My wife and I both love to cook. Fortunately for me, she is a great cook and I only cook on special occasions or when I lose a bet to her. My wife recently enrolled in the Sauces class at The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories in Santa Monica and I captured the experience.
The Gourmandise School of Sweets and Savories is located on the third floor of Santa Monica Place next to the ARClight theaters. The Gourmandise School offers hands-on cooking classes in Los Angeles, California for beginners to professionals. They focus on teaching classic techniques and use locally sourced ingredients.
Our teacher, Gill Boyd, has impressive credentials, He attended Cordon Bleu Paris and completed an externship in England. Gill has taught at Le Cordon Bleu Los Angeles for nine and a half years and during that time he was the Head Chef of the Farmers Kitchen in Hollywood. He is a Certified Executive Chef and Certified Culinary Administrator.
Students were set up in pairs. In addition, two sous chefs constantly circled the floor making sure that we had all of the ingredients we needed and answered questions. My wife was teamed with a lady by the name of Jane. While she was very nice and appreciative, she was experiencing a lot of back pain which made it difficult for her to do certain tasks. She and my wife divvied up the tasks as they arrived.
Chef Gill showed us the technique and we got to apply what we learned
Chef Gill broke us in with an easy first dish – French-style aioli with roasted potatoes. Instead of using pre-made mayonnaise, we made ours with egg yolks, a garlic clove, salt and extra virgin olive oil. Once the whisking completed, the aioli sauce was drizzled over roasted potatoes seasoned with olive oil, salt, and finely minced rosemary. I found myself eating most of these!
My wife [pictured right] is grilling shrimp
Using the mini food processor to make the romesco sauce
We quickly moved from an aioli sauce to a romesco sauce. This Catalan sauce reflects the country’s typical ingredients: tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, toasted blanched almonds, piquillo peppers and sherry vinegar. The tomatoes were quartered and roasted. All of the ingredients were placed in a food processor and blended. My wife grilled shrimp and served it with the romesco sauce. The shrimp was perfect, but the almonds in the romesco weren’t chopped fine, so the sauce was a bit thick.
poaching an egg
Polenta topped with salsa verde and a soft cooked egg
Salsa Verde quickly transitioned us to Mexico, but Chef Gill surprised us by combining this with polenta. Making the polenta involved a lot of stirring, but my wife was up to the task. An anchovy fillet was combined with garlic, capers, parsley, basil, lemon zest, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and run through a food processor. The polenta was served in a bowl and topped with salsa verde and a soft-cooked egg. I’d definitely try making the salsa verde again.
Chef Gill showing us how to make a port wine reduction sauce
In addition to learning how to make hollandaise, we had fun grilling chicken and making a balsamic port reduction sauce. There we deglazed the pan to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan when cooking the meat while adding vinegar and port wine. After reducing the liquid, we added chicken stock and finally a pat of butter. The sauce was poured over the chicken breast and was absolutely delicious. Best of all, it’s easy to make.
Professional Fry Pans
The school is clean and contains quite a bit of top rate equipment such as stainless steel fry pans, Kitchenaid mixers and choppers. Best of all, they had really sharp knives. That made chopping and slicing a breeze. The sous chefs pre-measured most of the spices, liquids, oil, and wine that we would use and that really allowed us to maximize the use of the time allotted. What I liked the most was the fact that Chef Gill was informative, energetic and extremely down to earth.
The Gourmandise School is open 7 days a week and has their schedule listed online. They have a wide variety of classes such as sushi, introduction to macarons, vegetarian cooking, canning, flourless cakes, classes for kids and many more! I just learned that the Gourmandise School has outgrown their present location and will relocate within Santa Monica Place to an area that is twice the size of their present location. They are due to open later this month.
The Gourmandise School, 395 Santa Monica Place, #329, Santa Monica; 310.656.8800
http://thegourmandiseschool.com/