Last week, I got to experience a cooking class in the most prestigious hospitality university in the country - Enderun! Under their Enderun Extension Programs, you can take special cooking class that range from French to Japanese! I got to tag along with my sister (check out her blog here) and experience the Ducasse Signature Series: Introduction to French Cuisine! (You can read more about the program by clicking on the link) There, we were taught Alain Ducasse's signature dishes as well as techniques. My sister, being a food blogger, is pretty used to being in the kitchen and though I've attended my fair share of cooking classes, I was definitely nervous to be back in the kitchen after so long! Read on to see how we fared! Haha!
The culinary building of Enderun!
Once you reach the second floor, you'll be greeted by framed clippings of Ducasse's successes.
Now onto the class!
Our ingredients for the garnish!
We were taught by the very capable (and very cool) Chef Joma Tuaño. Our dish for the day was Grilled River Prawns.
It started with the preparation of the garnish and there were a *lot* of these to prepare. Since we were late, Chef patiently showed us all the steps and procedures we had missed. There were specific sizes and angles of slicing to follow.
Our garnish platter for the first part of the prep!
Chef then taught us how to cut the second set of larger garnish ingredients.
The garnish completed!
Now onto the River Prawns! Honestly, I've never seen a River Prawn before and was shocked at the size. I quickly realized these were probably the prawns used in Giant Hot Prawn Salads that I loved to eat as a kid in Binondo. Haha! So cool seeing it in its full raw form.
Next, Chef taught us how to deshell the prawns as well as to separate the legs for boiling.
Boiled legs and deshelling complete!
We also extracted the fat from the prawn head and straightened the prawns with a barbeque stick.
Next was probably the most interesting part of the process which was extracting the meat from the legs of the prawn! Similar to lobsters, there's a lot of meat that we usually miss from the legs. But the process of extraction is actually quite interesting! I remember watching a video of Gordon Ramsay demonstrating how to perfectly take the meat from a lobster and this is similar to that but I'm sure a lobster is more difficult! Haha! Never thought I would be doing such a thing myself.
On the left is what my sister and I were able to extract! I'd say it was successful for a first try lol
Next, we seared the prawns in Olive Oil and Butter. Then put it in the oven to bake for 5 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius.
While the prawns are baking, we sauteed the garnish in Olive Oil and Butter! For the smaller garnish, we added the prawn fat which gave it its yellow color.
Now, everything is done! Chef also demonstrated how to take the sticks out of the prawns and started plating.
Chef's finished dish! There's also an added candied lemon slice which you can make by baking a lemon with sugar!
Since we were taking ours home, this is our plating lol! I was surprised at how good this was despite the simplicity of the flavors. The ingredients spoke for themselves while being elevated by the butter, olive oil, and salt-and-pepper seasoning.
Honestly enjoyed this class so much and I'm definitely excited for the next leg of the class! Meanwhile here's some more info about the Ducasse Classes:
Around how many students maximum do you accept per class?
The maximum number of students we accept is 14.
What is the price range for classes under the Ducasse Series?
Our hands-on classes usually ranges from Php 4,800 to Php 5,800 per session so that's around Php 24,000 to Php 29,000 for a 5-Day Culinary Bootcamp just like the Ducasse Signature Series.
Around how many different kinds of classes do you hold under the Ducasse Series every year? Please also briefly describe the kinds of classes held. (ie. French Pastry- 2 classes per year, teaches basic pastries. Intro to French Cuisine, Advanced French Cuisine, etc.) I will also link to your website’s class offerings page but I just wanted to describe briefly what people can expect from Enderun’s Ducasse Education offerings in the post itself.
For the fiscal year (2018-2019), we have one culinary class under the Ducasse Signature Series. Our other culinary short courses include the 10-Day Japanese Culinary Bootcamp, the 5-Day Asian Cuisine, and the CA 101: Culinary Essentials.
Stay tuned for our second class!
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