 2011 TRAVEL STUDY GUIDE
Learning French, Living the Adventure Your guide to studying the French language, arts, and cuisine |
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 © Wollwerth Imagery - Fotolia.com HOW TO CHOOSE A PROGRAM Choosing a Cooking ProgramIf you hope to improve your French but your real dream is to learn to make the perfect soufflé, you're in luck. France has an enormous variety of cooking schools, and many of them will teach you how to conjugate as you coddle, sift and stir. You can cultivate the haute cuisine style of Alain Ducasse in Paris, rubbing elbows with his Parisian students as you learn the proper way to separate an egg, or you can explore the joys of country cooking in Normandy or Provence and practice your French with local vendors at open air markets at the same time. Wherever you choose to seek your inner Sabrina, you'll come away with a renewed sense of your own skills in the kitchen, and with the language too.
Promenades Gourmandes — Paris (see listing) 
© Vivian Thomas Paule Caillat with a Promenades Gourmandes class If you’d like to go marketing with a lively French gourmet, then cook in her gorgeous kitchen and feast on the result, try Paule Caillat’s Promenades Gourmandes. Caillat is a dynamic, bilingual Parisienne who’s been conducting cooking lessons in English for 13 years. Classes, for a maximum of eight participants, start with a shopping expedition, either in the rue Montorgueil or at the Marché des Enfants Rouges, where Caillat moves from boulangerie to boucherie and poissonnerie, sharing plenty of shopping tips and discussing such topics as the differences between American and French cuts of meat. The moveable feast then relocates to the architect-designed kitchen in Caillat’s spacious apartment, in a historic building in the Marais,for a hands-on lesson preparing a four-course lunch. One recent menu: artichokes à la barigoule, souris d’agneau with citrus fruits, a North-African-style tajine of vegetables, a platter of carefully chosencheeses and strawberry tart with almond cream. As she cooks and directs her students, busily chopping, stirring and sautéing, Caillat chats about everything from France’s two food cultures—the Mediterranean olive-oil-based and the Northern cream-and-butter-based—to the best time to buy different cheeses and the order in which to eat them. Lunch is served with plenty of wine and laughter; half-day classes end about 3 pm; full-day classes add a gourmet walking tour, visiting Caillat’s long-standing artisan producers and suppliers, ending at 6 pm; and multi-day sessions can be scheduled. There is no set program—classes and promenades are arranged on request and according to availability. 38 rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, 3rd, 01.48.04.56.84. www.promenadesgourmandes.com. From €270 per person (less for parties of 2 or more). - Vivian Thomas La Cuisine Corsaire Ecole — Brittany (see listing) 
Chef Emmanuel Tessier teaching a class at La Cuisine Corsaire Ecole If it’s the dessert class, Emmanuel Tessier might greet his students with a small dish of crispy rose petals. “Try one,” he grins. “They’re perfect with an apéritif.” They’re a cinch to do, he adds—just whisk a few egg whites, brush the foam on the petals, sprinkle with a little sugar, stick them in a low oven for two hours et voilà! Everything seems easy for enthusiastic young chef Tessier, and his gift is to make you think it’s going to be easy for you too. So he’s perfectly cast as chief instructor at the Cuisine Corsaire Ecole, the cooking school founded by renowned chef Olivier Roellinger in the tiny Breton port of Cancale, not far from his extensive hotel-restaurant complex Les Maisons de Bricourt. Classes, held in a spacious separate building, are very much hands-on, and limited to eight students per session. The three-hour classes, held mornings and afternoons, are followed by a dégustation of the delicious classwork, accompanied by a glass of wine, and students leave with a small box of their creations and a few ingredients for whipping up something similar at home. Each class has a theme—oysters, spices, vegetables, foie gras, sea bass, scallops, lobster and desserts, among others. The recipes for each theme change with the seasons, so that there are now four “collections” of different recipes for vegetable classes, for example. The recipes are Roellinger’s own, or for new dishes created by Tessier but always rooted in the spirit of Roellinger’s spice-inspired cuisine—there’s no such thing as plain vanilla here, but a dozen different natural varieties of vanilla, each with its own nuance of flavor. “The idea,” says Tessier, “is to transpose haute cuisine into cooking that can be done at home.” Tessier also encourages students to consider class recipes as a base for personal variations—the marinated raspberry and blueberry salad might also be done with bananas and kiwi, or with lime instead of ginger, or Grand Marnier instead of rum. Classes are in French, but with advance notice English translation, by American pastry chef, food writer and Cancale resident Mary Margaret Chappell (or one of her colleagues), can be arranged. And, starting next spring, three nights a week there will be dinner cook-ins, again for a maximum of eight, to prepare and then enjoy a special, 12-course tasting menu. Place Saint-Méen, Cancale, 02.99.89.63.86. www.cuisine-corsaire.fr. €104–€160 - V.T. La Bastide des Saveurs — Provence (see listing) 
© Hostellerie Bérard Chef René Bérard (center) and students at La Bastide des Saveurs Perched on a cliff surrounded by vineyards, just north of Bandol on the Mediterranean coast, La Cadière d’Azur is a rare, unspoiled Provençal hamlet that has resisted gentrification. The same spirit of authenticity reigns at the Hostellerie Bérard, a hotel with a Michelin one-star restaurant, installed in a renovated 11th-century monastery and run by chef René Bérard and his son, Jean-François. Their cooking school, La Bastide des Saveurs, is a five-minute drive away, in a 19th-century farmhouse lovingly restored by René’s wife Danièle. The four-day, five-night program —for a maximum of 12 participants—starts with a Sunday-evening welcome dinner. Classes begin the next morning with a tour of the lavender and rose gardens, the fruit orchard and vast herb-and-vegetable potager, to learn about ingredients you’ll be using and the subtle differences among a dozen varieties of tomatoes. Depending on the season, wild strawberries, peaches, apricots or figs are plucked for desserts. The hands-on classes, in French with English translation and recipes, are held at a long wooden table in a beautiful Provençal kitchen. The focus is on simple southern French cooking—tapenade, eggplant “caviar”, stuffed-vegetable tians, salt-cod brandade, lamb noisettes, lavender crème brûlée, caramelized apple tart. After each three-hour morning class, participants lunch on their dishes-of-the-day, served on the wisteria-shaded terrace or in the antique-filled dining room. Afternoons are for visits: local Bandol and Cassis vineyards, the fish market at the port of La Madrague, cheese-makers, an olive mill, a honeybee farm. In December there’s a special truffle class, with such dishes as ravioli with leeks and truffles, and warm truffle-studded chocolate cake. Single-day classes are possible, too, and there are also classes in wine tasting. Rue Gabriel Péri, La Cadière d’Azur, 04.94.90.11.43. www.hotel-berard.com. Courses are held May–July and Sept–Oct. Five-night package (welcome dinner, five breakfasts, four days of classes and visits): single room €1694, June–July €1795; double room €1388, June–July €1497 per person for participants, €832/€849 for non-participants. - V.T. On Rue Tatin — Normandy and Paris (see listing) Author of ten cookbooks and France Today’s own cooking columnist, Susan Herrmann Loomis teaches cooking classes both in Paris and in her lovely, rambling, half-timbered 15th-century house on rue Tatin in Louviers, a small town in Normandy, not far from Rouen and Monet’s Giverny. 
© Susan Herrmann Loomis Cooking lesson in Normandy Normandy three-day classes start on Monday morning and end Wednesday afternoon; five-day courses begin with a welcome dinner Monday night and end Friday afternoon. In between, the all-day schedules are packed with hands-on classes in Rue Tatin’s professionally equipped country kitchen, along with wine tastings, visits to local markets, farmers, fishermen and even potters and other craftsmen. A visit to Rouen includes a bistrot lunch and an afternoon free to tour and shop. Hermann Loomis is passionate about fresh, locally produced ingredients and, as readers of her column know, she’s also poetic as she sings their praises. Depending on the season, the menus prepared in her classes might include such treats as end-of-summer tomato tarts, salad with pumpkin-seed oil vinaigrette, marinated wood-fire grilled pork chops, duck breast with blood-orange sauce, braised romanesco with garlic and lemon, and of course Tarte Tatin. When weather permits, meals are enjoyed in the garden facing the 12th-century church of Notre Dame de Louviers. 
© Susan Herrmann Loomis A group at On Rue Tatin in Normandy Paris classes are held in a streamlined kitchen in a classic building in Saint Germain des Prés. Morning sessions, from 9:30 am to 2 pm, start with a market tour to buy the ingredients for dishes that will be shared for lunch; evening sessions, 5:30 pm–9:30 pm, prepare a candlelit dinner—a sample menu might include lentil soup with scallops and orange-flower lamb with walnuts and fresh herbs. 1 rue Tatin, Louviers. 09.64.18.60.39. www.onruetatin.com. From €210–€2,000 -V.T. Ecole de Cuisine Alain Ducasse – Paris (see listing) A great to start cooking is the Ecole de Cuisine Alain Ducasse, which opened in Paris last year. "I have an obsession with transmitting my knowledge both to other professionals and to amateurs," Ducasse told France Today's Vivian Thomas. "Everything I know I want to pass along. This is the biggest project I've ever taken on." Students at the Ducasse school run the gamut of experience, from international professional chefs to absolute novices, and there are even children's classes for 6- to 12-year olds, aptly called Les Mini-Pouces. Courses are taught in French, but the school will provide interpreters, at a price, for those who don't speak the language. (Be sure to ask in advance.) Conveniently located in the 16th arrondissement, just across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, the school helps students master their cooking skills with plenty of time off to explore the city and practice their French. 64 Rue du Ranelagh, Paris, 01.44.90.91.00. www.ecolecuisine-alainducasse.com - Anna Wainwright Gastronomicom – Le Cap d’Agde (see listing) If you're more interested in soaking up the scenery in your downtime than negotiating Parisian crowds, consider signing up for one of the many cooking schools in the French countryside or on the seacoast. At Gastronomicom, just outside of Montpellier in the Mediterranean resort of Cap d'Agde, students can choose between one- and three-month programs that combine courses in French language and cuisine, while living in bright and cheery shared apartments a short walk from town and the beach. Those more interested in learning the difference between a good Burgundy and a decent Bordeaux than the perfect way to roast a lamb, or who dream of becoming a master pastry chef, can find their niche at Gastronicom as well -the school offers wine and pastry programs too. No matter which appetizing sideshow you choose, you'll walk out of this intensive program with vastly improved language skills. 1 Avenue des soldats, Le Cap d'Agde, 06.71.72.28.13 www.gastronomicom.fr - A.W. |
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