French Cooking at The Alliance Française
By Jacy Wojcik in Food on Aug 25, 2009 5:00PM
Bonjour. We were invited to attend a cooking class at the Alliance Française de Chicago, which before Saturday we knew only as, “that pretty building on Dearborn where French people hang out and that we are slightly intimidated by.” Having the choice of romance languages to study, we chose Italian and Spanish over French (the “bonjour” at the beginning of this post is really the extent of our language skills.) Silly American. However, we decided there is no better way to begin our relationship with the Alliance and the French language than through food, so we gave it a shot. Kinda like Julie Powell but without all the whining and self-pity. And we never cried over beef stew.
The class, “French Vegetarian Cooking” was taught by Madelaine Bullwinkel, a lovely woman who has been teaching French cooking for over thirty years- both out of her home at Chez Madelaine Cooking School and at the Alliance Française. The fun part was that we were to meet at Green City Market, shop for the food we will use and head back to the Alliance to cook. Our class was a small group of Chicagoans, most of whom had attended some sort of event at the Alliance- they have French film nights/language classes/etc. We met at the mecca of Chicago markets promptly at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, apparently just missing Rachel Ray (Thank GOD!). Chez Madelaine, with a basket and a shopping list in tow, guided us around the farmer’s market in search of the the best peppers, tomatoes, and basil. We bought a loaf epi and searched for her favorite goat cheese from Judy at Capriole Goat Cheese, who unfortunately was absent, so we got some delicious "roxanne," a raw sheep milk cheese from Prairie Fruits Farm. We found some tomatoes and potatoes from Nichols Farms, picked up some fresh blueberries and golden raspberries and then split up to make our way back to the kitchen.
On to the Alliance Française - a town house located on a beautiful stretch of Dearborn with a courtyard in the back, several rooms with language classes in session, and our spotless kitchen. Everyone trickled in rather quickly along with a few new guests, who opted out of the market shopping. We prepped the kitchen and set up our mise en place for the menu:
- Roasted red pepper soup
- Beet, green bean, and sheep milk cheese salad with walnut dressing
- Tomato basil quiche
- Blueberry soufflé with yellow raspberry sauce
From there we watched Madelaine demonstrate cooking techniques, explain ingredients and processes and hand the tasks over to eager volunteers. We learned the proper way to make a paté brisée, cut basil leaves en chiffonade, discussed the purpose for the three different types of sugar in our soufflés and how to determine your sugar syrup is complete when you don’t have a thermometer.
As our quiche and souflés cooked we enjoyed our soup and salad with a glass of Macon Villages chardonnay and talked about Madelaine's French cooking tours, people's own experiences in France and of course the unavoidable subject of Julie and Julia.
Rumor has it there will be a cooking class at the Alliance in the near future that will cover Julia Child's recipes. Which got us thinking about the surge in popularity of Indian/Bollywood dance classes after Slumdog Millionaire. People got obsessed and classes like "hip-hop Bollywood Indian aerobic dance classes" became the latest trend. And it made us sad. If Julie and Julia inspires more Americans to expand their horizons and learn French cooking techniques, we're all for it. But if we ever see a Tara Reid's French Cooking Pilates and Lipstick cooking show, we will cry. Luckily, we have the Alliance Française de Chicago and Chez Madelaine around to teach us proper, respectable French cooking in a fun, quaint environment. We highly recommend this experience and are excited for the opportunity to get to go back to the Alliance for another cooking class and even a language class. "Bonjour" isn't going to cut it anymore.
For more information on culinary classes offered by the Alliance Française de Chicago, please visit their website.