A couple of weekends ago, I took a class at the Le Cordon Bleu here in Austin with my friend, Samaneh. We got a tip from my other friend, Melyssa, that Travelzoo was featuring half-price classes at the school and decided it would be fun to do it. I looked over the class schedule that ran through the fall and had my favorites picked out and ended up choosing Grand Hotel Favorites because I liked the class description AND it was happening on a weekend when I was pretty sure I didn't have to work. Not having to work was a HUGE part of the decision. My second choice, All about Thai ( or a title close to that) takes place when I am supposed to be in San Diego attempting to surf so Grand Hotel Favorites it is!
Our instructor was Chef Macry and he really made the class enjoyable. He had a really good sense of humor and really knows his stuff.
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| Chef Macry |
We started out learning how to make a Ceasar salad from scratch, in other words, how to make the dressing from scratch using fresh garlic and anchovies, then we made a shrimp and scallop seafood cocktail. The tricky part about both of them is that the recipe cards were not exactly how Chef M. prepared the dishes as our demonstration and I am not the best at following recipes all the time. I could have drank the dressing for sure and kept dipping the homemade croutons into the 'sauce' while assembly my plate. The seafood cocktail was pretty straight forward and you can see the image below of both apps.
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| Yum! |
The entree, Veal Oscar, was a little more involved with several steps that sort of slipped my mind when we went back to the kitchen to prepare it. My biggest mistake was seasoning the veal too early so when I breaded it and cooked it, the breading didn't stick to the meat and the oil was a bit hot so it browned (in other words burnt) the breading before the meat was really ready. Oh, and the crab cake was more cooked on the outside then on the inside so it kinda fell apart when I was plating it. You know how sometimes pictures don't do some things justice? In this case, the picture does the entree WAY more justice than it was in person. The veal tasted pretty good, however I was so full from eating the extra croutons from the salad, that I really wasn't that hungry.
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| Veal Oscar with butter reduction |
We were at least 30 minutes behind finishing up so we did not make the dessert so Chef Macry prepared a dessert for us that was yummy even though I couldn't finish it all. Below is a pic of the dessert and then one of Samaneh, Chef and myself.
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| Ice Cream with Chocolate Chambord Sauce |
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| Les Chefs |
Next post, Danskin Triathlon!
