Dual Demo

On Saturday the 10^th, I had signed up to attend a free demonstration at school, in which both the Superior Cuisine chef, Chef Didier, and the Superior Pastry chef, Chef Hervé, would show us their favorite festive dishes for the holidays.

I was very excited for the demo, especially after dropping Chad off at the airport that morning (he flew back to Iowa to defend his Masters at the Univeristy).  Not only was the demo going to be interesting and fun, but it also meant two hours less that I was to spend in an empty apartment.

Filling a mold with exotic fruit filling

Before arriving, we only knew that the dishes would be “festive.”  Once the demo had begun, we learned that Chef Hervé would be making an “Exotica Christmas Log” with macarons and fresh exotic fruits, and Chef Didier would demonstrate “Stuffed Duck Breast with Salsifis and Pomme Dauphin.”  Chef Hervé passed out pages with the ingredient quantities for the Christmas Log and Chef Didier had a student write his ingredient list on a whiteboard propped on a tall easel. 

The demo itself was great fun, fast-paced and full of energy.  Since there were only two hours allotted for the little class, the Chefs had to work on their dishes simultaneously in order to finish on time.  One would talk us through a procedure and let it rest or simmer or keep whipping, and the other would take over for a few minutes.  This method worked out well, especially since the duck and potatoes needed to spend time in the oven and on the stove. 

What is this mysterious root vegetable?

About a third of the way through the demo, there was a huge mystery: Chef Didier, who doesn’t speak English very well, so avoids it when at all possible, started to prepare the “Salsifis.”  He held up a long, skinny, dark brown, branch-looking root that my friends and I did not recognize.  He peeled a few of the roots, sliced them, and began to prepare them.  For the rest of the class, we were baffled:  What on Earth is that vegetable?  Even after the dish was finished and we each got a taste, I still didn’t recognize the (incredibly rich and delicious) mysterious “Salsify.”  I did some research, and now we can all benefit from this great mystery!

Salsify, also called Goatsbeard or Tragopogon, is a type of plant related to the sunflower family!  “Salsify” itself is the edible root of these flowering plants, which are, many times, mistaken for weeds.  In that regard, I like to think of Salsify as the “Dandelion Leaf Salad” of root vegetables.  If you’d like to read more, HERE is the Wikipedia article.

Tasting Chef Didier’s duck dish was glorious.  I had only tasted such things in fancy restaurants on vacation, and I definitely plan on trying to recreate a version of this dish at home someday (minus the über-expensive black truffle he cooked with the salsify).  The duck breast was stuffed with the most heavenly stuffing, which was nothing like any stuffing I had ever seen.  It was chicken breast-based, and the Chef had to pipe it into the duck, where it cooked through.  The Pomme Dauphin was basically a large patty of hashbrowned, seasoned potatoes that the Chef cut into triangular slices.  If the demo would have been excruciatingly boring, eating my tiny plate of duck would have made it worth it.

My beautiful duck (center), Salsifis with black truffle and
Chorizo (right), and Pomme Dauphin (left)

The Pomme Dauphin was like gourmet hash-browns 

Chef Hervé’s Exotica Christmas Log turned out completely different than I had expected.  Having not seen our Christmas Log demo, I expected him to roll the cake with filling and ice the outside to look like wood.  Rather, he baked a cake with a seseme seed crust which added the perfect amount of texture.  The “log” was flat on the bottom, and the cake itself merely served as a barrier for the exuberant amount of chocolate mousse and tropical-fruit-purée filling on the inside.  My slice of cake was pretty tasty (I LOVED the fruit filling), but the cake-to-other-stuff ratio was just too unbalanced for me.

Quite a lot of chocolate and filling for a tiny bit of cake, but the
macaron was lovely (and I could eat the filling by itself!)

The sesame seeds gave a nice texture to the dish

The logs were garnished with fresh exotic fruits and macarons

The most exciting thing was to see Chef Hervé’s macaron demonstration.  I absolutely cannot wait until our Intermediate Pastry macaron lesson – I am obsessed with those little guys!

After the class was finished, I took a stroll in the little park across the street from the school and took some Fall photos.  It’s a lovely little place – definitely picnic worthy in the Spring!

A nice bench for a little lunchtime snack!

The park is right on the river, which made for some nice views

Overall, the Dual Demo was a fabulous way to pass the afternoon, and a great spirit-lifter after seeing Chad leave indefinitely.