I am so happy you enjoyed Cook'n With Class. I did write about it here, but I think my post may have been way too old for it to have been your reference point. My youngest daughter and I enjoyed a class with Eric near the time he had opened his business, and we felt the visit to the market was even more instructive than the cooking class, although we enjoyed that immensely, too. Four years later, my daughter ended up living on her own in France for four months, and every day she visited a market, she secretly thanked Eric--she knew what to say, how to touch, and how to buy.

Darn, I meant to put the URL right up front. Here it is: http://www.cooknwithclass.com/

The experience was great from start to finish. Everyone embodied great customer service, from the person helping me with the registration (I had a bit of confusion but he helped me sort it out) to Patrick, our chef, to the woman who quietly and efficiently prepped, cleared and wiped as we cooked, to the two other chefs who popped in and out. I wanted to hang out with them.

The day started at 9:20 (well, a little later because we ended up at the wrong metro stop, but only by one thank goodness and Patrick was very understanding) by meeting Patrick and our other class member, John from Ireland, at the Jules Joffrin Metro stop, Patrick with his grocery cart at hand. The market portion includes stops at the fromagerie, the boucherie, the fish monger, and fruit and veg shop, and final stop at a bakery.

That does not do the market trip justice. At every stop, Patrick took the time to give us detailed information about the cheeses, about bresse chicken, about why rabbit is sold with its head on, how to identify fresh fish and more. Just fabulous.

We ended up with cheese in the bag, a magret du canard, monkfish, apples, frisee, oranges, zucchini, and what I would have called fingerling potatoes but they weren’t (I can’t remember what they were called). At the bakery, if memory serves, we picked up maybe olive bread and a baguette.

Back to the kitchens at Cook’N With Class.

(btw, my French is very bad, I hope I call things by their correct name)

AlessandraZoe, I want to say it was lowcountryislander's trip report where I first saw mention of the class, but can't be sure. Now I want to go look for yours though!

Yes, the market portion was really great, I learned so much!

Wonderful aromas met us as a macaroon class was taking place in the next kitchen. I believe Constance was teaching that one.

The kitchen has all the cooking appliances along one wall, and we sit at high tables facing them. Patrick stands between the table and the stove, oven etc, cooking, demonstrating, and teaching us. Each of our places has a cutting board, chef and paring knife, vegetable peeler and apron.

As I mentioned, there is a woman in the background that you would not even notice is there, she greets us with a quiet Bonjour, and gets to work. Before you know it, all the groceries are prepared and laid out for the cooking to begin.

I liked her even more when she asked if we wanted coffee and then set about making each of us an espresso. We all then washed up and donned our aprons, and the cooking began.

Our menu:

Magret du canard w/apple chutney and a frisee salad
Monkfish with potatoes simmer in white wine and a zucchini flan
Cheese plate
Molten chocolate cake with macerate strawberries

All served with wine of course, and preceded by an aperitif.

I will leave the details of the cooking class to your own experience. I’ll just say that I learned so much! Possibly just as much by watching Patrick and how efficient he was about little things that I never would have thought of. We do a little chopping and buttering of dishes, grating and peeling, etc.

We start with the chocolate molten cakes, so that they can chill as we continue with the other dishes. Apparently this is the trick to molten chocolate cakes as then when they bake, the middle melts into liquid rather than baking into a brownie. Who knew!? Possibly you, but not me.

The potatoes go next, cooked on the stove top with white wine and vinegar, herbs and garlic. A marinade is prepared, the duckfat scored, and into the marinade the magret du canard goes.

Prep begins on the monkfish, pan roasted with the bone on the side, helping to flavor the wonderful pan sauce that will be made at the end. We grate the zucchini and the flans are prepared.

At the same time as all of this, we peel and core apples and prepare the ingredients for the chutney and that begins simmering on the stove. You can imagine the smells in the kitchen at this point. Patrick has also prepared some orange peel in small slivers and has that on the stove being candied.

I am still impressed at how quickly and unobtrusively the assistant clears away cooking debris as we/Patrick cook.

John is an enjoyable class partner, and this class is a birthday gift from his wife. She arrives to join us for the meal.

my idea of a good time Toucan, thanks.
Just going to market with someone who really knows food is such a treat.

OMG the meal. Absolutely delicous, due entirely to Patrick although I like to think that I may now be able to replicate it down the road. Patrick assured us that he would be sending us the recipes (which he did)so we didn't need to worry about trying to remember everything. Someday down the road I want to try to treat a group of friends to the meal to show off what I know.

The duck is succulent, and wonderful with the apple chutney and salad. The monkfish, topped with a pan sauce and candied orange peel, is to die for. The flan? OMG I am absolutely making it this summer with produce from our CSA. And the potatoes!

The teaching continues as Patrick shows us how to set up a cheese plate and properly cut the cheese. (did I just say that?) He tells us that they serve it with bread, and butter (not crackers like in the US) and puts out the normal unsalted butter and a truly delicious salted butter, telling us to take the bread, butter it, then put the cheese on top.

I start laughing to myself at one point because I had been a fairly stringent program prior to the Paris trip and here I was layering bread with butter and cheese, and enjoying it thoroughly!

Then, the dessert. I am pretty sure I moaned with my first bite.

As you can tell, I would strongly recommend Cook'N With Class! Constance popped over with leftover macaroons for each of us, and we got to meet Alex when he was coming in for the afternoon Market class. We spent from 9:20 am to 3 pm there, worth every dime. I even bought a set of knives to take home, and I SHOULD have bought an apron.

Thanks jubilada. Wouldn't a cooking class combined with a Fodorite GTG be a hoot?

Oh, if you want to see pictures you can see them here. You'll have to wade through a few others from the the trip to get to the cooking class, but not too many:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.413174692030550.112022.100000140670243&type=3

Toucan2, great report. Since we did the boulangerie session with PattyC I have wondering about taking other classes. Did you each prepare the whole menu or were parts assigned?

Yes, a cooking class combined with a GTG would be a hoot and I hope I am in Paris when it happens.

Sounds wonderful; alas such a treat doesn't come cheaply and for 2 people [DH and myself] well, it's almost a weeks worth of rent. I lived vicariously through your great TR. Merci pour tout.

AGM, in this case we just did parts. I think Patrick was trying to judge how much or how little each of us wanted to do, so sometimes we were watching, ,and watching each other, and other times we were doing.

Deb, it indeed doesn't come cheaply, but I think the meal itself at a minimum would have been between 65-80 Euros in a restaurant, and you add that it is 5-6 hours plus, and in my head it comes out pretty reasonably. Still, a splurge.

So glad you enjoyed it! We did the macaroon class a couple years ago and had a great time. We wished we had time to do another class, but we were there on our last day in town.

hi toucan2 - sounds great fun.

i've never stayed in Paris long enough to do anything like that but you are definitely making me think about it.

thanks for reporting back about it.

Thank you so much for posting this! I am planning to book a class too! And thanks for posting the photos too - I am getting so excited!

Sounds wonderful. So happy you enjoyed Michel, I hope?

That would make a fun GTG! Thanks for the report.

Oh yes...how was your tour with Michel - could I ask you some questions about this?

I enjoyed our time with Michael very much! If time would have allowed and he was free, I probably would have asked for another day. The day with him ended too soon.

Sure, ask away kelsey. I am going to try to get my official trip report up too, and will expand on the time with him then as well.

I love Michael not as a tour guide, which he is special, but as a kind friend.

@Toucan2 - thanks so much.
@cigalechanta - that says a lot. I hear he is very nice.

Yes, he took me to Harry's Bar and we had a great time with his SO, who is an opera singer, and subs for him when he has a lot of clients but he is also very good, The reason being, they are down to earth, no mambo jumbo, stiff upper lip stuff.

I looked at the website and laughed at the comment on the Advanced French Dessert class "By the way if you don't know how crack an egg, this class may be too advanced so try out our regular Desserts class first.". It reminded me of the movie Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn where she is studying to be a chef in Paris and having problems cracking eggs.

LOL AGM.

Happy to read this! I'm planning to take the market class in May. If you rent an apt through feelslikehomeinparis.com, the classes are half price. Their Apts are great and their customer service is superb.

Grassshopper, my friend saw that and I think she may do that on her next trip.

ttt

Really great report - thanks for posting your experiences, Toucan2. How nice that the classes are so small.

We stay in Montmartre when we're in Paris, and I've had the "feelslikehomeinparis" site bookmarked since we got back from our last trip, and was already planning to rent from them next time. At half-price, the class becomes a total no-brainer for me.

Let me know when you make the duck. I'd happily play the role of "guinea pig."

"Thanks jubilada. Wouldn't a cooking class combined with a Fodorite GTG be a hoot?"--------that would be super.

Grassshopper, great to hear. 1/2 price is always preferred!

I'm glad you enjoyed it YankyGal, and hope it was helpful. Yes, I think they try to keep it to 5-6 people max. It was very personal.

TDudette, I think we may have to work on a way to make that happen!

Very fun report to read! The market class sounds great. Catherine Reed of Reed Restaurant also teaches in English. One makes an entire meal and then consumes it with wines for 100e pp. Bring a friend for just the dining part for 55e I'm thinking about taking it next month.

Mary, I'm so happy to hear that Catherine's plan has come into fruition. Thanks for sharing that!
AZ

This post made me smile, we had this class booked last year....boo hoo two day before the class I fell in Vienna and needless to say spent most of this day in the Paris American Hospital.. it is going back on my list for this year, but if you have to be laid up being in Paris at Guest Apartments is not a bad thing. Thank you for sharing.

That sounds great Mary, definitely something to check out.

returntoyourseat, I hope you get to do this in the future, sorry to hear of your accident.

I don't know if I mentioned this above (sorry for the repeat if I did) but Patrick had previously had a restaurant in Shreveport, LA. I asked him to write it down as we see some people from Shreveport every year when we go birdwatching in TX. I saw them last weekend, and it was fun to have a small world connection as they remembered the restaurant well.

In any case, I am here to link this trip report to my complete Paris trip report in case anyone is interested.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/paris-trip-report-at-last-the-usual-plus-the-tuileries-as-a-pickup-joint.cfm

Toucan2 - I have read your report and thoroughly enjoyed it. My husband and I are going to Paris. Since reading your report on Cooknwithclass we are now signing up for one off the classes I could only talk him into one of the shorter classes - but it is a start. Thank you

Also, you mention Michael Osman. Can you provide his contact information as I have been unable to obtain it. Thanks again.

I'm so glad you are going to go to a class! You can also follow them on Facebook, or, they have a blog you can follow too in order to see what they are up to.

You can email Michael at parisfind@aol.com. I also put that contact info on your inquiry on the Paris trip report. I hope you are able to arrange some time with him. When are you going?

Toucan2 - We leave June 27th. Thank you for the information. I realize with such short notice, he may not be available...but I will give it a try.