La guilde culinaire

I had been eying  this new cooking school for a while as they advertise “Rencontres gourmandes”…it sounds like speed dating in a kitchen… Unfortunately, as they were taking forever to organize such events I decided to settle for a cooking class.

I chose the “Macarons” class given by Christophe Morel. Before you go googling this, allow me to do it for you:

“Dating back to the 18th century, the macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder icing sugar and sugar. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts’ baker’s oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base, but thy are not as dry as meringues, there is a bit of chewyness to them.

Macarons, also anglicized “macaroons”, are not to be confused with a similar pastry also called macaroons. Macarons are sandwich-like pastries made with two thin cookies and a cream or ganache  between the cookies. Macaroons are dense cookies made either with coconut or with a coarse almond paste.

Macarons come in a wide variety of flavors varying by store and season; ranging from traditional to exotic.”

Because the entire class was devoted to these, we had the opportunity to experiment with several flavours and colours. We made natural, pink, yellow and green. Pastels used to be fashionable but it seems that nowadays bright  almost fluo colours are popular. As for fillings, we made the chocolate ganache flavoured with ginger (both fresh and candied),  a traditional lemon cream filling, a berry jam filling, a strawberry ice cream filling, and an olive oil ice cream filling which was quite original. We also made two savory fillings: one was smoked salmon with sour cream, and the other was foie gras with apples. When making the macarons for these last two we put a bit less sugar in the dough and sprinkled some coarse salt over the pieces before baking them. I personally prefer the sweet ones.

The kitchen is clean, airy and cheerful, the ambiance is relaxed, the staff is welcoming and the chefs get everyone involved. It was a very hands-on experience which is what I look for in a cooking class.

I forgot my camera at the office so I do not have photos of the lesson. I could kick myself as it was very pretty to look at. I only have the green take home rejects  to show.

Another original thing this school offers is the possibility to come and make a week’s worth of meals to take home. The school chooses the dishes, buys the ingredients, devises the recipes, provides support and containers. So people can fill their fridge for a week’s worth of meals in a few hours, without having to bother with meal planning,  food shopping or dish washing…

I will definitely keep an eye on their website.

https://www.laguildeculinaire.com/fr/accueil