Bordeaux Cooking Class

Our classroom for the afternoon.

Bienvenue au L'atelier des Chefs!

Today, we attended a cooking class in Bordeaux where we made lunch for ourselves.  On the menu this afternoon was duck topped with seasoning with a side of pureed potatoes.

My group peeling & slicing potatoes.

We began our class by dividing into groups and spreading out among the various tables in the kitchen.  All of the groups were asked to peel and cut numerous potatoes into very thin slices.  After completion of this task, the potatoes were placed into a bowl of water on the stovetop.

 

After the potatoes were placed on the stove, we began to make the duck.  Each table had several pieces of duck with which to work.  Each piece had a layer of fat on top and a few people at each table made small incisions in the fat layer in a criss-crossed pattern.  Simultaneously, the other members of each group thinly sliced onions and created a lemon and orange zest that eventually was placed on top of each duck (the pictures to the right left and below are each group working with the duck).

To the left is what the duck, sliced onions, and zest resulted in after each group completed that portion of the task.

Then, each group placed the duck into a skillet and cooked each side until they were lightly browned.  After that, each group placed their duck into the oven to complete the cooking.

Finally, we finished cooking the potatoes by draining the water from the pot and pureeing them.

Completed product.

Group picture before we ate.

Bon appetit!!