Cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris

When we first starting planning our trip to Paris, I knew I wanted to squeeze in a short cooking class if possible.  My top choice was Le Cordon Bleu, for obvious reasons.

A search on their website quickly revealed a list of recreational classes and in the end, I signed up for a macaron class, specifically on making "violet macarons".  Though I adore macarons, I wasn't looking specifically for a macaron class since I felt I'd already come a fair way towards making them and there are so many other French pastries I'd love to see/learn how to make.  In truth, it was the only class that worked for our schedule and the timing was just a mere 5 1/2 hours after our overnight flight touched down in Paris from New Jersey.

Well, I very happily and excitedly arrived at Le Cordon Bleu Paris around noon the first day of our trip.  And I'm so glad I made it.  The class was informative, enjoyable, and an overall fun experience I won't soon forget.

The nearly 3-hour course started with us doning our fresh Le Cordon Bleu aprons (I think that alone was worth the price of admission for some of us) before heading upstairs to our classroom.  Chef Daniel Walter conducted the course, with help from a lovely translator, who provided the English for those of us who didn't speak French.  There were roughly a dozen students in the class and we all watched Chef Walter demonstrate the steps to making a batch of violet macarons shells, with a cassis (black currant) and white chocolate ganache filling.  Now in general, I am certainly more of a "conventional" chocolate or coffee macaron type person but I was excited to try a different variation.

Chef Walter thoroughly demonstrated each step of the macaron making process.  He was professional, humorous, and informative.  I really adored him.  After he showed us how to make the macarons, it was our turn.  Ingredients were laid out in front of us and two other assistants swapped out equipment and provided help when we needed it. 

So for almost three hours, I watched and learned, shared a few laughs, mixed up my own batch of violet macarons, and got a batch of tasty treats to take with me.  The recipe for the macaron shells we used during the class was very similar to the one I use at home and the taste and texture was likewise similar to what I expected.  I picked up a few tricks and Chef Walter showed us a couple of interesting techniques such as brushing edible gold powder on the macarons and spraying chocolate on a separate batch of chocolate macarons.

I think my macarons came out pretty well.  My husband says they were the best he tasted in Paris (of course...*wink, wink*).  I thought the combination of white chocolate ganache with the black currant jam was an interesting and fairly easy technique to do at home.  The chef mentioned we could do this with a variety of fruit from say raspberries to mango, which is a very intriguing thought and opens up a host of possibilites for the adventurous...

One of my violet macaron creations. The topping is chopped candied violets

At the end of the class, we were each presented with our certificate of completion (another wonderful momento) and I left, armed with a box of macarons and thrilled that I'd been able to attend this class.

My husband and son met me in the lobby (they'd gone exploring and getting lost for the last three hours) and we set off to really begin our vacation in Paris...but not before I stocked up on a couple more souvenirs to go with my newly acquired Le Cordon Bleu apron and dish towel.

Thank you, Le Cordon Bleu, for a wonderful experience!

Sweet Eats in Paris and my Top 10 List

When I think about my recent trip to Paris with my husband and our six-year old son, I use words like "amazing, wonderful, beautiful..." to describe it.  But I need to add another word as well and and that would be, delicious.

I knew heading into this trip that I was going to spend a good amount of time delightfully sampling the renowned pastries (and other food) Paris has to offer.  And we did eat a lot, taste-testing our way in between the sightseeing and walks around the city.

I have to admit I had this fear I'd come back from our five-day trip 5-6 pounds heavier but miraculously, all that walking must've paid off.  I never felt weighed down during the trip as I nibbled on croissants, macarons, eclairs, and crepes.  I insist food must have no calories in Paris - at least not for the first 4-5 days as a busy tourist.  If I stayed a bit longer and started lingering at those lovely outdoor cafes, it might be a different story. 

It also helped that the three of us would share the treats, buying just a single item of different things so we could have a couple bites of each and try as many things as possible.

Before going on our trip, I bought a little journal to take with me and in it, I wrote down a list of "must-go" places and "must-eat" things.  I did my homework, partly from having bought David Lebovitz' pastry app, and I think we managed to check off most of the items on my list.  But since we were in Paris not only to eat but to also take in the sights, there were many, many places I'd read about but didn't get a chance to visit.  And as I'd look at the pastry cases in the shops or at the Galeries Lafayette's food hall (very close to where we stayed in the 9th arrondissment), I wish I could have tried everything knowing it would very likely taste extremely good.

And speaking of looking and shopping, the pastries and chocolates were really a feast for the eyes, miniature pieces of art.  It was almost enough just to look at them.  Pictures were not allowed in many places so my photographer (that would be my husband) couldn't take nearly as many photos as we would've liked but what I saw and tasted will stay with me for a long time.

And when it comes down to taste, we were not disappointed.  Quite simply, most of the things (in particular, all the pastries) we tasted were utterly divine.  The word "pure" comes to mind.  The pastries tasted like what they're supposed to be as opposed to being just sweet or tasting of sugar like what, I dare say, we often find here.  A lemon tart tastes like lemon - not so tart that it makes you grimace but strong enough to assert itself and be the star of the show.  The croissants were like none I've ever tasted.  I fell in love with them and I'm speaking as a person who does not particularly like croissants.  The Parisian pastries somehow manage to taste light as opposed to heavy, clean as opposed to cloying.  I'm afraid I'll never be able to replicate what I tasted there.  Not only do I lack the skills (and some pastries were really intricate pieces of art), I also wouldn't be able to get my hands on the quality of diary products they use.

They say that the French hardly bake at home.  The only things they make are relatively simple items like yogurt cake, chocolate mousse, and rice pudding.  If I lived in Paris, I wouldn't bother either.  It'd be silly considering the abundance of deliciousness just waiting for you at your local pâtisserie.  The treats are not cheap but definitely worth saving your euros for.

Macarons everywhere!

There's so much to talk about, I've compiled a list of the Top 10 favorite eats I had the chance to try in Paris in the link below.  But first, a few words on macarons.  They were everywhere.  I love macarons but honestly, I was getting a little macaron'ed out after a while, particularly with all the other tempting offerings around. 

We sampled macarons from Ladurée, Pierre Hermé, Jean-Paul Hévin, Angelina, La Maison du Chocolat, and Sadaharu Aoki.  For the most part, we bought no more than 1-4 macarons at each place to sample and mainly stuck with classic flavors of chocolate and coffee (my and the little one's favorite flavors, respectively), with the exception of Pierre Herme where we also tried the chocolate-caramel, salted caramel, and rose-vanilla combinations.

I was really hoping to try a chestnut or mint-chocolate flavor at Ladurée but sadly, they were not to be found.  I wanted to be more adventurous at Pierre Hermé (France and maybe the world's most famous pastry chef), whose known for his very inventive macaron flavor combinations, but even if I'd been willing to try a foie gras or ketup macaron, it wasn't among the offerings at his shops I visited.

The macarons we sampled in Paris didn't particularly knock our socks off.  Maybe because there were so many delicious pastries competing with it.  We thought the macarons were fairly comparable to what we can get here in the States, particularly in instances like Ladurée where the New York offering is very comparable.  The standouts we tasted were the chocolate-caramel and salted caramel macarons from Pierre Hermé.  They not only had great flavor but a good texture/body and bite to them. 

The one thing I wish I'd been able to eat in Paris is pastry from Pierre Hermé.  We stopped by two locations (in addition to two other shops within department stores) but they didn't carry pastries and we just didn't have the time to make a specific trip just for it.  So while I wanted to try the Ispahan (Hermé's famed creation combining rose, raspberries, and lychees based upon a structure of macaron shells and buttercream), I settled for a rose macaron and some of his chocolates instead.  Maybe it's alright that I missed the Ispahan because I learned that, as I suspected, I do not like the flavor of rose.  I'll be sticking mainly to the classics for some time to come.

But back to macarons, our favorite macaron tasting in Paris actually goes to the coffee macaron we bought from Angelina.  I really fell in love with this place for several reasons, including the very friendly staff.  When it came to the macaron, theirs was just a little crisp at first, with a gentle chewiness within that I favor and miss from many other macaron offerings.  Maybe most people prefer a softer macaron but I love a more chewy texture.  I think a lot of the texture depends on how long the macaron has been "aging" or "ripening", if you will, in the refrigerator and it's not surprising to find textural differences between flavors from the same shop.  As I learned from the macaron class I took at Le Cordon Bleu (more on that in another post!), storing the macarons in the refrigerator adds humidity and that affects their texture.

Now can you guess where this display case in the picture below comes from?

It's McCafe!  Yes, as in McDonald's (this one pictured above taken from one along the Champ Elysees).  And no, we did not eat at McDonald's while we were in Paris but I was interested in a peek at the McCafe offerings after reading about it here.  And on our last day in France, right before we hopped back on the train from Versailles back into Paris, I noticed another McCafe.  We decided to stop in and get a chocolate macaron just to see - why not, right?  They only cost about $1.25 each.  Now, I love myself some McDonald's french fries (here in the States) so I'm not out to knock McDonald's.  But when it comes to that macaron, it was not my favorite, to put it mildly.  The texture was good at first bite.  It had the chewiness I like but the flavor was non-existent.  No chocolate flavor at all; I'm not really sure what it tasted like.

Chocolates

No discussion of Paris would be complete without mention of its superb chocolates.  Boy oh boy, there are some serious chocolates in Paris.  In particular, I was really wowed by what I tried at Jean-Paul Hévin and Patrick Roger.  As a huge hazelnut lover, Paris is the place to be.  Not only is Nutella everywhere like peanut butter is here but the chocolates with praline/hazelnut in some form were always knockouts.  

With so much to eat and so little time, I packed a small stash of chocolates to take back home (the benefit of visiting while the temperatures are still cool).  We're steadily nibbling our way through the stash and I'm wishing I'd bought more.  For one, I could use more of these bars of Chocolat Bonnat.  Once again, we're talking pure excellent chocolate, not sugar.  The "Venezuela" 75% cacao bar is amazing.  It's dark without being bitter.  The texture is so creamy and luscious. 

Please click below to read my "Paris Top 10"!