Nous sommes les 'Top Chefs'!

Il fait môche.

I definitely chose Bordeaux because it is in the south of France and therefore always sunny and always boiling. Sadly, the 9 weeks that we decided to come here have been pretty rubbish. They've never seen so much rain at this time of year before and Madame told me that she actually had to put the heating on yesterday. She was beyond horrified. 

However, Alice and I decided that we were not going to let the weather depress us anymore - we were going to do something fun and French and we were going to take photos! Rather handily, at the beginning of the week, Caroline (activity organiser at language school) informed us that there would be a cooking lesson with a proper chef in a proper cooking school. Alice and I nearly wee'd in excitement. 

 "Les Top Chefs"

I'm not going to lie, we were a bit disappointed that we weren't given some hilarious French chef hats/aprons, but we made do with the plastic bag we had to wear instead! There were 4 stations (just like MasterChef/Top Chef) and 5 people per station. Frédéric, the chef, went through the menu with us and showed us exactly what to do. We were going to make salmon, mashed potato with chopped olives, and a granny smith apple/lime topping thing. 

We started by peeling potatoes - for everyone else, a simple task. But I had to be shown what to do by the (old) Brazilian woman in front of me. She didn't appreciate my 'hacking at it' style. Next was slicing the Granny Smith apples and making baton shapes, which were then mixed into a sauce of olive oil, curry spices and lime zest and juice. All sounds a bit odd, doesn't it? I can assure you it was scrummy! 

Post-prep:

Mashin'

Frédéric at work

Frédéric made two rules for his kitchen:

1. French is the only language to be spoken

2. Everyone must do some part of the cooking

Sadly, these rules were flawed when it came to me. I was chosen to turn over the first salmon in the pan. Again, a simple task for the average person. But no - I was given a pair of tongs to do my flippin', and failed. The salmon skin was totally stuck to the pan and the (old&fat) Brazilian woman was having a mare behind me. I didn't think to just go and get a proper flipping utensil...so ended up doing this:

Woops.

However, Frédéric soon came to rescue me and show me how it's done...

Phew.

It was ok from then on, so Alice and I took all the obligatory photos for such an occasion:

Including our plate-decorating skills!

Alice's stars

My hearts

Beautiful Alice with the end result!

Proud as punch!

After plating up, we went into the next-door room where there was a long bar-like table and we all sat together eating our creations and chatting in French! We were given a complimentary glass of wine anddddd...

Pudding!

I'm not really sure what it's called, but it was tasty! At the bottom was chocolate mousse and raspberries, then a layer of crumbled up caramel/gingery biscuit (like the ones usually served with coffee), and finally, a layer of cream! Sadly, it was impossible to resist - I think I ate it in about 23 seconds.

Once everyone else had finished we were given coffee. 

And another treat!

Again, this treat was impossible to resist, so Alice and I made a deal to run a bit faster on our run this afternoon! We did just that and even did some 'pompes'. 

(NOT what you think - 'pompe'=press-up in French...promise!)

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