Five Word Friday

May flew past and now we are in June and it’s the first Friday. My Five words –

Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Art

We are told “Founded in Paris in 1895, Le Cordon Bleu is considered today the largest network of culinary and hospitality schools in the world with more than 35 institutes in 20 countries and 20,000 students of over 100 nationalities are trained every year. Le Cordon Bleu combines innovation and creativity with tradition through its certificates, diplomas, bachelors and master degrees.”

With a group from our Probus Club, I went on a tour of the Wellington Branch of this iconic cooking school. It was a reasonably large group of 20, but there was a long waiting list of members.

We were greeted by a young woman, Stella, and taken to a lecture room, where she and one of the staff, a chef, briefly explained how the School worked.

We went into the “Latte Lab” and were met by Paul who explained the training in the art of making coffee using an impressive range of high-tech machines, and also the thorough training given to students in the hospitality industry. The Technical Director of the Cordon Bleu School, Sebastien Lambert, interrupted the class he was giving, to greet us and explain more of the workings of the School.

The tour was short. We were quickly moved around the complex in an efficient way, hardly stopping to look through the large plate glass windows into the kitchens where students were hard at work. I would have liked to hear more about what they were doing.

The highlight of the visit was the High Tea served on the top floor.
Students were in charge. The preparation of the food, the table settings, and the serving of food and beverage was their role.. They are at different levels of their courses, and all were excellent and eager to help. The food, both the range and quality, and the presentation, was extraordinary.

Like many of the other participants, I have had morning tea around the world, but this sits highly atop the list.

It was a great way to spend a Friday morning – note here, the afternoon tea was served at lunchtime to fit in with our tour.