Ecole Ritz Escoffier

The Ritz cooking school is named after Georges Auguste Escoffier, who we learned is nearly worshiped in French cooking and restaurant circles.

The day was fun, and the theme was boeuf. English was not spoken, and thus we were assigned an interpreter, immediately singling us out as the gringos.

One dish was Beef a la Bourguignonne. What an exhausting exercise in stew-making.

Another was an oddly un-French, but very tasty Thai Beef in a peanut and lime sauce.

And the third dish was Filet de boeuf en croute d'echalotes, sauce vigneronne et pommes de terre confites.

Pretty much a fillet, which we learned to cook in a really fun way, topped with croutons and sauteed bone marrow and served with potatoes that, I am not kidding, were cooked entirely in a gigantic pot of boiling butter.

And yes. They were good.