Mariellen's (a)Musings: LCB - Not All Change is Necessarily Good Change

I was eagerly anticipating my first visit to Le Cordon Bleu's new campus right along the Seine, just about a mile downstream from the Eiffel Tower, and today was the day! It's still in the 15th arrondissement, but the feel of the neighborhood is completely different from the more patrician Vaugirard quartier of the 15th to the southeast, where I had been attending their classes for the last 30+ years.

photo from Le Cordon Bleu's website

I'm sure that the new building has a better fire safety rating, and the equipment & furnishings have been updated a bit, and there are more classrooms and lounge areas, and they have a little café, and they have more restrooms, and they have gardens on the roof, and maybe the young kids who comprise most of their student body prefer the modern-shopping-mall-and-entertainment-options vibe of the new neighborhood, but it left me a bit cold.

the entrance is at the top
of the stairs inside the
red column

They have a lovely glass-walled lobby with views onto the river and an outdoor terrace, but it's fairly difficult to find since it's up one level from the street and the only entrance is via this unmarked red circular staircase (you'd think they would have at least painted it blue!) on the corner of Quai André-Citroën and rue de l'Ingénieur Robert Keller.

France is not known for the excellence of their customer support (it was an ordeal trying to get info and book my two classes - it took more than a month of communicating with four different people!). The tradition continued with front desk workers who were actually less helpful than ones who have helped me in the past! They gave us the materials for the class and said go up to the next floor to find the classroom. Hmmm. OK. The only elevator was a secured one used only by cleaning and delivery people. So we trudged up the stairs, peeked into several classrooms and a lounge, and finally found a demonstration classroom so went inside. But I showed a student my materials and learned that we were in the wrong place - there was another demonstration classroom on that floor. Happily, the chef's assistant for the wrong class graciously walked us over to the right classroom. At least now I know there are two of 'em!

So, la dee da, Mariellen, quit your bellyaching, how was the class itself? Well, pretty good, but I was very disappointed with one significant change to the curriculum. Previously, each of the 90 lecture-demo/practicals that fulltime students attend included at least three dishes - a first course, a main course and a dessert - all of which went well together and flowed nicely (in terms of flavors, sensations, variety, digestibility, etc.), and were do-able within the 2.5-hour lecture-demo timeframe, and included cuisine and pastry elements. Desserts have now been eliminated from these lecture/practicals (they've been moved to the exclusively pastry classes), leaving just two savory cuisine dishes.

Our first-course dish was green asparagus, quickly sautéed in very hot olive oil with a little finely chopped garlic, then ladled with some reduced chicken stock, covered and left to gently simmer until tender, then removed and some butter whisked into the sauce (bien sûr!). It was served with deeply flavorful oven-dried tomatoes and deeeeeelicious gnocchi scented with preserved lemon zest and with little crescents of niçoise olives.

For the main course, fillets of red mullet (a small light pink Mediterranean fish with white delicately-flavored flesh) were prepared "just so" (I will spare you all the details of removing vs. enhancing the scales, trimming the fillets, etc.!) and set aside to be seasoned with salt and Espelette pepper and sautéed at the last minute. Meanwhile, an intense "devilled sauce" was made with the fish bones & trimmings, celery, garlic, peppercorns, tomatoes, a little red wine vinegar and veal stock - and at the last minute the fish livers were blended into the hot strained sauce. Chestnuts were sautéed in butter with some finely diced celery, then covered with reduced chicken stock and gently cooked until everything was tender. And a wonderful rosemary cream sauce was made by merely boiling some heavy cream with rosemary leaves until the cream was infused, then strained and cooked down until it was almost an oily consistency. This might have been my favorite individual element of the whole class!

So ya, the class was good. I learned some fun new techniques and preparations. And I know that I'll make at least a couple of these items myself. But big sigh ... I miss the old location and the old curriculum design and the old slightly more competent customer service. Maybe I'll write them a letter!