Janice Provost, chef/owner of Parigi Restaurant on Oak Lawn, just returned from a Parisian holiday, where surely she discovered a few new ideas for summertime recipes. While away she sent an email about her adventure in a Le Cordon Bleu cooking class.
For all of us wanna be cooks with Top Chef dreams in our head, I found this encouraging and inspiring from her eloquent instructor, along with Janice’s adherence to the advice:
Chef said it all…you cook with your senses. You cook with your sense of timing; you cook with love; with touch, smell, hearing, and taste. There are no timers in this kitchen; you just learn it and you know. Allo? C’est perfect!
I loved him from that moment on.
It is true. You know when you know, and when you know, it is a gift.
My monk fish was smaller than everyone else’s. So, I pulled mine out about 7 minutes before everyone else. No one told me to, I just knew. Our translator just looked at me, surely figuring our instructor would correct me…. However, I knew with residual heat that my monk was listo, and I was so correcto.
Chef complimented me on the removal, and told everyone else that the timing was based on the above mentioned criteria.
Fantastique Janice! Can’t wait to see what dishes, filled with love, pop up on your menu.
