{"id":43631,"date":"2020-01-08T18:21:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T23:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=43631"},"modified":"2020-01-08T17:24:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T22:24:42","slug":"cooking-tips-from-a-french-chef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=43631","title":{"rendered":"Cooking Tips From A French Chef"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post contains cooking tips from a French chef.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hello, everyone. I am actually typing this post while I wait for my flight from Charlotte home to Lexington.\u00a0\u00a0 I had such a good visit with Jordan, and she had a great birthday. Today\u2019s topic is a fun one for me. When I took a cooking class in Paris in November, the chef had lots of little tips to share with us, and I thought it would be nice to share them with you. So, get ready for some cooking tips from a French chef.<\/p>\n

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Share Your Tastes With Others<\/h2>\n

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Chef Fredric said that when you cook for others, you are sharing your tastes with them. You are cooking for yourself and then sharing. He said to cook food so that it tastes good to you. Then hopefully, others will think it tastes good, too. That makes sense, doesn\u2019t it? For instance, if we didn\u2019t want to experience new tastes, we would never go to a restaurant. It\u2019s the same thing when we cook for others. It\u2019s new tastes for them.<\/p>\n

Slice \u2013 Don\u2019t Chop<\/h2>\n

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When you are dicing or cutting up food, slice it rather than chop it. It is safer for your fingers, and that\u2019s what a knife is meant to do. This was the first thing he showed us, and I learned that I have been doing it wrong all of these years.<\/p>\n

Bring the Food to You<\/h2>\n

When you are preparing food, bring the food to you rather than taking your knife or other equipment to it.\u00a0 It’s safer and more comfortable for you.<\/p>\n

Organize Before<\/h2>\n

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Have all of your ingredients, utensils, measuring cups and spoons, pots and pans out and ready when you begin preparing to cook. Organizing before you begin makes everything go faster.<\/p>\n

Use the Freshest Ingredients<\/h2>\n

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Chef Fredric goes to the market every day. Lucky for him, there\u2019s a market outside of his apartment two days a week, and on the other days, he hops on the metro, which is also right outside his apartment, and goes to a market in another neighborhood. He only buys what looks good to him. On the day we were there, he purchased just one zucchini and one carrot because they were the only veggies that looked good to him. Ha!!! We julienned the carrot and zucchini, sauteed them, and spooned a coconut\/cilantro sauce that we made over them.\u00a0 Sooooo good.\u00a0 A similar julienned vegetable peeler is available here.<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 We also cooked fresh scallops and fresh passion fruit souffl\u00e9. He lives near a bakery and knows exactly when their baguettes come out of the oven. He stopped our cooking lesson for 10 minutes while he went to the bakery and bought a hot baguette.<\/p>\n

Have the Right Equipment<\/h2>\n

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This one is self explanatory. If you do a lot of baking, have a good mixer, good pans, and a good oven, etc.\u00a0 We loved the metal trivets that he used.\u00a0 Similar ones are available here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Use Sharp Knives<\/h2>\n

Make sure you sharpen your knives regularly because it is easier to slice and dice when the knives are sharp.<\/p>\n

Enhance Your Food<\/h2>\n

Lemon or lime zest added to a salad brings out the flavor. I used a zester just like this one<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0 A touch of nutmeg added to mashed potatoes is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Use Sugar<\/h2>\n

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Instead of using flour on a cake pan to prevent sticking, Chef Fredric recommends dusting the pan with sugar. Specifically, he used vanilla sugar which he made by putting a vanilla bean in a jar of sugar to let the sugar take in a hint of vanilla flavor.\u00a0 You can buy vanilla beans here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mustard<\/h2>\n

If you are a lover of French mustard, Chef recommends Maille, which is available in certain U. S. supermarkets and specialty shops.\u00a0 It’s available here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Heat the Plates<\/h2>\n

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Always heat your plates in the oven before you put food on them. It\u2019s an easy way to keep the food warm.<\/p>\n

Chef Fredric is not a fan of the way Americans eat. He does not trust all of the additives that are in our food. Did you know that GMOs and certain pesticides and insecticides that we use are not allowed in the European Union? That\u2019s one to think about.<\/p>\n

We booked our French cooking class through a company called \u201cMeeting the French.”<\/a><\/span>\u00a0 It offers several experiences, and we were very happy with ours. Our class consisted of just my friend and me, but sometimes the class will be larger.\u00a0 We hope you enjoyed our cooking tips from a French chef.<\/p>\n

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Take care.<\/p>\n

Affiliate links used at no extra cost to you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post contains cooking tips from a French chef. Hello, everyone. I am actually typing this post while I wait for my flight from Charlotte home to Lexington.\u00a0\u00a0 I had such a good visit with Jordan, and she had a great birthday. Today\u2019s topic is a fun one for me. When I took a cooking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[26,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43631"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43631"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43647,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43631\/revisions\/43647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}