Cooking Lessons

I won't deny that going to culinary school has crossed my mind (a lot) this year...just because, well, I like going to school and I crave the hands-on, workshop style environment of a cooking class. God, have I imagined studying pastry making in Paris? Fuck yeah. All wishful thinking, as they say here, libreng mangarap. 

So, I've resorted to take the next best thing, books. Besides, there is some in proclaiming oneself as a self-taught baker and with the wealth of information available online--it really isn't bad at all, it can be done. And this afternoon, I spent time pouring over Julia Child's My Life in France. I love reading memoirs especially if they are set in places I long to see. And yes, Paris, France is on top of my list. I was a bit of a Francophone when I was in college: French novelists, painters, philosophers, I couldn't get enough of them, I even spent some time attending French classes at Alliance Francaise all those summers ago. So reading up on Julia Child's memoirs of her time in France really appeals to me, it's an easy read. 

So this afternoon I came upon a passage that struck a chord in me. It's the time Julia decided to teach herself French cuisine and enrolled herself at the Le Cordon Bleue under the tutelage of Chef Brugnard. Julia quotes her much loved mentor about the magic and secret to cooking well:

First is this passage on enjoying or loving what you do which I couldn't agree more. As an art teacher myself, I strived to instill in my students the sense of wonder in their craft, make them love what they do--even if that's the only thing that they remember from my class, it wasn't all for nothing

Bugnard insisted than one pay attention, learn the correct technique, and that one enjoy one's cooking--"Yes, Madame Scheeld, fun!" he'd say. "Joy!"

And this second quote about  the artist and the thing he has made. Man, I just love this quote--as an artist myself, I really get what he is saying...falling in love with the thing you've made. How poignant is his idea about the power of something ephemeral which lives on in memory--beautiful.

 "You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made," he said. "Even after you eat it, it stays with you--always."

God, I want to make some madeleines.