One on One with a Cordon Bleu Chef in the Making!

So I am really enjoying my cooking classes at the Cordon Bleu and at the Cooking with Class kitchens….but I have to say, my favorite so far are the one-on-ones I am getting to take from a good friend and sister in Chi Omega who is in culinary school at the Cordon Bleu. She is going to be a famous chef one day-no joke! She is living with an American family working in Paris so she has access to a HUGE kitchen which she lovingly opens up to us lowly girls in our studio apartment where 2 people cannot fit comfortably in the “kitchen” (its more like a half hallway)

She called me the other day and invited me over to eat pizza that she wanted to try making because she saw a picture and thought it looked tasty! We homemade the pizza dough, let it rise 2 hours and then baked it to perfection! For the sauce we peeled 7 tomates, quartered them and sautéed them with olive oil and garlic. That was then spread on the dough, topped with sliced mozzarella and fresh basil. Oh. My. Gosh. It was good!! One of the pictures shows half pizza/half cheesy bread…that’s because I didn’t buy enough tomatoes, darn it. 

Appetizers

Next class: homemade peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. Mom-there was no slice-n-bake to be seen here! We put together all the ingredients, including spoonfuls of PB and chunks of lovely Milka Lait Chocolate bars. Bethany insisted on hand stirring the dough so she was given that responsibility. They turned out gooey and warm and perfect. Absolutely delish! 

Anxiously awaiting the time when they would come out of the oven!

The family's dog, Ollie. A very close 2nd to Miss Tia

 

Next class: Breakfast for dinner. We will skip quickly over this class due to the accidental baking powder/baking soda incident which left the waffles tasting like pretzels. Covered in syrup they weren’t half bad though. And the scrambled eggs proved to be a tasty substitute

Next class: Chocolate Soufflé. MC calls me and says…”hey, I really feel like making a chocolate soufflé, would you want to come?” Hmm…let me think about that one MC…YES J She did most of the work but I took notes on how long to whip the eggs and sugar and how to heat the chocolate with butter without the chocolate separating. Let me tell you…this was the most amazing soufflé I have ever had (mental question: have I ever had a soufflé? Probably not) 

Needless to say, Mary Cameron has been a huge blessing to have in Paris. She is always so welcoming into her apartment, lets us do laundry, cooks for us, lets us sleep over…kind of sounds like a mom away from home…except Im older than her-shoot. Oh well! Love you MC, thanks for all you do!!