Day 11 of 60 | Bonjour, Paris! 🇫🇷✨
Our second full day of cooking school definitely turned up the heat, literally and figuratively. Yesterday was all about learning to properly slice an onion (and not cry in public). Today, we dove into the very foundation of French cuisine: sauces.
Specifically, we learned to make stocks, fumets, broths, and jus. For context, I normally buy my broth from Whole Foods and only encounter “jus” when I’m eating at a fancy French restaurant that knows how to pronounce it properly. So yes, making both from scratch was a very different experience.
What surprised me most? The sheer amount of chicken, veal, and veggies that go into creating a tiny amount of sauce. It’s wild. Since most of us (myself very much included) usually grab a bottle off the grocery shelf, I now have a whole new appreciation for every sauce I’ve ever tasted. Because behind that silky spoonful? Hours of work and more than a few animals in culinary heaven.
Here are a few photos and clips from today’s adventure. As you can see, we all huddle around the Chef like culinary detectives, trying to catch every detail.
Our instructor is phenomenal, a true master of the craft. He’s bilingual, but let’s just say French is his love language, so paying attention isn’t optional. You have to listen, watch, and somehow look confident while secretly translating words in your head.
And the highlight of the day? Our Chef somehow found time, in between teaching for four straight hours, to make us a fabulous lunch for 14 people (our class size). I still don’t understand how. It’s like culinary magic, or caffeine-fueled wizardry. Either way, I’m inspired.
So yes, making sauces from scratch is no joke. But that’s the beauty of it. Every reduction, every simmer, every drop of flavor is a lesson in patience, precision, and passion.
Lesson of the day: Never underestimate a sauce. Or a French chef. Or your own ability to rise to the occasion even when you only understand one in five words! I got this! 🤣
