Learn all the skills you need to produce the finest French cuisine

French cooking is revered the world over. Their word for cooking - namely cuisine - is universally used.

If you seek to reach standards in the kitchen that are the highest we know then Madame Gautier’s cookery school is your path upwards. La Technique is – as the name suggests – an academy of technique where you learn all the skills from the traditional to the modern required to produce classic French cuisine using your own hands.

Madame Gautier? Actually, “she” is a family-run, classic French traiteur offering restaurant-quality food based on regional fresh recipes and using the best personally-sourced ingredients from trusted producers, large and small. From dishes sold across London at the capital’s thriving farmers’ markets to home catering, and bespoke orders, Madame Gautier prepares food for all occasions, from family meals to grand dinner parties, with a choice of soups, starters, salads, main courses, accompaniments and desserts. In all, Madame Gautier cuisine is ideal for people with demanding careers, busy lifestyles, or who just love great food.

The cookery school is next door to Madame Gautier’s main operation in the emerging north London NW10 district. Classes there are suitable for all levels, from a total beginner to a prospective chef already confident in the kitchen. In small and intimate groups, a hands-on approach to teaching and learning gives everyone the opportunity to experience all the techniques first-hand, while at the same time ensuring everyone receives individual attention. Moreover, the aim is to enjoy cooking bringing fun to the kitchen.

Those who enroll are taught by an experienced team of chefs, under the guidance of Mark Gautier, who, along with his wife, Corinne and children Liana and Guy make up Madame Gautier, now seven year’s old. Mark has taught at London's two best professional catering schools, tutoring many of today's up and coming new chefs, and mentoring the 2004 Young Chef of the Year. He also trained the chefs for Jamie Oliver's first '15' restaurant.
As they did, by attending classes you will learn basic knife skills, food preparation and brand new cooking techniques. Through demonstration you will learn methods that are adaptable to your own kitchen and serve as a great foundation for your home cooking and culinary endeavours.

The range of classes means that there should be a programme to suit everyone with an interest in cooking. There is the option of the La Technique Feast, a chance to discover all about both general and specialist pastry, butchery courses, and a masterclass for the seriously ambitious.
The La Technique Feast programme is a series of eight three-hour classes, which can be taken individually, as two groups of four, or one a week over two months. At these classes while preparing a sumptuous meal you will learn a whole range of classic French Culinary techniques, timings and methods, an introduction to the principles of butchery and how to adapt the skills learnt to your own signature recipes. Each Repas Technique class covers different skills and variations to build a classic repertoire. The series also includes a great Vegetarian class. Classes conclude with all sitting down to savour the result of some hard work, accompanied by a glass of the wine that Madame Gautier sources in France.

For a greater understanding of pastry there is the La Patisserie programme, which gives you a thorough grounding in this delight. A series of eight three-hour classes, which can be taken individually or as a complete eight-week course, will provide an overview of the different types of classic pastry work and desserts, sauces, garnishes and accompaniments to master the fundamental skills of making, baking and decorating your own pastry and desserts with confidence.

Alternatively La Pâtisserie Fine features an in-depth consideration of specialty pastry. These sessions will concentrate on the finer disciplines of classic patisserie including timing and presentation enabling you to create a luxury range of patisserie and sweets.

Butchery lessons – running for five hours – feature a series of three sessions considering Beef, Pork & Lamb and Chicken. These classes will teach you the different cuts of meats and how to prepare and cook them. You will learn how to use chefs’ knives, methods of chopping and slicing, and how to get the best textures and flavours. In addition, you will be advised on how to use up all the bits, and of course how to create fantastic dishes with sauces and garnishes to compliment. You will take home a great selection of fabulous cuts and joints that you have prepared during the class.

Like the butchery course, La Grande Technique, or masterclass is over five hours and also like the butchery programme runs for three individual sessions. Altogether these represent Madame Gautier’s ultimate masterclass of French culinary techniques, covering a whole range of knife and cooking skills that you will be able to master and adapt with confidence to your home cooking routine. You will receive an introduction to butchery and fish work, create a variety of fantastic dishes using different cooking methods, master timing, preparation and presentation skills, and establish a solid understanding of cooking to impress in your kitchen. What’s more, you will leave the class with a great selection of dishes to use and cook at home.

The cost of individual classes, which are intense but also suitable for all levels from beginner upward, starts from £105 with discounts for those booking a course. You can view the teaching schedule at the Madame Gautier website, then book by calling or emailing. There are also gift vouchers available. All ingredients, equipment and utensils needed for each class are provided, while at the end of the class you will take home with all your many creations, together with extra ingredients to recreate the dishes again, and extensive notes on what you have learnt.

And you? Just bring your own passion and enthusiasm, to maximize your experience.

You may have already tasted the essence of Madame Gautier from the delights this family business offers customers at many of London’s thriving farmers’ markets, or from produce bought at the Madame Gautier shop in Barnes. You may also have always wanted to recreate this style of cooking at home. By taking cookery lessons overseen by Mark you will receive expert instruction from someone who is a classically-trained Chef, and followed in the footsteps of his father, a chef from Nice. He started aged 11 in the kitchen of his mother's restaurant, then went on to train professionally and has worked extensively in both Britain and France including at three-star Michelin restaurants in both countries. Mark’s wife, Corinne, comes from a truly gourmet family from the Languedoc discovering the pleasures of that region’s palate from a very early age. Together with Mark she has recreated the lost dishes of her grandmother and mother and together, they established Madame Gautier. Now by taking up their invitation to share in this you could almost become part of their extended family.

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January 23, 2013