Few weeks ago, I did the wine bottling thing. Last weekend, I had my first-in-the-life-time cooking lesson learning from Le Cordon Bleu chefs. How cool is that?? There were quite a few cooking classes to choose from for $99 per 2 people (that's the great deal). I picked Cajun/Creole because it was one of my favorite food.
The cooking class was at the California Culinary Academy. I really didn't know what to expect. Is it like in the cooking shows?
I've never seen so many chefs in white chef hats before. And those kitchens are amazing. All kinds of pots and pans. Everything is huge!!
The participants broke off to 3 groups of 18. Each group in its own professional kitchen. We then further separated into 3 work stations of 6. We each had our own cutting board and an apron. Boy, it was serious!Chef told us that we will be making 5 Cajun dishes. 5??? In 3 hours??? Are you sure?? He gave us cooking tips, told us where things were, how to cut and cook certain way then he turned us loose.
At first, everyone looked kind of loss. Where to start? What to do? Each team quickly formed a plan. 2 of our teammates tackled the gumbo, 2 was in charge of jambalaya. My pal, Francis, and I took on fried oysters, a Cajun flavor coleslaw and a brand new dish that I had never tried before: Maque Choux.
What's a Maque Choux? How does it taste? What does it look like? There wasn't even a picture since it was a dish the Chef added on the fly. OK, Maque Choux it is. I love a good challenge. And fried oysters!! Man, I was loving it.
It was controlled chaos in the kitchen. All the ingredients for each dish were prepared in advance including sugar, salt, spices, oil, etc... so we didn't have to frantically look for them. That saved a lot of time. So what did I learn? Check what you need and have everything prepared first!!
The Chef and his assistant chef worked with us calmly. They must have seen people running around like chicken without heads way too many times. I loved the techniques they shared and I appreciated the tips. I learned so much in a short 3 hours!! Q: How do you know the fried oysters are ready?
A: It's ready when the oil is not dancing around it anymore.
Technique: Toss the oysters in the breading mixture with just three fingers. If you handle the oysters too much it will warm up the oysters and make the coating less crispy.
Wow! how do you like that? I can even apply the same technique to other deep fried dishes!!
Knowledge: Oh, I did not know there are so many different kind of roux. And, I didn't know Cajun roux and Creole roux were different. Did you???
Knowledge: Celery, onion and green bell peppers are known as the holy trinity of Cajun/Creole cooking. Can't cook without these three ingredients if you doing Cajun/Creole!!
Time's Up! After two hours, Chef started counting down time. Man! It was like the Iron Chefs! We all hurried, plated the food, cleaned up our stations and brought them to another big kitchen to join others from the other kitchens. When we saw all the food on the tables, we could not believe that we actually made all those food. Yes, we did it!! It was a great morning and I walked out with an MasterChef apron, a certificate of completion and the satisfaction that I have pushed myself to another level. Nothing major but it was also not a everyday feat.
