My Pastry Course at the Ritz Escoffier School – Part 1

Did you know that the oldest cooking school in Paris is the Ritz? I bet you, it is not everyday that you get the idea to take a small course at Place Vendome in Paris. And yet! It’s open to all, and the experience is truly A-MA-ZING !!!

Since I wanted to take advantage of the moment without pointing my camera at every end, I asked to the photographer Alexis Chaillous to accompany me. To be sure he says “yes”, I think I had to add something like “It’s happening at the Ritz! 😉 ” at the end of my sms . Banco! Tuesday morning 9am he was there not to miss a crumb of the 4 hours of classes that awaited us. And I think he was just as excited as I was for the idea of discovering the places and the program called:

“Les pâtisseries d’Auguste”

Auguste Escoffier, the head chef of the Ritz’s cuisines, is famously known for introducing our cuisine internationally. In other words, we will be mixing traditional French recipes revisited by modern pastry chefs such as Pol Bertholet who is with us today. I love this idea !

The are truly magical ! The equipment, the perfect arrangement and the exceptional atmosphere of these prestigious places where the savoir-faire comes hand in hand with savoir être

Today I share with you the course with 4 young Japanese. But come to see their equipment, I think were on live with all of Japan ! Amused, I smiled.

The chef also…

The 3 recipes of the day :

Crêpes suzette en feuille à feuille
Poire Ritz Hélène (humm!!!)
Bombe Orientale

Here, the courses are simultaneously translated to English for foreigners. To start, we will prepare pancakes with orange marmalade and Grand Marnier. It is a very friendly atmosphere, the chef shares with us his complete journey leading up the Ritz. We spent a good time discussing and joking around. Nothing too complicated you might say: they’re just pancakes ! But when I slip you the recipe, you’re going to see how we can turn a dessert into something chic!

– CREPES SUZETTE EN FEUILLE A FEUILLE –

La recette des crêpes d’Auguste Escoffier:

250g flour T55
50g of sugar
5g of salt
4 egg yolks
2 extra eggs (= extra fresh!)
100g of butter
500g of milk
1 tablespoon of Arachis oil

Sift the flour. In a pan using a whisk, make a hazelnut butter. Mix all the ingredients together with the blender inside a bowl. Add the hazelnut butter. Using a conical strainer, pass the mix through it. Leave to cool down.

Orange marmalade :

450g of oranges
120g of orange juice
180g of powdered sugar
120g of Yuzu
18g of sucre
5g of pectin NH

In a bowl, mix 15g sugar with NH pectin. In a saucepan, cook the oranges in water for 15 minutes. Pour them over using a strainer. Then, peel the oranges and cut them into small pieces with a knife. Add the sugar, orange juice and Yuzu juice in the saucepan. At 40 ° C add the sugar pectin mix. Cook until you get the texture of a marmalade.

For the Grand Marnier jelly:

190g of water
50g of powdered sugar
60g of Grand Marnier
2gr Agar-Agar

In a bowl mix 10g of sugar with the agar. Prepare a 20cm by 20cm frame on a tray with “feuille guitare”. In a saucepan with a whisk, boil the water with sugar. Add the agar sugar mixture, cook for 3 min, add the Grand Marnier. Pour into the frame at 2mm thickness. Leave to cool and put into the refrigerator. Use crinkled cookie cutters of different sizes to define the drops.

For assembly: set the marmalade. Pile 5 pancakes by two. Spread marmalade in between pancakes. Put in the freezer for 10 minutes. Use a triangle cookie cutter to form the shape.

If you want to add a little quenelle of chocolate ice cream …

In a saucepan with a whisk, heat 450g of milk, 15g of powdered milk and 22g of Invert sugar. In a bowl mix 50g of sugar with 3g of special stabilising agent for ice cream ice over the milk. Wait for them to boil, pour over 120g of 40% chocolate and 13g of cocoa paste. Blend in the mixer and pass it through the strainer. Put in the refrigerator and leave to cool for 4 hours. Stir.

And finally … The dressing ! Put the pancakes in a large dish. Decorate the plate with drops of jelly. Place the quenelle chocolate ice cream on the side and finish the dressing with the crunchy crêpe tile. Shred some orange peels.

And there you have it ! The first part of the course ends here. I’m pretty proud of my first dessert. And what’s more … It’s delicious! I’ll leave you now, the ice cream is melting. It’s time for me to start tasting!

Next week, I’ll tell you about the little surprise the chef made during the break : a visit to the Ritz’s kitchens! And then you can discover another recipe that we tried out : la Poire Ritz Hélène. See you soon !