French Cooking
and Culinary Artistry
Bonjour, Hello, and Welcome!
Being a chef and owner of a French restaurant has taught me a lot. My clientele varied from small town folks to big city people, and my goals were consistently:
- to make them happy,
- to feed them good food,
- to create great memories for them.
"When are you going to teach French cooking classes?”, many of them would ask.
That is when I decided to offer some free, online cooking videos which I am bringing to you.
Also, I am pleased to announce that I am developing a series of in-person, group classes on cooking and artistry in the plate.
Stay tuned for more!
miss Coco
On video: "Cooking with miss Coco" (Free)
What will you learn?
The purpose of this cooking section is to teach several very interesting aspects of French cooking.
"My tutorials online are not only about cooking.They also teach you the history of the dishes. Finally, they give you some very useful information about some ingredients used in the recipes."
From appetizers to desserts, these French Classics are demonstrated in an easy and fun way. Also, recipe cards can be printed.
1 - COOKING: What defines GOOD COOKING?
Miss Coco shares the simple guidelines that she followed as a restaurant owner:
· Never use any frozen, packaged, or pre-bottled food.
· Start with fresh and good quality ingredients.
· Cook everything from scratch, and that includes dressings and sauces.
· Bake everything from scratch, and that includes doughs, custards, fillings.
· Never try to save money if it is to sacrifice the quality of the final product on the plate.
"If you ordered a quiche or a vol-au-vent in my restaurant, you had to wait for 25 minutes. I had to prepare it first, then bake it. Freshness at its best!"
"Did you order scallops, salmon, or sole fillets? I cooked them all to order at the last minute, to deliver freshness to the table."
What about country style French dishes?
"Those were my pride - the type of comfort food that everyone loved – a steaming beef Burgundy, a hearty cassoulet. My guests enjoyed this back-to-the-basic food because it reminded them somehow of their childhood, their mother’s home-cooking. Simple, tasty, and full of love!"
Love… Lots of LOVE!
"That is the key: the love that you have when you prepare and you plate a dish that someone is going to see first, then taste, eat, enjoy, and remember for a long time. That part is satisfying, so rewarding, so worth everything!"
2 – The HISTORY of the dish
Where does this dish come from? When was it created?
"Many of my guests at the restaurant were quite inquisitive about the history of the dishes on the menu.
We have a lot of very traditional food in France that has been served over many years, passed from generation to generation, and each one has its own interesting story.
That is an important part of the dish itself. Plus, when you serve it to your guests at home and you know its history, you will be able to tell the story. Everyone around the table will find it interesting."
3 – FACTS and TIDBITS about the ingredients
DID YOU KNOW…
… that prosciutto comes from the hind leg of the pig?
… that carrot leaves are edible?
… that chickens that lay white eggs are more prolific than chickens that lay brown eggs?
… that caramel making was first developed in Persia in the 7th century?
… that the vanilla of Tahiti needs man to grow and reproduce?
… that true, French Brie is unpasteurized?
… that Emperor Nero consumed leek-based concoctions to preserve his vocal chords?
… that we, in America, eat an average of 130 pounds of potatoes per person per year?
… that people in Europe believed that tomatoes were poisonous?
Do you know why anchovy is salty?
Do you know why your egg whites will be stiffer if you beat them in a copper bowl?
Do you know what a truffle is, if it is not made out of chocolate?
Do you know what a chicken should weigh when you buy it at the store, and why?
Do you know where the tradition of buckwheat flour crepes comes from, and why?
If you watch miss Coco's online French cooking classes, you will have the answers to ALL these questions and many more!
FYI: she usually tells you all about the ingredients at the beginning or at the end of each cooking video.
miss Coco's food blog
