Last Day at Le Cordon Bleu - Seasonal Fruit Tarts - Boo Hoo!

Originally, this wasn't to be my last course at Le Cordon Bleu, but I cancelled the class on fish scheduled for 27 Feb as I had cooked quite a few fish dishes in other classes and had learned to bone a sole .... eeeek!

I was sad to think this would be the last time I would don the apron and tea-towel and learn something new at this wonderful school.  It has been the best experience from both a cooking and life-altering perspective.  I have learned so much, met the most amazing people and made many friends.  I thoroughly recommend going to one of Le Cordon Bleu's classes when you are in Paris if you have time.  A big thank you to my brother Peter, his fiance Monique and my nephew Guillaume for allowing me to stay in Paris with them and have this opportunity!

I have since extended my date of departure and plan to go back to the school with some cup cakes to say "thank you"! I did make one batch that were a flop ... I managed to doctor them up so that we could eat them at home (pictures below - some turned into a trifle some filled with cream and iced), but it was not something I wanted to take to a cooking school.  I will try again ....

Today's dish, Pear and Chocolate Tart .... yum.  Our Chef was John-Jacques and our translator was Ben, funny as a play with very dry sense of humour. It is fitting that John-Jacques was my last chef as he also took the first class I did.

 Chef John-Jacques Tranchant & Me with my finished tart!

Also, I met two lovely American ladies, a Greek girl Dina and Mexican girl Erika .... we all had a lot of fun.

The chef was off with a bang in this class and we were racing to catch up. Erika was having trouble understanding Benjamin and found it easier to listen to the chef directly, Dina was racing ahead like a pro and I was laughing at the menagerie.

Me, Dina & Erika

 

Luckily Ben is a chef so he filled in any gaps, and eventualy John-Jaques slowed down and the class flowed smoothly from there.

Me, Ben, Dina & Erika

We made our pastry, having done it a couple of times now it all made sense and really is sooo quick.  It was cooled in the blast freezer, before being rolled out and set into the pastry rings, to be blind baked.

The pears were peeled, quartered and caramelised in honey.   Then placed in the pastry bases and topped with a divine chocolate mixture a bit like ganache with eggs ... it was yum!

The photo of me with John-Jacques shows my tart with the toffee-like decoration.  I actually forgot to take a lot of photos of the stages of cooking in this class, we were having too much fun!