Demo/practical - how does it work?

I'll tell you a bit how it actually works at Le Cordon Bleu re. demo's and practical classes;

You receive a 'receipe' which is actually NOT a receipe. It's an ingredients list of the things you need. It only says 500 grams of XX and 5 grams of YY, but there is no info of how to put it together. And there is no information about the oven temperatures or cooking times.

That's why there is a demo class first - chef prepares the dish and you have to take notes yourself how it's all put together. Chef explains about temperatures,timing,consistency of sauces,how to cut,where to cut,which equipment to use etc etc. Quite a good system actually.


In the picture, chef Stril demonstrates the Cannelloni dish. We are sitting in front of him watching him prepare the dish and we can also look in the mirror above the marble table what chef is doing. There are also TV screens in the room.
Chef wil explain everything in French, but there's always a translator present. And by the way, all (!) the chefs we have seen so far DO actually speak some English. So no worries, you can always ask questions in Engish.
There is also an assistent working with chef to sort out all the ingredients and equipment.

When chef's ready with the dish, he will show you the result and you can take photographs. After that we eat the lot within a minute....


On to the practical;

Now we try to copy the dish chef has showed us in the demonstration class earlier. Our group is in the kitchen with 8 people and a chef. (No translator, but that's not a problem - you should know by now what to do.) Until now, the chefs are really helpful and answer all the questions we have. Always in some sort of English - again, no problem with the language so far.

Waiting to start the practical. Everything has been set up. Two people from our class are the assistents of chef. They will take up all the ingredients from the prep kitchen in the basement to the classroom. They have this extra job for the whole week in practical classes. Of course they also prepare the dish.

And during practical, chef is watching closely. As you can see, we're quite busy with the onion tart.
At the end we present our dish to chef. ' C'est bon ' says chef....

(Then we either eat it, take it home, or throw it in the bin. Or we give it to the dishwasher guy(s) who never seem to skip any free meal.... )

Finally we clean everything and after a check from chef we can go. Practicals take about 2.5 hrs. They can start at 8.30 , 12.30 , 15.30 or 18.30.