Cuisine Program at ESCF-Ferrandi

I started my culinary program at ESCF-Ferrandi about 2 weeks ago. A few of my classmates/friends have started blogs on their living experience in Paris and their day to day life at school (see links below)  ... but as this is a more general blog, I thought I would create an entry on some overal specifics of the program that I'm enrolled in and have found myself in love with!

The cuisine program has been designed to train individuals intensively for 5 months to obtain professional cooking skills in order to gain a Stage (internship) at a restaurant in Paris or elsewhere in France for 6 months, and upon completing the program to obtain an entry level position at a french kitchen. We have been warned many many times that during our stage and after that, our lives as chefs are not going to be easy. You have to be very passionate for this profession or you wont survive ...

On the first day of school, during the orientation, it was explained that the program has two main philosophies: Le Savoir-Faire (the know-how) and Le Savoir-Etre (knowledge of being). While le savoir-faire is gaining the means of how the tasks are done, le savoir-être is the knowledge of your presence in the kitchen, the flow of tasks and the relationship with the other staff (team work). Both philosophies are practiced on a daily basis in our kitchens at the school and are getting us ready for our real-life kitchen experience.

Our cuisine program has 20 students which are divided into two groups: Anglo A with chef Sebastien and Anglo B with chef Stephane (my class). Students are from all over the world! USA, Canada, Venezuela, Ecuador, Spain, England, Ireland, Romania, Australia, Philippines. In our schedules we have a variety of courses: TP Demo (practical classes), Technologie Applique (theory classes), Pâtisserie (pastry), Boulangerie (bakery), Oenologie (wine science), French and a bit of French geography and history. TP Demo is what takes most of our time (and energy). 5 hour practical classes in which we learn techniques, recipes, and cook along with our chef. Once the cooking is done, we have to clean our mise en place (personal space/set up), the kitchen and the garde manger (the big pantry attached to the kitchen)

In the first two weeks, we have had 2 boulangerie classes (start time 6:30 a.m) in which we're made many different types of bread including: baguette regular, baguette tradition, petits pains, pain viennois

2 pastry classes: in one we made tarte aux pommes (apple tart) and in the second we made mille feuilles and a strip tart

And in our TP classes, we have made many different types of soups and stocks. After soups, we will start making the basic sauces and I'm hoping after that we will do more fish/meats.

Every other friday, we have a regional menu meal, in which an area of france is chosen, a 4 course meal is prepared by us and at the end we sit with our chef and eat and drink that region's wine! The first region is Provence and me and one of my classmates are making lemon sorbet and lemon macarons for desert!

There are other fun extras that come with this program: boucherie and charcuterie classes, a visit to Marché d'intérêt National de Rungis (largest wholesale food market in the world) and the best of all, a three-day excursion to a region of France (still a secret ... last term, the students were taken to Bretagne in north west of France)

Of course there is much more to the program, but unfortunately I can't summarize everything in one post. So please, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask! Here are some more blogs for your information on Ferrandi:

Emily: http://www.thegirlwhoateparis.com/
Cassandra: http://oysterbeat.tumblr.com/
Diana: http://www.dianaisnotachef.com/

Jade (she went to school right before us and I don't actually know her, but her blog is as detailed as a blog could get!) http://onespoonfulatatime.blogspot.com/