Baking Workshop at Galeries Lafayette: How Even I Managed to Bake a Tarte Tatin

Let me start this article with a confession: I am an extremely bad cook, and my fear of cooking is inversely proportional to my love of food. Therefore, I only enter the kitchen when accompanied by an MDA mobile phone or with someone who loves to cook (and then I am there as a spectator from the sidelines, babbling about France and then eating). Therefore, if someone had told me that one day I would cook Tart Tatin, I would have sneered. But to my surprise, that's exactly what happened in September 2021, during my trip to Paris.

I took my parents with me on this trip, because I saw that they also missed me very much. To the city of lights, after nearly two years in which they had not traveled abroad because of the Corona virus. While my father would return to the hotel to rest after a few hours, my mother ran around Paris with me on an endless journey, which was entirely dedicated to photography and collecting material for my news articles. And so we found ourselves traveling around the City of Lights while covering kilometers upon kilometers (an average of about 14 km a day).

This is no small feat, especially for someone who is already over 75 – and I wanted to give her something as a gift for being such a wonderful mother. I remembered my mother telling me that she had read in Paris that there were cooking classes for “ordinary people” who wanted to learn how to make classic French dishes. Since she really liked the concept, I decided to do a little research online and ended up at Ferrandi’s school, located in the culinary department of the famous Galeries Lafayette department store. I saw that there were several cooking classes, and I decided to choose tarte tatin for two main reasons.

The first reason was somewhat prosaic: It's a delicious cake that I really like. The second reason was that it's a relatively simple recipe, so the chance of me causing harm to life or property when I tried to bake it would be minimal (at least that's what I thought).

And so, on a fall afternoon in September, we both stood at the entrance to Galeries Lafayette Gourmet, ready for our culinary adventure.

How I managed to bake a tarte tatin despite everything

Before I tell you about my experience, I wanted to write a few words about the Frandi School, one of whose instructors was the one who taught the baking workshop we attended.

Most of us are familiar with the Cordon Bleu brand, but many in France claim that Frendi is the best school among them. This school is a combination of several schools specializing in cooking and hospitality, some of which have been around for about a hundred years. The goal of this school is to train employees (including senior managers) to work in hotels and restaurants, so they study not only cooking and baking but also culinary management and interior design. Every year, about 1,500 students study there, and about 90% of them find work in the profession after graduating, which indicates the prestige of this school.

The nice instructor was very practical and immediately started teaching us how to bake a tarte tatin and prepare whipped creamIf only he knew who he was dealing with…

Despite all this, the instructor was very, very patient, and after quite a bit of effort, the cake went into the oven and came out slightly crooked but not burnt.

The cakes were respectfully taken to the table, which had been set up earlier, where everyone tasted their creations. While enjoying a warm tarte tatin accompanied by excellent whipped cream, which we also made, a philosophical conclusion occurred to me that I would be happy to share with you:

It doesn't matter what kind of cook you are, as long as you put enough butter and sugar in the cake, it will be delicious 🙂

And so, a little tired but mostly satisfied, we went back to running around the streets of Paris, with the cake we baked (there's no way you'll be able to finish it in one go) and a friend's apron that we received as a gift. There's no doubt that with all the sugar and carbs we ate, we got energy for many more hours of walking the streets and taking pictures, and you'll see the results on the blog, atFacebok And bInstagram of anonymous Francophiles.

Tart Tatin – Recipe

If you want to make a cake like this at home, you are welcome to use the recipe we used during the course and which I received from Galeries Lafayette. You are welcome to read it via the website, or if that is less convenient, click on the link below and download it to your computer.

Cooking workshop at Galeries Lafayette in Paris

If you want to participate in a cooking workshop with a chef, all you have to do is click on theLink thisIf you are looking for more cooking workshops, you are welcome to visitCulinary Tours Page On the site, which also contains recommended cooking workshops.

I really hope you enjoy the experience, just as much as I did, and I would be very happy to read about your experiences in the comments to the article.

Looking for what else to do in Paris?

• If you like the creative aspect of cooking and are looking for more creative workshops, let me recommend this article to you. What to do in Paris? Perfume workshops, fashion, jewelry and painting classes.
• Have you finished the workshop and want to find out what else you can do in the 9th arrondissement (where Galeries Lafayette is located)? Go to the article Attractions in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.
• If you are looking for more in-depth information about the City of Lights, you are welcome to visit the page Paris, my complete guide that covers all relevant aspects of the trip (hotel recommendations, itineraries, attractions, etc.).