The Finer Things of France

Well, while you are reading this post, I am on my way to Paris and the South of France for quite a while. Oh don’t get so excited. You are not getting a break from listening to my rants. I plan to bug you even more. Before I left ,and to get me in the mood for a culinary dream, I got one of my favorite presents. Guess what it was? A shirt? Cool shoes, a Manly Man Gadget, IPad (Ugh!), Table Top Book on the World’s Ugliest Small Dogs????? Nope. Cooking lessons from Chef Gina Mika. Yeah me!

Chef Gina Mika

Chef Gina is a graduate from The Laguna Culinary School, in duh!, Laguna Beach, CA. Her mission was to teach me how to prepare Sir Thomas Keller’s famous roasted chicken, a white wine, scallion, cream sauce, and a challenging Lemon Tart. How did we do?
First the whole chicken: After a very thorough cleaning and very, very thorough drying(thats super important), I seasoned my bird. Sea Salt, and ground pepper that rained down like a spring shower (important again, let it drop down to the bird from about 18 inches), and Herbs de Provence inside and out.. Then in a black iron skillet and into the convection oven at a whopping 450 degrees for 60 minutes. That high temp is what will crisp up the skin to perfection.

TK’s Roasted Whole Chicken

Next the sauce. In one pot, I took the white wine and scallions and cooked them down to a syrup. In the other pot, butter, heavy cream, and chopped flat leaf parsley. And at the perfect moment, combined the two together. Just in case the sauce was not thick enough, Chef Gina had me prepare a Roux Blanche on the side. But, fortunately my genius teacher had given me the perfect instructions and it was delicious.

French Sauce

After whipping up some potatoes in a lemon and butter marinade and some quick sauteed veggies, we plated our delicious meal for your viewing.

J’ai Fini

And if you were by chance wondering about the Lemon Tart:

Lemon Tart

So keep your eyes out for some short but special posts on my trip to France. I am going to do my best to communicate every other day if I have something to say. But let’s just hope I don’t find that famous road in the South of France loaded with all of those vineyards.

Au Revoir

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