end.  Most of it, though, was just life getting in the way.  My apologies for the delay.  I hope to get back into the swing of posting again!

You may remember that in the last post covering Day 4, Chef had explained that since Friday was graduation day for a group of students, those students who had been working in the restaurants would have their last dinner service on Thursday night. After that, they would go out to celebrate the end of their schooling. Many of their non-graduating friends would join them in the celebration and pay the price as they would start a new term of classes on Friday with a hangover.  This Friday, therefore, was nicknamed "Hangover Day."  In class, we also had our wine tasting on Thursday afternoon, and with it the threat of having our own "Hangover Day" on Friday.  So, here we go!   
 

For the first time since Monday, I opted for breakfast in the student cafeteria. The breakfast special for the day was a "McGriddle," consisting of bacon and eggs sandwiched between pancakes. Oy. Quite fitting for Hangover Day. The cafeteria kitchen was noticeably more chaotic than usual, with a backlog of orders, ruined eggs getting tossed in the trash and restarted, and a lot of yelling in the back. The chef overseeing this group of students commented to us--clearly only half joking--that he could give us a list of students NOT to hire if we were interested. "Aw, come on, Chef!" one of the students complained.

The atmosphere in class was considerably more casual than it had been all week. The unstated fear and uncertainty that was present early in the week was gone, replaced by confidence and camaraderie, and we were looking to have some fun on our last day. Our recipes, in bistro/brasserie fashion, were intended to be quick and relatively uncomplicated, so our pace wasn't as rushed as before.

In the short break between the lecture and the start of our food preparations I ran upstairs to the ladies' room. Under the stall wall I could see a pair of checkered chef's pants kneeling in front of the toilet. Yep--hangover day. I didn't know who the woman was, but I felt for her.  I was fortunate not to be suffering from overindulgence from our wine tasting session the day before, but I had certainly been in her shoes on other occasions.

 

I returned to the kitchen and joined T and J in prepping our ingredients, and we had a chuckle over what I saw in the ladies' room.  The banter between the three of us, and with the other teams as well, had become especially sassy as we harassed each other about our organization skills and lack thereof.

 

T, the bacon man, was once again sautéing bacon at the stove, this time for the coq au vin. J and I worked quickly to pat the chicken dry. All of the pieces were completely purple from their overnight soak in red wine. We were starting to worry that we wouldn't get this done in time and have a recurrence of our boeuf bourguignon experience, except that we couldn't carry this dish over to Saturday. We consulted Chef, who seemed completely unconcerned with the relatively short braising time available. He explained that since we were working with a farmed chicken as opposed to a tough old rooster, we wouldn't need more than about 90 minutes of cooking time. Whew.

 

M came into the kitchen after a bathroom break and told us all of the woman she saw in the bathroom on her knees in front of the toilet. I glanced at the clock--oh my, that poor girl has been in there a while.  Hoped last night was worth it to her.

 

I found myself peeling pearl onions again, this time for sautéed peas. This recipe worried me because it seemed an awful lot like the cafeteria green peas of my past, and there were no positive memories there. Sad, grey-green and totally lacking texture, I dreaded turning out something unpleasant for the group's meal.  Nevertheless, I pressed on.

J took the lead on the pasta. After getting the dough assembled, Chef took the opportunity to demonstrate the pasta for the class.  He worked with J to knead the dough, then pulled out the pasta press and passed the dough through the machine repeatedly, turning and folding the dough and adjusting the setting until it reached the perfect thickness. Even though I knew I'd never make this one at home, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the process.

 

Next to us, Team One was preparing frog's legs. I had never seen nor tried this 'delicacy' before, and seeing the legs prepared on a tray was quite an odd site. The uncooked limbs looked like the lower halves of humans in a horror movie, skinned and face down with their muscles clearly visible. I would definitely try them--how could I not?--though their current state was both humorous and disturbing.

 

I moved on to the endive salad.  I washed the endives, which looked like unopened lilies, and Chef stopped by to provide guidance.  He showed me how to cut a bit of the end off the endives so that the outer leaves could be removed, then trim a bit more, remove a few leaves, then a bit more, so that as much of each leaf was left intact as possible.  The shortest leaves in the center of the bundle were set aside to be placed decoratively around the edges of the salad platter. Nice.

 

The vinaigrette for the salad was pretty simple to assemble, and the Roquefort needed to stay refrigerated until just before serving so it would crumble. If it got too warm, I would end up pulling apart a mushy mess. That would not be a good way to finish my week, so I decided to exercise patience.

 

The final coq au vin was a deep brown-purple, glossy and appetizing. It tasted as good as it looked.  I was quite pleased with the presentation of the endive salad and enjoyed the flavor as well. The peas retained a bright green color--far better than the cafeteria version, with a vastly superior flavor as well. And the frog legs tasted like gamey chicken. Way too much effort for the amount of meat you got off the legs, but I was glad to have tried them. 

 

After lunch, we assembled in our classroom to give Chef Remolina a thank-you gift from all of us and provide feedback to the Continuing Education staff on how to make the program better for future classes. We each received a copy of our photo with Chef R from earlier in the week.

 

When class was officially dismissed, we all said our goodbyes.  There were many hugs, suggestions of a reunion boot camp, and a few last email addresses exchanged. This was a group of people I truly considered friends. I knew I'd never hear from some of these people again, but others I was sure would stay in touch.

And, with several of them, I have.  Some endured Hurricane Sandy when it assaulted the east coast in October, with J even cooking pasta for people who didn't have access to their own kitchens. Many have offered dining suggestions on my various travels for my day job. A few keep in touch through Facebook. Another has been lobbying the CIA Continuing Education staff to have a Mexican boot camp reunion for our group in Hyde Park. And all, whether they've kept in touch or not, are friends. What a great vacation.  Au revoir, mes amis!