As part of the celebration of French National Day this July at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila, they organized a series of dinner and food events at Spiral to embrace and be introduced in the world of French culinary and culture.
We attended a cooking class at Spiral and this is our first time to try and be a chef for a day behind the buffet and chopping table of Spiral’s European Atelier section.
I thought that we will be just there to watch and listen to Sofitel’s executive chef Denis Vechiatto, but then we learned that we will be preparing a kind of French food for breakfast, and that’s for us to eat at the end of the class.
Im nervous at first because Im not good in the kitchen, but I discovered that preparing a Reblochon cheese pie and salad with goat cheese is very simple. According to one of Sofitel’s French connoisseur that they usually make one for their breakfast and they do it starting as scratch.
wow!
We approach our own table after wearing Spiral’s apron and toque hat, then I saw a not so familiar kitchen gear.
A brush, and a jar with yellow gooey and a rolled dough.
I was so busy taking photos and managing my phone to video record everything, I don’t have yet an idea what kind of food that we are going to prepare.
Colin Chandaras, cheesemaster from Fromagerie Beillevaire, one of the supplier of French cheese for this month at Spiral, told us a short story about how the French people use the cheese just to get away from paying taxes.
On our table is the Reblochon cheese
Its cold and soft.
My kitchen table.
So I placed the cheese on the dough and sprinkled it with sliced garlic and some herbs.
then we wrapped the cheese with the dough and brush it with lots of egg yolk.
The yellow gooey that I mentioned earlier is an egg yolk.
According to Colin, we can add more yolk around to make the dough shiny and gold.
then I learned that we will bake in an oven.
Here’s my Reblochon cheese pie dough.
I know that the cheese will melt inside, so I wrapped it more dough around and added more yolk on top.
Thanks to Mr. Colin for guiding us…
I have to impress the executive chef hehe
Im done!
My pie is ready, I even placed a letter “A” on top just to I.D. it when we place it on a tray and get ready for hot bake.
Up next, they thought us how to make our own salad.
Chef Denis said that making salad kinda impresses your partner at home.
Then we were introduced to Fromagerie Beillevaire’s own made goat cheese.
Time to listen again from our chef and learn how to make a nice salad with goat cheese.
Salad making is easy….just add the leafy veggies and add the salad vinaigrette
Then we added goat cheese on top of three small bread and then they baked it for less than 3 minutes.
The smell is so good. The burned bread and the melted goat cheese’s aroma made me super hungry.
After some 5 minutes, we saw that our Reblochon cheese pie is baked already.
Some pie pops melted cheese and few of the pie survived the baked process.
Here’s my pie!!
Chef Denis told me it was perfect..naks!!! na impress ko din si chef
At the end of the cooking class we received our Certificate of Appreciation and then we get to eat our own food!!
also served with drinks or coffee complimentary offering by the chef
salamat chef!
There’s my wife Lace and Sofitel’s Kat getting ready to eat their salad.
Ako naman, I super enjoyed my salad and my two coffee ahahah
and also I ate Denise Laurel’s salad!! hahahah
Class picture.
Check out my blog post about Sofitel’s French special month
http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/2016/07/french-national-day-specials-at-sofitel.html
Also you might be interested to join in these food events:
Autour du fromage
cooking class
July 6-10, 2016
PHP 1500
Cheese and wine pairing
July 11, 2016
PHP 1500
Sunday Bastille Day at Spiral Brunch
July 17th at Spiral Sunday Brunch
Rate - PHP 3650
Bastille Day at Spiral
July 14th at 6PM-10:30PM
Rate - PHP 2750
Bastille Day BBQ Special
July 14th at Sunset Bar
Rate PHP 2450
Executive Chef Denis Vecchiato and cheese expert Colin Chandaras
July 7 at 3:30pm
rate: Php1,500nett per person
Special wine and cheese class with Pascal Beillevaire
July 11 at 4pm in L'Epicerie
rate: Php1,500nett per person
