Mougins - Gourmet On Tour

Incredibly eager to begin our cooking lesson with a Michelin Star Chef,  Jeremy and I arrived at the front desk of La Mas Candille promptly at 9:15 AM on Saturday morning. After what felt like a very long (and really was, even for Jeremy & Nicole Time, which is 15-20 minutes late) we were greeted by a little French man named Frederic, and a taller French man, Fabian. “I am chef,” said Fredereic. “And You’re your driver today, blah blah blah...” That was Fabian. He spoke pretty good English. Poor Frederic, his English “did not make” so good. But no worries! Part 1 of our gastronomic day in the kitchen and cellars was underway!

To begin, we took a trip into Cannes to Le Marchet, where we learned / confirmed that France has better vegetables than the USA. Especially eggplant. The French actually call their bad eggplants American eggplants. Very sad. NOTE: Jeremy and I don’t think that those American eggplants are a good representation of what you can find in, per se, San Francisco. And we vow to remind the French whenever possible that without USA grape vines, all the A.O.Cs would be making Beaujolais.

We basically spent an hour or so following Frederic around the market, pointing at things that looked good. In turn, Frederic would talk to the merchants, get us a free sample, and if we liked it, he would buy it. By the end of our shopping trip, we purchased peaches, melon (a French kind that looked nothing like any melon we have in the USA), eggplant, tomato, zucchini flowers (very typical, but something we had never seen), various olive tapenade, tomato and garlic confit, goat cheese, comte cheese, and finally, a small little red rouget (fish), straight from le mer. Since we don’t cook much fish for ourselves, we thought it would be a good topic for the cooking lesson.

Oh, and was it a good cooking lesson! We got back to the hotel restaurant kitchen, where we were presented aprons and a bottle of rose. In all honesty, we didn’t really cook much in this cooking lesson. In addition, we also unfortunately didn’t learn that much during this cooking lesson. However, we did eat a lot, and that was pretty amazing. Here’s the list of things that we chopped and gave to Frederic to cook…

1. Tempura Fried Zucchini Blossoms (We prepped the blossoms, Frederic deep fried them.)
2. Pan Seared Foie Gras with Carmelized Peaches (We cut the peaches…)
3. Rouget w/ Comte Cheese Served over Tomato and Zucchini (We cut the tomato and zucchini…)
4. Langoustine over Beet Root with a side of Melon Soup (We cut the melon…)
5. Fried Goat Cheese over Eggplant with Veal Reduction and Basil (We didn’t do anything…

All of this food, we ate as soon as it was “done” at the Chef’s Table in the kitchen. Here is where we can tell you about the few things we actually learned during our cooking lesson.

1. First, always cook with an open bottle of wine. (Or watch someone else cook with an open bottle of wine.)
2. When cooking over the stove, use a lot of olive oil. This is easy for me, but it will require some effort on Jeremy’s part. He tends to skimp on the oil. Note to Jeremy: TRIPLE THE QUANTITY.
3. When cooking over the stove, use very high heat, and don’t cook it for very long.
4. Use your finger to tell if it is done. Which means, don’t pick your nose while you’re cooking.
5. Once you take the food off of the stove, put it in the salamander. Most important tip of the day, finish EVERYTHING in the salamander. Note to Jeremy: Although Frederic said we can substitute the broiler for the salamander, I would like a salamander in our kitchen. No more diamonds, salamander.
6. When plating food, always add rock salt. Preferably from the Mediterranean. Even if you don’t think you need to add salt, add salt. Then add some more.
7. After salting your plated food, add pepper. Crushed red pepper that kind of looks like paprika.
8. Then, drizzle lemon olive oil and/or balsamic vinaigrette on top.
9. Add a little more rock salt.
10. When eating at the Chef’s Table, don’t stand in front of the salamander. Hot as hell.

With our tummies full, we killed some time before our wine tasting class by lounging at the pool. Another hot as hell day in Provence, we spent much of the time actually IN the pool. But we hopped out around 5:00 PM to take a quick shower to make us presentable at the very swanky upcoming wine tasting in the La Candille…

The Michelin Starred Sommelier greeted us with a pail of icey cold whites and roses, as well as a bottle of red wine. Before we were allowed to taste, he presented to us several PowerPoint slides. To be honest, we didn’t learn much. Jeremy and I are apparently advanced wine tasting students! We know the basics in aroma, color, legs, varietals, etc. But it is always fun to taste new wines. And it is fun to be able to drink entire bottles during a tasting. Provence, you make many a good wine! A sante!

2010-07-17 - Gourmet on Tour in Mougins