Monday
Today is PASTA!  We made fresh pasta to perfection! When working with these two wonderful chefs, we are held to very high standards! Close to perfection, every pasta noodle is exactly the same size!
We made tagliatelle, tortellini, and ravioli!  We then divided into our groups to practice skills by making a lemon tart with a sweet pastry and a lime parfait in a honey wafer basket.
We spent time in the afternoon visiting a buckwheat mill that has been a family operation for 12 generations! This is our first evening to prepare and plate the meal. Plating is quite a new experience, also done to perfection!

Pasta making techniques

Lunch of tagliatelle, fresh bread and salad, followed by cheese and biscuits.

                                     

 

Dessert course preparation

Excursion to 19th century windmill producing buckwheat in traditional method.

Finishing dinner preparation

Evening meal

Ending the evening with fun and games!

Sunday
Filleting fish! This is a new treat for us, and quite a learning experience! Chef Maynard demonstrated how to fillet a salmon and we followed by filleting trout and mackerel. Knife skill were also learned and practiced today! We also learned seasoning techniques, bread making, and chicken butchery!  This was ALL BEFORE LUNCH at 1:30!!!

This afternoon we learned about the different kinds of stocks, prepped mussels, watched oysters being shucked, smoked fresh trout, and prepared the seafood chowder for dinner!  We have tried so many new foods already, including oysters on the half shell!

Fish and seafood prep and tasting

Bread making skills

Seasoning techniques

Leek and Potato Soup for lunch

Evening Meal

Saturday

Very good news, our luggage finally arrived! It came just in the nick of time, two minutes before we had to leave to catch our train to the next destination!

We traveled to Laval where we were to meet our hostess for the week from the Walnut Grove Cooking School.  While awaiting her arrival, we took in some local sites. We visited the Chateau De Laval and tasted our first macaroons.

Freya Harvy, Chef Harvey's wife, met us at the train station and drove us to the countryside just outside the small town of Chateau-Gontier, France.  This would be the start of our cooking school experience!  The chefs had prepared a devine 5 coarse meal for us to enjoy. We relaxed after dinner and got acquainted with the other participants for the week. We are looking forward to a great class with three ladies from England!