I like food…a lot.
So you can imagine my excitement when I learned about the cooking classes that CEA organizes for us at the Atelier des Chefs. The menu changes every day depending on what the chef decides to cook. What was on our menu, you ask? Duck. Not just any duck: fried, baked and cooked with salt, figs, with fluffy mashed potatoes on the side. It was a delicious!
After everyone arrived, we washed our hands and shuffled into the kitchen, the first step to cooking this delicious meal was prepping the ingredients. This meant we peeled, cut, and cooked potatoes. While that was happening we cut the figs and raw duck meat. And what would the experience be if there wasn’t a minor blackout from blowing a fuse? Thankfully, it only lasted one minute!
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| Frying the duck! |
Now back to cooking...
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| Real chefs enjoy cooking! *peace* |
We fried the duck in low oil until the outside got to a beautiful brown color. Then we baked the duck to thoroughly cook the inside. Being the great multi-taskers that we are, we sautéed the figs with black truffle oil.
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| Voila! C'est fini! |
Once the duck was done baking, the figs were sautéed, and the potatoes were mashed, it came time to plate the meal. Although the head chef plated his meal beautifully with ease. I think I did a good job!
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| Voila! C'est fini=) |
Now that all the hard work is done, it was time for my favorite part: eating the food! I would have never thought to put figs on any of my food, but this was delicious!
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| The table is set! |
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| We're enjoying the meal together! |
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| Let me not forget to mention dessert. Chocolate mousse with lemon and caramel sauce! (FYI, no we did not make this) |
I would have never tried this combination at home, but it was fun experimenting with flavors. Now, the real question is, can I replicate this meal when I go back home? I’m not sure, but I’ll definitely have to try it!
Eberechi O. is the Fall 2016 CEA MOJO in Aix-en-Provence, France. She is currently a senior studying International Studies at University of Michigan.