Ateliers des Chefs - Grey Goose Cocktail Night

I think I've found my calling.  I want to START something like Ateliers des Chefs.  Maybe in 20 years or something.  Basically, l'Atelier des Chefs offers short cooking courses (1-1.5 hours), where you learn how to make a a certain dish (or in this case, cocktails) for quite a reasonable price.  It's an alternative to going to a restaurant that makes your eating experience more interactive.. and fun!  And it's different from other cooking classes which are longer and more expensive.  Great business model.  

ATELIER DES CHEFS

They're going to send us the recipes but here's a description of the drinks and tapas (as best as I can remember).

Drinks

"Tarte tatin" - Grey goose vodka, caramel syrup, APPLE SAUCE (oh la la!), ice cubes, shake it shake it shake it.  (i think i'm missing some ingredients)

"Pear cucumber" (said in a french accent, so more like "peer coocomberrrhhh") - mash up some kiwi and cucumber, add some pear syrup, add some grey goose, put in the ice cubes and shake shake shake shake.  and then filter out the kiwi/cucumber mashup, and drink.  this one was GOOOOOD!  

poor gael smashed his glass trying to separate it from the shaker so he was left with nothing.  hehehe.  

and then they always do a ....

MOJITO! - put some lime slices and mint leaves in a cup, mash up with a pestle (dude, this place had some very specific cooking equipment).  make sure to just grind up and down, not turn the pestle (it will ruin the mint leaves?).  add sugar.  bacardi rum.  and soda water.  mmmm....!! 

Tapas

Egg/foie gras thang - making this tapas was very elaborate.  first, you take an egg and make sure the more rounded part of the egg is facing up.  then take your handy "egg shell cracker that is effective by the impact of a metal ball hitting another metal ball" (what?? you don't have one !!?? who are you??) and make a nice rounded crack on the top of the egg.  slice it off with a knife.  pour the eggwhite/eggyolk into a small bowl momentarily.  put two small pieces of foie gras into the egg shell (not more or else your egg shell will drown!!).  pour the egg insides back into the egg shell.  dip the egg shell (verrrrry slowly) into a vat of hot hot seasoned oil.  let it sit for about 7-8 minutes until the egg white touches the egg yolk.  season with salt and pepper.  sip the insides directly out of the egg shell, or dip small pieces of bread. MMMMMM!!!

Samosa thingy- this was good but a bit boring and it wasn't really a samosa, just some meat wrapped up into a thin piece of dough.

Shrimp thingy - again, not TOO exciting but shrimp is always delicious.  basically wrap an uncooked shrimp in this shredded doughy thing (dough + water), and then dip it in boiling oil for 1 minute.  then season with balsamic vinegar. YUM.

i went to l'atelier des chefs with about 15 people from TN International (where i work).  not only do i like my work, but the people are pretty rad too.  :-)

until next time.  i need to write about our epic impromptu spanish dinner that we had on tuesday, but i think that deserves a post of its own.  rocio's croquettas were ... incredible.  MMMMM...