“If you are afraid of butter, use cream” – Julia Child
Nestled on a street named after Canada’s 7th Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, is the culinary jewel in Ottawa’s crown, Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute. It is Canada’s only Le Cordon Bleu campus as well it serves as the headquarters for all of Le Cordon Bleu North & South America operations. That is quite a distinction and they are about to get one more, me as a student! Can Le Cordon Bleu survive 30 Days In Ottawa? We are about to find out.
This majestic home has been preserved and transformed into Le Cordon Bleu. The Ottawa campus is also home to Bistro at Signatures, one of only 3 restaurants in the entire world operated by Le Cordon Bleu.
We take a quick tour of the Bistro and the rest of the mansion which includes a private dining room known as the engagement room. I imagine a lot of marriage proposals are made in this room over some amazing food. Who could say no!
The original house has been left as is and an extensive addition was built on the back of the property to house the state of the art kitchens and classrooms. The class procedure is to watch the Chef Instructor prepare the dishes, taking your own notes as he progresses. Once the Chef has finished you move into your own kitchen space and recreate the exact same dishes. Upon completion you are marked on the spot. It’s not about memorizing measurements or ingredients it’s about techniques and cooking principles. You can’t proceed through the classes without mastering each one in progression.
Now it’s time for our class and lesson to begin. Our Chef Instructor is Chef Arnaud Bonnefoy of France. He has over 20 years experience, including running Michelin-starred Pastry Kitchens in many restaurants and hotels throughout England, Ireland and Lebanon. Teaching us shouldn’t be a problem at all for this pastry artist 
It was a fascinating class. I enjoyed observing Chef’s skill and picked up quite a few nifty techniques along the way. Probably my favourite and so simple I can’t believe I didn’t know it already was the peeling, coring and spiralling of a pineapple. A much needed skill if you ever plan on making your own Poached pineapple in spiced syrup, with pistachio financiers.
Next Chef Bonnefoy made for us a Cardamom and yoghurt mousse, with blueberry jelly. For this we learned among many things how to make an edible rose and also how to loosen the sides of a spring form pan from your dessert. I think Julia Child says it best “I think every woman should have a blowtorch”. Enough said.
In all fairness to Chef we didn’t have enough time to truly set the blueberry jelly properly. We didn’t care though because we wanted to taste. Both were simply divine. I have died and gone to culinary heaven.
I’ve taken cooking classes before and always enjoyed them immensely but this was a real treat. If I lived in Ottawa I would probably sign up for everything they offer, from Cuisine to Bakery and finish with Pastry. Actually I would start with Pastry Don’t worry if you are not a good cook, they actually prefer students that have had no previous training as there are less bad habits to break.
If you ever plan on being in the Ottawa region perhaps for you own 30 Days In Ottawa you should definitely consider a class or at least a meal in Bistro. You can stay up on the latest news from Le Cordon Bleu by following them on Twitter and Facebook.
If it’s good enough for Julia Child it’s good enough for me!
