CCA Culinary Arts Fundamental Course Session 11 - French Cuisine

As the course is coming to a close, I’m starting to miss it already. I have one makeup schedule for next week then the last one on end-September then it’s graduation time! I’m going to miss waking up very early during Saturdays and going to school and cook in a commercial kitchen…. 😊

We started the class with a small lecture about French cuisine, popular chefs who are popularly trained in French cuisine and some reminders about the dishes we were about to cook for the day.

When we moved to the CCA kitchen, we had our mini-pictorial before we totally look crazy different after working in the kitchen, haha! It was a lil bit of a pre-pictorial as our teacher Kat won’t be able to join us during our last session & graduation.

I’m definitely gonna miss Chef Kat. She’s motherly and do give reminders in a kind way. I appreciate it!

So French Cuisine is something I’m not comfortable in cooking in as I’ve always cooked Asian dishes. But I’m glad I got a chance to whip up some dishes from France. I was tasked to take on French Onion Soup & Salad Nicoise.

I was multi-tasking as both dishes needed so much prep work. This is the first time I sought help from my teammates as I run out of time, haha!

So first, the French Onion Soup.

We needed at least 40 minutes to caramelize the onions. I was very afraid that it might burn but the teacher said not to worry and it really should be brown in color. Then, we add chicken stock to the dish, add spices and season with salt & pepper. Continue to simmer for a couple more minutes before serving.

To serve, we need to pour some soup into the ramekins/small bowls. Then we put bread on top, then lots and lots and lots of cheese on top. We can either bake it or blow torch to finish the French onion soup.

The result looked pretty! My teammate added a bit of parsley on top for a pop of color. At the end, the soup tasted great but I wished I followed my gut and not over-caramelized the onions coz it felt a lil burnt though not as obvious. I’m gonna make this again at home! 🧅 🍲

And this is the 2nd dish, Salad Nicoise.

Prep is no joke for Salad Nicoise. I had to clean all the veggies. Chop the lettuce and place in chiller. Had to boil potatoes, peel them then chop. Had to chop the ends then blanch the green beans. Had to chop the peppers and sweat them. Then I mix the potatoes, green beans and peppers together. Then I prepared the tuna, coated it generously with thyme, pepper and salt, flash fry to keep the middle raw then chop. Prep the tomatoes, eggs, olives and the dressing (comprised of white wine, garlic, salt, pepper & olive oil). Then plate them by arranging them neatly. I did make a mistake of plating them in a soup bowl, should have done it in a white plate.

Taste-wise, I’m very much pleased with the result! It was yummy and I love how I gambled with the spices and it ended up super well! I loved the spiciness and the flavor of the salad that came out! I usually shy away from salads but I might reconsider! And I had good feedback from my teacher, teammates and family! 😃