Dominque

We spent 8 hours at the Luxumburg Gardens last Saturday, enjoying the sun and each other - not to mention several bottles of wine!

Nina

Nina and Henrique take a quick nap during out time in the park.

Gardens

The Luxumburn Gardens are so beautiful this time of year. All the flowers are in bloom and there are hundreds of places to sit.

Sauteed Beef

Filets wrapped with ham on a bed of salsify and chorizo. The tall skinny things are fried salsify. I had a hard time getting my plating right with dish. For some reason, nothing seemed to be in harmony.

Macaron Cake

This is a giant macaron cake. Inside the two macarons is a layer of chocolate mousse and pistachio creme brulee.

Chefs

The chefs check in on our class and give Dominique a squeeze. The chef in the middle is a visiting pastry chef from Maxims. We actually met him when we were given a tour of the restaurant after graduation from Intermediate. I can usually talk him into taking home all my cusines dishes since I don't want to eat them.

Hake with Parma

Filets of hake are wrapped with parma ham and served with grilled eggplants and a tomato-based sauce.

Pastry Work

Dominique and Susan put the finishing touches on pistachio cakes. This class was part of our studies on restaurant petits fours.

Pistachio Financiers

Here's a close up of the little pistachio finaciers. They're topped with a white chocolate ganache and raspberries. Traditionally these little desserts are served with coffee at good restaurants.

Chocolate Macarons

We got to make macarons again for the petits fours class. These are chocolate ones with pistachio butter cream. They turned out beautifully!!

Rouget

Roget filets are topped with spices and pan fried. We served them on a bed of guacamole and fried grapes. This recipe was supposed to be French with Mexican influences, but I've never heard of Mexicans frying grapes before!

Brochettes

Here we're practicing plated desserts in restaurants. These are pineapple and mango brochettes with pineapple mango sorbet. The chef wasn't overly pleased with my plate because the fruit wasn't big enough. I would have to agree.

Financiers

My second plated dessert turned out much better. These are pistachio financiers with a raspberry chocolate ganache, raspberry coulis, and chocolate crisp. The chef was thrilled with my presentation, but when he picked up the plate, he wasn't happy. I had forgotten to clean off the counter before I put the plate down, so the bottom was all sticky. My grade paid the price, but at least I learned my lesson.

Gormet Dinner

After two Saturday classes and a boatload of grocery shopping, Ashley and I chill out with a good old American dinner. Here we have fake flake fried chicken, Ranch dressing, pasta and some fabulous Laurent-Perrier champagne. Okay, the champagne wasn't American, but boy did it taste good!

Cheers

Here we are enjoying our fabulous dinner. It was a well deserved treat after a hard day.