Michelle Ty-Simone
Google
This is a great concept, it’s a bookstore that specializes in cookbooks and offers cooking classes.
Store: 5 stars - they had a great selection
Class: 2.5 stars for the food itself and 1 star because the teacher was rude to me
I went in with a tour group and the dishes themselves were not good, it was chicken breast, no skin, baked and it was so so so very dry. The gravy was interesting to see, the mashed potatoes were silky. The starter was a cream cheese mixed with herbs and shallots and honestly, I didn’t need a class to learn that. The dessert was simple, it was cooked fruit with cream that I was never clear how the fruit was cooked and and the cream was not taught. The caramel was taught.
I may be spoiled from my experience in Cooking with Class in Paris where everything was so organized and the end product was technically perfectly done (took the choux pastry and macarons class). Even their equipment were so perfectly organized, even the scissors were in the correct and perfect place when it was time to cut the piping bag. This felt unprofessional, frantic and the dishes were way too simple. Simple and still not good at the end of it!
Speaking to the point where the chef/teacher was rude. I subtlety pointed out that there were not enough places for the number of students, my son didn’t have a space. And the way she spoke to me was unnecessarily impolite and she did it in front of a whole class of people I didn’t know. It seemed like she took it personally that I pointed out that she made a mistake, she claimed that one person was to be positioned at the stove and that’s why they didn’t have the one chopping board and knife so everyone had the same tools. (All the knives were not uniformed either, some were pairing and some were for meat) In any case, the WAY she spoke, I felt insulted, she was mean spirited and meant to humiliate. And why not just buy one more chopping board or only allow the correct number of people to equipment. Don’t cover up your mistake by being defensive about your mistake. She never made it clear from the beginning that one person was meant to not have the equipment everyone else had. (But I did go to the bathroom before the class started I might have missed it. She still could have respectfully reminded instead of being punitive.)
It was a shame because the store was very cute and I loved that it was focused on French cookbooks. I would have come to this store and browsed even without the class. I found a reference book for charcuterie I wanted and an aroma box, like in the movie French Kiss. The aroma box was around €375 and on Amazon it was around $475. The words were in French but I still wanted it, as I’m practicing my French anyway. My husband would have loved it and it’s his birthday the following month. I was really contemplating getting it but I had to resist. If my dollar or my euro is the only thing I can make a statement with, then I couldn’t condone the disrespect so I left it behind for that reason and bought a €5 item instead.
