Snapshots: Working at L'Ecole

Alex heats up the rabbit terrine at the Saucier station at L'Ecole in Manhattan.

Two more months. That's all the time I have before I graduate. I'm already feeling nostalgic, looking back at our first day of cutting vegetables to feeling the heat from the burner.  I'm in the last week of Level 5, working at L'Ecole, The French Culinary Institute's restaurant. Then we head into Level 6. I want to remember my classmates and the dishes we cooked for the public. Here are snapshots from working on the line.


Four classmates and I were responsible for assembling a vegetarian dish at the Entremetier station. Chef S wanted to make a vegetarian cassoulet. Baby artichokes, turnips and sunchokes were smoked, while baby carrots and red pearl onions were cooked separately. The vegetables were strategically placed on a bed of beans and mushrooms. The smoked vegetables made the dish taste like bacon. A front-of-house staffer told Chef S a diner who ate the dish refused to believe the cassoulet had no meat in it. Chef S chuckled when he heard the story.


Adela looks over the hangar steak with cucumber ribbons and pommes darphin (fried potato cake.)


Brandon finishes plating the rabbit terrine with grilled scallion, sauteed rabbit loin and potato fennel cake.



Wes puts brussels sprouts on a plate with smoked scallops.


With service over, we wait until Chef S allows us to go.