Rungis Market

Located around a 45-minute drive from the centre of Paris, Rungis Market is one of the biggest in the world. This school trip began at 4.30am, when we arrived at the market, then we spent several hours visiting all the different areas of this enormous place. Each area is determined by product: meat, vegetable, poultry and fish. The fish section was particularly impressive; all these high-quality products from the sea were perfectly handled and stored in the correct conditions. It was a fascinating journey into the world of all the marine creatures that humans eat. Some of the fish here is even sold just a few hours later in the largest and most important fish market in the world, the Tsukiji shijō.

Château Virant : Cuvée Passion & Huile d'olive d'Exception...

We went on a school trip to Château Virant, in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, close to Montpellier. This château is an important wine producer in the region, but our visit was focused on the olive oil they also make there. We visited the olive groves, and were shown how this magnificent culinary element is produced, finishing our day with an olive oil tasting, which allowed us to discern a real difference between the various types of olive and to learn the basic criteria to better appreciate and use this important culinary product. A buffet and a wine tasting were, of course, also part of our trip!
(Olive oil should always be stored in a cool, dark place to keep it from going rancid. It is excellent for our health and should be included in our daily diet)

Château de Chassagne-Montrachet

We ended last week in a very relaxing way, with a wine tasting visit to Michel Picard Château de Chassagne-Montrachet in Bourgogne. The deal was for us to bring the food and for them to supply the wine; it worked just great, we had a great meal with some great wines. And all of this, of course in a very nice ambiance...




If you are looking for wine to buy from Château de Chassagne-Montrachet here some sugestions.
Some white wines:
CHASSAGNE MONTRACHET "Château de Chassagne Montrachet"
CHASSAGNE MONTRACHET " Vieilles Vignes"
BOURGOGNE CHARDONNAY
SAINT AUBIN 1ER CRU " En Remilly"
Some red wines:
CHASSAGNE MONTRACHET " Château de Chassagne Montrachet"
BOURGOGNE PINOT NOIR
CHAMBOLLE MUSIGNY 1ER CRU " Les Chabiots "
GEVREY CHAMBERTIN
POMMARD 1ER CRU " Les grands Epenots"
VOSNE ROMANEE 1ER CRU " Les Beaux Monts "

"The Food Orchestra " third part...

The conductor: Chef Eric Chauffour. Originally from Amboise, Loire Valley in France
Chef Éric has more than 20 years of experience in cuisine and has worked as a Chef de Cuisine in many outstanding establishments around the world including, the Hyde Park Hotel in London and Les Bergues Hotel in Geneva. His career has taken him through France, Switzerland and England, and has most recently brought him to Canada. He was awarded an AA Rosette for his cuisine while in Silchester, has worked alongside Michelin 2‐Star Chef Michel Chabran and was responsible for the fine dining restaurant at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Annecy, in the French Alps.In August 2003, Chef Éric went to Canada with the goal of sharing his love of the culinary arts and introducing others to his passion for L’Art de la table or the Art of living! Since May 2007, Chef Éric has been our teacher at the Institut Paul Bocuse; the musicians: our team; the score: Poultry week. My mission: to prepare a duck breast stuffed with fois gras, with creamy polenta and a wild mushroom duxelle, green asparagus and broad beans, brochette of giblets and duck jus "au sang" (made with duck blood).

" The Food Orchestra " second part...

The conductor: Chef Eric Cros (Alain Ducasse Luis XV, Pierre Gagnaire, Japan, Spain); the musicians: our team; the score: Pork and Lamb week. My mission: to prepare a Lamb gigot stuffed with Italian black olive tapenade, cooked en croute with salt and rosemary seasoning, pearl barley risotto with fois gras and chanterelle mushrooms, ratatouille, and artichoke crisps. These images show some moments and my dish...

Chez Trollier

With my school, we went on a visit to the Boucherie Trollier, a butcher's shop run by one of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France and located in a local food market called Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. He showed us the different cuts of meat and the various cutting techniques. This is a very important profession in the restauration business; a quality product, correctly handled and treated with respect with regards to the conservation and transportation legislation, will be fresh and tasty if it's prepared by the right hands. Here you can see some before and after pictures of the cuts of veal, beef and lamb.

The Food Orchestra

The conductor: Chef Thomas Lemaire (Amphyclés** paris,Mr Groult MOF
Plaza athenée** paris,Mr Briffard MOF
Pic** valence, anne sophie pic,Palme d'or** cannes hotel martinez, Mr willer, Mr leurenguer MOF,Restaurant du parc des eaux vives** geneve, Mr vulin
Institut paul bocuse, ecully,chef de cuisine,); the musicians: our team; the score: Beef and Veal week. These images show some scenes from our show...

Demonstration by Thierry Marx

At the Institut Paul Bocuse ,the two-star Michelin chef from France, Thierry Marx, shared some of his life, his extensive knowledge and his advice on having a restaurant with us today. He gives great importance to how both the kitchen and service teams should be managed and emphasized how a restaurant’s success can depend on the personalities and motivation of the staff. He is a person that I admire because of his charisma, and his unique philosophy on how to be a good chef (he takes his team to teach them Judo, where they learn how to handle difficult situations and stay in control).
He also showed us different techniques used to prepare different products, both saving time and achieving better results. From the “soufflé instantané de chou-fleur aux huîtres avec une crème au citron vert” (oyster and cauliflower soufflé with lime cream), to the salt cod with passion fruit ‘spaghetti’ and frothed mango, or the Szechuan pepper minute-meringue cooked in liquid nitrogen (-183 °c) with a sparkling blueberry coulis and chocolate decoration, all his dishes impressed me. All I can say after today's demonstration is that we are fortunate to have the chance to listen to a person like him and that my friend Alberto is very lucky to be working in his restaurant this winter!

Perfectionnement pâtisserie

It was a great week, we did a buffet of many types of desserts in individual shapes or as an entremet, we used seasonal fruits, chocolate, differents recipes for doughs, creams, mousses, decorations, we were under the command of our chef Laurent Cordonier who is actually in the M.O.F (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) finals, and thanks to his training we were able to create all these beautiful and very tasty recipes, because of course we try them all...
(Merci a Ting Yu pour les images)

L'erotisme

In cooking and in life this means a lot, it is hard to describe such a thing but is certainly associated with sensorial pleasure. This is what we tried to express, me and my cooking team when we created our own restaurant concept in a project called avant scene, at the Institut Paul Bocuse, colors, shapes, textures, flavors and all that we could express was made during this exiting week, red pepper coulis with toasted home made bread flavored with garlic and tomatoes and a clam tempura beside a parmesan stick was our starter, as an appetizer we offered a vegetable mile feuille (eggplant caviar, with confited red, green, yellow peppers and tomatoes and a crusty black home made pasta on top, beside marinated red tuna fish half cooked with sesame oil and a beet emulsion, as a main course we offered home smoked pink trout with a sea weed ciboulet layer on top over a purple potato risotto and a ginger fennel salad, this with a coriander pistou, in the dessert we used mango, ginger tea , chocolate and orange to finish this erotic experience.

Concurso de cocina

En el instuto el consejo de estudiantes organizo un concurso de cocina entre los estudiantes de primero a tercer año , 6 equipos de 2 personas cada uno participamos en dos cocinas para llevar a cabo la preparacion de bocadillos que despues fueron servidos en el cocktail de puertas abiertas que ofrece el instituto a la gente interesda en conocer el lugar y pensar en la posibilidad de estudiar aqui, con mi companero federico, no logramos pasar a la final, la responsabilidad es mia y debo reconocerlo, dos errores fatales de organizacion me penalizaron y ambos nos quedamos con sabor a poco, aunque salio visualmente bien el resultado no fue como esperabamos, nos dieron a todos los mismo productos, habia que hacer 15 bocados a base de legumbres, 15 a base de salmon y quince a base de conejo, nosotros hicimos una brocheta de legumbres, calabaza parisiene rellena de espuma de ajo, corazon de alcachofa cubierta con huevos de salmon y rabano blanco cortado en bouquetier con una juliana de damsco confitado, con el salmon hicimos lo siguiente, sachimi de salmon pero en vez de arroz blanco estaba hecho de brunoise de hinojo y en el alga la remplazamos con una cubertura de perejil, con la piel del salmon terminamos la decoracion, al conejo lo cocimos a la caserola, y luego la carne mechada sobre una espuma de papas con paprika, se los errores que cometi y no me volvera a suceder, no me gusta perder pero siempre se puede sacar algo positivo de las cosas, oportunidades de ganar no faltaran.

El pan de cada dia...

Se han puesto a pensar acerca la importancia que tienen los productos de la fermentacion como el queso , o el vino , o la cerveza, que han sido parte de la vida del ser humano desde muy lejos en el tiempo? bueno pues mas aun el pan, simbolo de la alimentacion, producto infaltable en la vida del ser humano, bueno se han puesto a pensar en quien los hace? aquel o aquella que se levanta tempranito en la manana a hacer el pan para la gente, es un gesto que a pesar de ser un negocio tiene mucho contenido humano ,conocen alguno? bueno yo

si , y es muy simpatico , es nuestro chef panadero Jean Marc Berthomier, que nos comparte su pasion por esta profesion y nos ensena a hacer buen pan, un chef muy tecnico y mul talentoso, con manos de panadero nos da el ejemplo mientras vamos haciendo la produccion del dia , empezamos tempranito , antes de que salga el sol haciendo,croissants, pan tradicional , pan de campo, baguettes , brioche, y otros tipos de panes, calculamos la receta de acuerdo a la cantidad que se necesite producir, pesamos los ingredientes(pessage), los incorporamos en la maquina(frassage) , los transformamos en masa ( petrissage) dejamos fermentar la masa( fermentacion) dejamos una nueva fermentacion manipulando ligeramente la masa y luego viene el fassonage donde vamos a dar la forma deseada al pan, hay una variedad que todavia no conozco , y por ultimo la coccion donde tranformamos estas masas en deliciosos panes comestibles ,y porsupuesto antes de ir a almorzar comemos nuestros propios panes recien salidos del horno con una buena botella de vino y un buen queso, aqui hay algunos ejemplos de lo que hicimos y de lo que no se debe hacer, el que metio la pata esta vez fui yo, cuando metia los baguettes en el horno hice un movimiento que no se debe hacer y perdi cuatro baguettes en la puerta del horno, pero lo importante es que aprendi y no me volvera a suceder.....

Cena de navidad

El consejo de estudiantes , organizo una cena de navidad , comimos bien y obviamente pasamos un buen rato entre colegas cocineros y hoteleros, por lo menos nunca nos faltara tema de conversacion en la mesa!

Degustacion de quesos

El chef de quesos Etienne Boisi( Meilleur Ouvrier de France ) , nos trajo al anfiteatro una gama inmensa de los mejores quesos algunos afinados por el mismo en la empresa de Herve Mons tambien M.O.F quesero, quien es propietario de una marca de las mejores de francia , proveedor de los mejores restaurantes en Francia y el extranjero, probamos mas o menos 40 quesos A.O.C. ( Apellation d'origine controle) , y varios vinos , cognac y buen pan para acompanar.


Abondance, Beaufort ,Bleu-d'Auvergne ,Bleu-de-Gex ,Bleu-des-Causses ,Bleu-du-Vercors ,Brie-de-Meaux ,Brie-de-Melun ,Broccio ,Camembert ,Cantal ,Chabichou-du-oitou ,Chaource ,Comté,
Crottin-de-Chavignol ,Epoisses ,Fourme-d'Ambert ,Laguiole ,Langres ,Livarot ,Maroilles ,Mont-d'Or ,Morbier ,Munster ,Neufchatel ,Ossau-Iraty ,Pelardon ,Picodon,Pont-l'Eveque,Pouligny-Saint-Pierre ,Reblochon,Rocamadour ,Roquefort ,Saint-Nectaire,Salers,Selles-sur-Cher ,te-Maure-de-Touraine,Valençay , Claro esta que despues de degustar quesos y vinos toda la manana todos se ponen de buen humor digamos y cuando llega la hora del cognac ya la clase es un poco mas ruidosa...

Clases de crustaceos

Esta semana tuve la segunda formacion acerca de los crustaceos, el Chef Cyril Bosviel, quien a trabajado con grandes chefs como Joel Robuchon, nos mostro una variedad de crustaceos, su origen , sus limites y cualidades, la manera de trabajarlos y buenas maneras de comerlos, erizos, langostas, langostinos, ostras ymuchos tipos de bibalvos, ecrevises ,caviar, navajas entre otras delicias del mar fueron parte de esta interesante y entretenida semana.