Tag Archives: Paul Bocuse

End of an Era – Dinner at 3 Star Michelin Restaurant Paul Bocuse

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Erica and I remembered that we are ladies and went out to dinner with Paul Bocuse. This restaurant has had 3 Michelin stars since 1965.

I’m on the train for Paris as we speak – the TGV, the fast train that like Lenin’s sealed train from Vienna to St. Petersburg, doesn’t stop and that goes straight from Lyon to Paris in two hours.  This train zooms comfortably through a gorgeous day outside – about 65 degrees and sunny, and a Very Kind Man hauled my impossibly heavy bag onto the rack for me.

I tried to pack lightly and given the length of the trip, I really did.  I brought the ends of bottles of shampoo, makeup, face soap, deodorant, contact solution, hairspray from St. Louis, then threw all of them and my smouldering brand-new hair dryer away this morning and will get new ones tonight in Paris after I get to the apartment.  However, despite the fact that I gave away a bunch of the cooking equipment, two books, the striped chef’s pants, the clogs that weighed a good 6 pounds and the heavy backpack case they all came in, I STILL managed to collect more stuff.  I stuffed in my aprons, four towels to hang on your belt, the two chefs ‘ jackets and of course a bunch of Lyonnaise silk mousseline scarves (they’re light, they’re small!) and the 5 pound Complete Paul Bocuse cookbook that 88 year old Paul Bocuse signed for me, “A Martha, Le bonheur est dans la cuisine [Happiness is in the kitchen, or in the cooking.] Paul Bocuse.”  We didn’t get to meet him when we went to his restaurant and toured the beautiful kitchen and met the MOF who runs the kitchen.  Chef Bocuse had a serious back operation this spring and is in a rehab center.  And he still signed books for us.  Very precious books.

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The entrance to the Paul Bocuse Restaurant. It’s very bright.

We went to his restaurant on Thursday night – the night before our last day of cooking.  It’s the only 3-star Michelin restaurant in Lyon and it feels very much like the way it was when Julia and Paul Child ate there.  There is a wall of perhaps 8-10 murals in the courtyard as you enter the restaurant with great chefs and descriptions of them.  The light was shining on my American heroes, James Beard and Julia Child, so the pictures didn’t come out.  But Erica and I are here with Paul Bocuse and friends.

The Michelin star system is as brutal as the competition for the MOF (meillure ouvrier de France, see the entry “Polite and Practically Perfect, below).

You can see the outlines of my heroes, Julia Child and James Beard in the Bocuse restaurant courtyard.

You can see the outlines of my heroes, Julia Child and James Beard in the Bocuse restaurant courtyard.

It’s a wildly rare honor to have one star, let alone three, and losing a star is horrific.  A famous chef committed suicide several years ago after he lost a star and descended from three to two.  The pressure is tremendous.  The restaurants try to keep their presentation fresh, absolutely chic, creative, modern, with every detail compulsively perfect.

The inside of the restaurant. Erica, Jerome, Anna, Chef Patrick, Hiromi

The inside of the restaurant. Erica, Jerome, Anna, Chef Patrick, Hiromi

Stars add to bookings, stars add enormously to the amount restaurants can charge, stars add to the reputation of the chef.  Three stars is the apex of the pyramid.  Paul Bocuse has been given the [I think unprededented] honor of having three lifetime stars.  The other example of amazing-in-the-star-department is next-generation chef Alain Ducasse, in whose school I’ll be studying for five days in Paris.  Ducasse, also author of many cook books, is the only chef to have NINE Michelin stars concurrently – three each for three restaurants for which he’s chef de cuisine (one is the beautiful restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.  He’s another culinary and PR genius.

But back to Paul Bocuse – it’s an old-fashioned restaurant, with the classic food, presentation, and ambiance.  And it’s absolutely full.  We went on Thursday night, and virtually every table was booked.  Here’s my dessert:

My dessert - strawberries & raspberries, raspberry coulis with

My dessert – strawberries & raspberries, raspberry coulis with, of course, creme.

We had dinner with the whole class and Chef Patrick – very fun.  I had a beautiful lobster starter, then loup (sea bass) with a bernaise sauce flavored with a little tomato in a pastry crust.  That was staggeringly good.  Then cheeses, then dessert, then coffee.  I kept imaging the Childs, and James Beard, and my grandparents eating the same food in the same room, laughing with friends over fabulous food – having a wonderful evening. It happened.  It all happened.

Last days at L’Institut Paul Bocuse

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Chef David assembling a franboise religeuse. We thought the pink little topknots (with real gold leaf on the forehead, a la halo) looked like Barbie Doll pink. Really, the German came up with that one.

 

Chef David with the nougat He quit smoking 8 years ago, but still chews on swizzle sticks.

Chef David with the nougat He quit smoking 8 years ago, but still chews on swizzle sticks.

What a beautiful last week.  It was pastry week, with Chef David, head pastry chef for 12 years in a 3 star Michelin restaurant near Bresse, north of Lyon. (Remember?  That’s where the best chickens in the world are raised.)  We’d all been foundering with the staggering quantities of foie gras and truffles, but I’m here to tell you that a surfeit of sugar tasting is (a) a fun change, (b) strange.

I was chef (head of the team) for the day we made the framboise religeuse. Here we are, David is the tall one. I'm taller than Hiromi.

I was chef (head of the team) for the day we made the framboise religeuse. Here we are, David is the tall one. I’m taller than Hiromi.

You start craving salty things and protein and telling everybody NOT to make a plate for you of the framboise religeuses (“raspberry nuns”) or the tartes aux cinq chocolates.  I was the chef in charge of a team of five making the lovely, creamy, raspberryish framboise religeuses, and the thought of eating a whole one after testing bits of the six component parts of that dessert all day was oppressive.  Erica brought plates of salty crackers and Guiness beer cheese to cut the sugar the last two days.  We were actually hungry for lunch for the first time since we got to L’Institut Paul Bocuse.  Protein is a great thing.  But sugar is incredibly fun to work with.

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Here are typical cuisine ingredient (also, fish, rabbits, beef, veal, crustacians.

The oddest thing is that you shift ingredient palates.  We’d been grabbing olive oil and salt and pepper, meat, fish and sauté pans with impunity for two weeks.  (Parethetically, “pepper” is pronounced “paper” with a French accent.

Or here - THIS is cuisine. That would be veal, lamb, beef, risotto with seafood and other various and assorted trifles.

Or here – THIS is cuisine. That would be veal, lamb, beef, risotto with seafood and other various and assorted trifles.

The first week Chef Patrick asked (in English) for “paper” and I dashed to get him the roll of rough gray paper towels.  He started laughing, put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I know my English is bad, but I want PAPER, white PAPER.”  Oh,sorry, I laughed and went and got him a couple of sheets of the white parchment paper under the counter.  He then led me by the arm to the salt and pepper by the windows.  “Paper,” he said, “paper.”)

THIS would be party, and our darling Elodie, who some started calling our "baby chef.: What a misnomer. She can outlook all of us with one hand tied behind her back.

THIS would be pastry, and our darling Elodie, who some started calling our “baby chef.”  How misleading! She can outlook almost everyone with one hand tied behind her back.

Anyway, we’d been developing great comfort with all the cuisine ingredients and the ways to cut and cook and slice and carve them.  This week we’ve been in vanilla, pectin (did you know there are two kinds?), flour and fruit land.  However, I can now report authoritatively that the constant in all French cooking, both cuisine and patisserie, is butter and cream.  BUTTER and CREAM.  In staggering quantities.

The next door neighbor class reciprocated with an invitation to taste shrimp and oysters on Wednesday after I gave them our tray of little glasses of fancy desserts on Tuesday.

The next door neighbor class invited us to taste shrimp and oysters on Wednesday after I gave them our tray of little glasses of fancy desserts on Tuesday.

The other class. On the left is my friend from the Ivory Coast. He SMOKED the final test this week. Hotcha!

The other class. On the left is my friend from the Ivory Coast. He SMOKED the final test this week. Hotcha!

The other difference with doing pastry work rather than cuisine is that people stand outside our kitchen, elbows propped on window sills, eyeing you like starving children.  I started making loads of friends when I noticed the voyeurs.  I’d swoop over, scoop up a couple of macarons or little choux pastries, or tiny glasses of mousse-y things and would pass them out the door.  Instant delight!  I gave my box of a dozen little macarons to the receptionists at the hotel.  (Macarons seem to be the most popular sweet thing in France.  They’re almond cookies held together with different fillings.  We made some with raspberry jam and chocolate hazelnut ganache on Wednesday.)  I came downstairs 20 minutes later to put in a load of laundry and the receptionist was in the breakfast room, covering her mouth with her hand and chewing.  She said they were the three best macarons she had ever tasted.  Your stock is really high when you can impress is French woman with your cooking.  Many try, few succeed.  I’m here to tell you, that’s fun.

Here was our 6 component death by chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream. Iyt was really, really good.

Here was our 6 component death by chocolate tarte with vanilla ice cream. It was really, really good.

So it has been a great week.  David is a terrific teacher.  We did classic creams and pastries and doughs and chocolate things enough times to really get a feel for the themes and variations.  The class was beautifully structured, he had us all divide into teams and mis-en-place the ingredients (put them into little bowls and get everything organized and weighed), then we’d watch the team explain the process and make whatever it was we’d prepared, with David assisting.  I can’t imagine him doing a better job of teaching.  And oh, did I learn a lot.  There are huge subtleties with pastry – exact quantities and really precise temperaturesand ways of stirring are paramount.  The stuff is fragile.

This is three components of a 6 component chocolate dessert (there's a cookie on the tart, under the dark chocolate mousse.

This is three components of a 6 component chocolate dessert (there’s a cookie on the tart, under the dark chocolate mousse.  But look t those crusts!

My pastry dough is now really good – and I’ve learned the feel of working with it the right way – with the 90 degree angles of very thin pastry.  That was worth the price of admission.

Raymond from Luxembourg didn't seem to have the problem with sugar overload. He's quite the chocolate guy and whipped cream worked for him, too. He kept running 15 kilometers after school, so things do even out.

Raymond from Luxembourg didn’t seem to have the problem with sugar overload. He’s quite the chocolate guy and whipped cream worked for him, too. He kept running 15 kilometers after school, so things do even out.

 

 

I’m sorry we didn’t do boulangerie – bread and croissant making, which is what I know most about.  It’s a completely different discipline in France than cuisine and patisserie, but I got to revisit my favorite baker in Lyon, who toured me through his kitchen last January and gave me his proportions, timings and the secrets of “levain liquid” (starter, but not to the sour degree of sourdough starter – quite a different taste).

It had been an incredible three weeks.  I’m so grateful that I was able to do this first.  It has given me a basis for all the rest of the cooking I’ll be doing.  One of the greatest gifts of the time has been the new friends – our class was wonderful.  We all spent this last week having that end of camp feeling.  We’re done, and we did well.  And it was great.

It's done!