La Folie and Foodies at Le Cordon Bleu

What goes on behind the doors of the world’s most prestigious culinary school? Why do people choose Le Cordon Bleu? The answer to both questions is love of food and cooking. Since 1895, Le Cordon Bleu has enjoyed a stellar reputation as the ultimate source for learning the elements of French cuisine and fine dining – l’art culinaire. The school officially opened its doors as a cooking school in Paris in 1895 and the first classes were held at the Palais Royal. The legendary Julia Child earned her toque at Le Cordon Bleu and the school was memorably captured on film in Sabrina. In addition to short-term courses on regional French cuisine, the school offers nine-month programs focusing on pastry (for the Diplôme de Pâtisserie), cuisine (for the Diplôme de Cuisine), or a combination of the two for the Grand Diplôme. I asked two American students to describe their daily culinary adventures at Le Cordon Bleu as well as what drew them to the school. Tonya Latrece, a student in pastry, left the corporate “rat race” to pursue her passion for cooking. “I have enjoyed cooking since I was a young girl. It wasn’t until after university, while I was working in the corporate world that I understood that this enjoyment was a true passion…I started doing some research on culinary schools and decided that life was too short not to pursue my passion.”   On her choice of Le Cordon Bleu, Tonya explains, “I was drawn to Le Cordon Bleu because I thought ‘Where else to learn culinary technique but in France, at a school that has a program recognized for excellent training – not to mention the fact that it is located in Paris!’” Kelly Price, a cuisine and pastry student, echoes the sentiment, saying “I love living in Paris. Coming to Le Cordon Bleu was a part of my ‘adult semester abroad’ plan. I’ve always wanted to live in Paris, study French and take culinary classes. So, when the opportunity arose for me to take a twelve month sabbatical from work, I planned this entire boondoggle!”   Students from over 50 nationalities attend Le Cordon Bleu. In the hallways, one hears conversations in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. (Tonya and Kelly both happen to be African-American.) Classes are divided between demonstrations, where the students watch a chef prepare several dishes, and practical classes, which take place in the kitchens where students cook or bake whatever the chef explained in demonstration. The demonstrations are in French and translated into English. Of her first practical experience, Tonya explains, “I don’t speak French so you can imagine how shocked I was that the practical classes are only taught in French. Ironically, I had just left Japan after three years, and I overheard one of the French chefs speaking in Japanese. When he next spoke to me in French, I responded in Japanese and we’ve been communicating ever since. He told me in Japanese, ‘Hurry up and learn French!’”   While communication may be one point of frustration for students, the hardest part is the work in the kitchen. Kelly, who is known to sign her e-mails as The Nine-fingered Chef, asks, “How many times can you burn the same part of the finger before it completely falls off?” She also talks about burning other things in practical class: “We were making this puff pastry and chicken sauce ‘thing’. Perhaps I should rephrase that and say that my classmates were making that dish. I was burning things every ten minutes. I put my lovely julienned leeks on to ‘sweat’, turned around a few seconds later and they were charcoal in the pan. Great! I had noticed about a minute earlier that Chef was doing some more leeks. I went to show him my pan and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s why I’m doing more leeks for you.’   “So I start those leeks, return to rolling out my puff pastry dough, turn around and again, BLAM! Another set of charcoal leeks burned in the pan. I’m just about ready to cry at this point – but it gets better! I really can’t believe that I burned up the leeks that Chef chopped for me. So much for this grade! When I finished rolling out my pastry dough, I went to get the chicken and veal stock for my sauce – nothing! It’s all gone. Chef says, ‘Sorry.’ I’m really ready to cry now.”   “Then I decide to throw out the bell peppers I’d sautéed because I could not make any sauce so I figured I did not need those. Fifteen minutes later I realized that I needed them for decorative purposes. I’m not even going to mention the incident with the poached eggs. Let’s just say that I went through at least nine eggs to get one almost decent one. It took fifteen minutes of self-talk and deep breathing exercises to talk myself into not just walking out of the class and going shopping!”   “I was so depressed by the end of the day. My classmates were great. They rustled up all their extra sauce and garnishes for me so I could finish my dish. I love them all.”   Tonya remembers a similar encounter with puff pastry. “We were making Pithiviers and everybody’s pies were in the oven. It was hard to keep track of your pie because the chef was forever rotating trays of two and three pies around. I remember feeling pretty good about my progress that day and waiting in anticipation for my pie to come out. It was puffing and browning nicely in comparison to another student’s pie that was leaking cream excessively. I silently wondered, ‘Whose pie is that, and wow, what did they do wrong?’ I felt kind of sorry about it, but was happy the leaky pie was not mine. When the pies started coming out, the chef called our names. When the leaky pie came out…