Culinary Delights

Our amazing day started off with a trip to Barefoot Contessa's favorite bakery, Poilane.  If you look it up online, you can even order things over the internet.  A restraunt in New York gets freshly made bread from here once a week.  I decided to get a little breakfast tart before we started our incredible cooking class with La Cuisine Paris.  This was probably one of the best decisions that I have ever made, and if it weren't so expensive, I would have loved to do it everyday! 

We met our chefs of La Cuisine at the famous market on Boulevard Raspail.  She pointed out unique ingredients, purple garlic, and explained different ways that they use them.  Not only was it educational, it was super entertaining to watch the little old French women come to the market with their baskets for their groceries.  As we walked along the market, we picked out ingredients for our menu.  It was so cool to see our chef, Julie, walk along, making up a menu in her head as she strided along.  Strawberries, cherries, asparagus, turnips, cod, many different cheeses, snap peas, rubarb, lettuce, olives, and baguettes were some of the things that we purchased.  While walking along the market, she also gave us a little lesson on different types of goat cheeses.  She bought enough for us to have a tasting when we returned to the kitchen.

Just a quick walk through the Gardens of Luxenburg, we arrived at the cooking class location.  It was located in a cute little area, and the kitchen was quite fancy!  We sat down, had some tea and coffee, and allowed the chefs to prepare our working stations.  It was great to get to know the other participants, people from all over the world, but mostly the United States.  We had instruction on how to chop things, how to make dough, different ingredients to use together, and Julie made it easy for everyone to feel comfortable in the kitchen.  Here is a menu of what we made.  Some of the things might seem a little wierd, but it was all absolutely delicious.  When I get back, maybe I will invite some people over to have a little taste of Paris!

Menu:

Bibb Lettuce Salad with a French Vinagarette
Asparagus, onions, snap peas with garlic, sauteed
Turnips and Hazelnuts, sauteed
Baked cod with thyme and a cream sauce
All of the goat cheeses with fresh cherry chutney that we made
Strawberries and mint
Rubarb pie

It was so amazing that she put this whole menu together, no recipes, and no measuring.  So much fun, and such a great experience.  I am planning on posting pictures tomorrow, as we finally have some time to rest.  I have pictures of all of the food, and I am going to write down some of the recipes that she actually did give us. 

Oh, and by the way, while at the cooking class, some guys told us that they had spotted Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, and her husband, Jeffery, at one of the cafe's for breakfast.  She is here! How exciting! Now, I just have to see her and tell her that she is one of the reasons that I came to Paris.  And maybe, just maybe, she will invite us up for a fabulous dinner in her fabulous Paris apartment, but of course that is just a stretch.

Full and satisfied, we tried to walk off some of the amazing food that we had eaten.  Since we were close to the Notre Dame, we walked there and saw some cute shops along the way.  We saw some amazing views of the Siene River that runs throughout Paris, and of course, took lots of pictures.  Discovering a huge department store, was also a highlight of our day.  BHV, was the place that Julia Child would go to get her house supplies when needed.  Now, it is kind of like a target, ikea, home depot, macy's, and nordstroms all in one.  It is huge, and you could spend hours in there.  However, we had a quick look around at all of the amazing kitchen supplies, cute clothes, and headed back to our arrondissement.  Another great day in Paris! Next stop, Brugges and Brussels for a day trip!