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Singles & Solo
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French Cooking Class
Vacations in Gascony, France Located in the beautifully quaint village of Gramont in the heart of Gascony, means that your journey into French cuisine will take place in a wholly traditional setting. With the combined knowledge and experience of two professional chefs of French cuisine– one French and one English – we offer an initiation into French cookery that is not only thorough, practical and accessible to all, but also enjoyable. This French cooking vacation believes in a hands-on approach which means that from the moment you begin one of the courses until the moment you finish, you are the new chef in our kitchen. We want our students to cook, not sit back and take notes. Your accommodations are in a renovated, seventeenth century chambres d’hotes and your time will be shared
between the purpose-built teaching kitchen and the professional kitchen in the restaurant in the village. Both the
chambres d’hotes and the cooking school are warm, homely environments in which you will instantly feel a part of
the family, and a part of the local village. The Gascony French Cooking Vacation - Six Day Course Itinerary After arrival settle into your room and make yourself at home by taking a stroll around the village to acquaint yourself with Gramont and its residents. That evening you will join the group on the terrace for local aperitifs and hors d’oeuvres, over which we can discuss the week ahead and get to know each other a little better. Dinner will consist of an exquisite four course meal, each dish designed to give you a taste of the distinctive Gascon flavours that you will encounter during the week ahead. After dinner you can relax by taking advantage of one of our three terraces on which to enjoy a glass of wine or unwind in our outdoor hot tub, from which vantage point you can admire your first gramontois sunset. Your vacation has begun! Monday After a breakfast sourced from our local boulangerie, your class will begin at 9:30am with a tour of the kitchen and an introduction to basic knife skills. Following this you will prepare a simple, French dressing and a jus du vin rouge (a red wine reduction sauce) before beginning work on your pastry skills by preparing a gâteau pithiviers, an ornately decorated puff pastry dessert with a delicious crème d’amandes at its centre. You will then be given the opportunity to hone your knife skills further by replicating the chef's famous pizza gersoise: a freshly made pizza base topped with onions, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and thinly sliced duck breast. The morning will conclude with some more pâtisserie practice as you prepare a pâte sucrée, a form of sweetened pastry, which will provide the base for the tarte aux pommes that you will make on Tuesday morning. Afternoon: After a typically long French lunch you will make your way across the road to the local restaurant where you will be introduced to the art of preparing foie gras. You will prepare four different types of foie gras – mi-cuit, traditional, cru and pain d’épices – before turning your attention to another quintessentially Gascon dish: cassoulet. Bernard will impart to you his tried and tested wisdom as to the best way in which to prepare his restaurant’s most popular dish before giving you a tour of his sixty-five cover restaurant, a place you will get to know well over the next few days. You are free to enjoy the remainder of the afternoon as you please. Aside from a beautiful château and chapel,
our tiny village boasts the largest honey museum in Europe; an interesting tourist attraction that allows you to
witness first-hand the journey from bee to jar and to sample some of its handmade honey products. Alternatively, if
you have decided to hire a car for the week, Tuesday Fleurance market is host to an array of tasty Gascon treats that are sure to whet your appetite, so we will continue on to the nearby Roman town of Lectoure where we will lunch in a local café before returning to the cookery school for afternoon lessons. Afternoon: In this session, begin by the chef instructing you in the correct way to fillet a fish before you learn how to prepare the perfect velouté sauce as an accompaniment. You will then be given another opportunity to practice your pastry and knife skills by creating a beautifully presented tarte aux pommes. Evening: In the evening, before dinner, you will be invited back into the kitchen to focus on plating and general presentation skills. Each dish that you have prepared today will form a part of your evening meal together with the foie gras that you prepared yesterday, giving you the chance to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Wednesday Morning: After breakfast you will be in the kitchen preparing six dishes over the course of three hours. Your most intensive time in the kitchen this week, the focus this morning will be on French desserts. You will prepare une crème patisserie, une crème brulee, une crème caramel, des crêpes and la sauce suzette before switching from sweet to savoury ingredients at the end of the morning to make that most iconic of French sauces: la sauce béchamel. After cooking, browse the newly established Musée de vin, a small museum that details the history of winemaking in the region and includes some interesting, local artefacts. Then conclude the tour with a well deserved lunch at the local restaurant. Afternoon: After lunch you will visit the Château de Cassaigne, Condom’s acclaimed Armagnac distillery, where you will learn about the history of this local brandy whilst indulging in a short – optional! - dégustation. We will then take you on a tour of the beautifully preserved, medieval fortified village of Larrissingle. There you will see the delightful village of La Romieu, famed for its many sculptures of cats and possessing of a fabulous - if not slightly bizarre! - history. Evening: That evening you will dine at the restaurant and your menu will include your very own cassoulet and crêpes suzette. Thursday Morning: After breakfast you will join everyone in the kitchen to put your newly acquired knife skills to the test by boning a chicken to create a sumptuous ballotine de poulet. Following the preparation of the chicken, you will make a rich, mushroom sauce as an accompaniment. Next on this morning’s itinerary is a light and refreshing tarte au citron and an entrée of soupe aux deux poivrons (Two-Pepper Soup), a starter whose unique presentation never fails to impress at a dinner party. Afternoon: Lunch will be followed by a visit to Gramont’s seventeenth-century château, a well preserved renaissance castle complete with period furniture and tapestries. Afterwards you will join the group in the kitchen to complete the final preparations for this evening’s meal. Evening: Dine on all three of the dishes that you will have prepared earlier in the day. Friday Sadly the cooking school has come to an end! You are very welcome to stay on with us as guests of our Bed and
Breakfast. Otherwise, transfer to the airport for your flight. The weekend cookery school begins on a Friday afternoon. After your arrival you will have some time to settle into your room and to stroll about the village before meeting your chefs and teachers for the weekend. Together, you will discuss the weekend’s itinerary over a traditionally long French lunch before taking a tour of the purpose-built teaching kitchen in order to familiarise yourself with the equipment you will be using over the next two days. Your class starts at 2:30pm in the kitchen with a basic, but invaluable, lesson in knife skills, followed by the preparation of a simple vinaigrette. You will then walk a short distance to where you will be introduced to the workings of a professional kitchen and set to work on making your very own foie gras. The chef's teaching encompasses four different ways of preparing the duck liver dish- mi-cuit, traditionel, cru and pain d’épices - and you will have the opportunity to sample each variation at dinner that evening. After the foie gras making, see a demonstration of the best way in which to prepare a traditional, Gascon cassoulet by following a traditional peasant’s recipe that has been in use in the region for centuries. Having finished in the kitchen for the afternoon you then have a couple of hours to yourself in which to relax. Take advantage of our three, south-facing terraces and their unrivalled views of the surrounding countryside or unwind in our heated, outdoor hot tub. That evening you will dine at the chef's restaurant. Renowned for his ‘menu gourmand’ a traditional six-course meal will be prepared for you which will include the regional dishes of foie gras and cassoulet that you prepared earlier. In addition to this, your fine dining experience at this traditional Gascon auberge will be accompanied by a sumptuous array of French cheeses, desserts and local wines. Bon appétit! Saturday Your day will begin with a delicious breakfast sourced from our local boulangerie that will be followed by a lesson on fish filleting and patisserie skills. Putting your newly acquired knife skills to the test you will be shown the correct way to fillet a fish before learning how to prepare the perfect fish velouté sauce as an accompaniment. At the end of the morning you will make your first traditional French dessert of the weekend: tarte aux pommes, a beautifully presented dish whose preparation demands both pastry skills and delicate knife work. Lunch on Saturday will be prepared by the chef and served on the terrace. In the afternoon you will join the group in the kitchen of the restaurant for an afternoon of intensive instruction in the art of patisserie. Following the same recipes he uses in his own, locally acclaimed restaurant, the French chef will help you to prepare une crème patisserie, une crème brûlée, une crème caramel, des crêpes and la sauce suzette. At the end of the morning you revert from sweet to savoury ingredients as you prepare one of France’s most iconic sauces: la sauce béchamel. After a couple of hours of repose you will dine that evening on the fish in velouté sauce that you made that day. Before dinner you will be invited back into the kitchen to practice your plating and presentation skills; this will signal the end of your weekend course in French cooking, after which you can relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor! Sunday Breakfast will be served as usual at 9am and we ask you to kindly vacate your rooms by 11am. Weekend courses run throughout the year from Fri-Sun
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