Morning

To make the most of your time at the Gascony Cookery School we like to serve breakfast for 8.30am which consists of a traditional French affair of local breads, croissants from the local village of St Clar and homemade preserves. There are also cereals, yoghurts, fruit and a good helping of coffee, tea and orange juice available.

Following breakfast it’s straight into the kitchen of Chef David who will conduct a short tour of the kitchen and an introduction to basic knife skills. Once your knife skills are honed it’s onto preparing a simple, French dressing and sauce suzette before beginning work on your pastry skills by preparing a Gateau Pithivers, an ornately decorated puff pastry dessert with a delicious crème d’armandes at it’s centre.

With your first successfully completed French dessert of the week completed, you will then be given the opportunity to hone those skills even further by replicating Chef David’s famous pizza gersois; a freshly made pizza base topped with local onions, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and thinly sliced duck breast.

Your first morning will conclude with further patisserie practice as you prepare a pâte sucrée, a form of sweetened pastry, which will provide the base for the Tarte Aux Pommes that you will make on Tuesday afternoon.

Afternoon

Following a traditionally long French lunch you will make your way across the road to the Auberge where Chef Bernard will introduce you to the art of preparing Foie Gras. You will prepare four different types of foie gras –mi-cuit, traditional, cru and pain d’épices before turning your attention to another quintessentially Gascon dish; cassoulet. Bernard will share with you his tried and tested wisdom as to the best way in which to prepare his restaurant’s most popular dish before giving you a tour of his sixty five cover restaurant.

You will see and experience the difference between Bernard’s kitchen and David’s and the opportunity to compare these very different cooking environments and the difference in cooking for an intimate number of guests and catering on a more commercial scale.

Your next task with Bernard will be to make crêpes for the evening dinner and your sauce suzette prepared at the beginning of the day will be finishing ingredient to this traditional French classic. As the first day comes to a close you will return to Chef David’s kitchen to complete two final pastries; Pâte Sablée and Pâte Sucrée.

Evening

You will be invited to take a tour of the wine museum with wine in hand at Bernard’s restaurant and experience his signature menu gourmand: an haute cuisine experience in traditional Gascon manner that will include the three different types of duck foie gras that you prepared earlier… Bon appetit.

Morning

Breakfast will be at 9.00am because today you are off to market. With shopping baskets and shopping lists in hand we will make our way to the local market town of Fleurance. Here you will be able to familiarise yourself with the regional produce and select the fresh ingredients that you will be using in the afternoon class and during your time with us.

Fleurance’s market is a host to an array of tasty Gascon treats that are sure to whet your appetite. You will then continue on to the nearby Roman town of Lectoure where you will lunch in a local café before returning to the cookery school for the afternoon cooking class.

Afternoon

Chef David will begin by instructing you in the correct way to fillet a fish before preparing the perfect veloute sauce as an accompaniment. You will then be given another opportunity to practice your pastry and knife skills by creating a beautifully presented Tarte aux Pommes.

Evening

Before dinner you will be invited back into the kitchen with Chef David to focus on plating and general presentation skills. The fish in velouté sauce and Tarte Aux Pommes that you prepared earlier will be the centre piece of the evening’s menu, giving you the chance to enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Breakfast will be served as usual, until 10am and we ask you to kindly vacate your room before 11am.

À bientôt!