École Ferrandi de La Gastronomie Francaise puts out some of the most gifted and famous chefs here in France and throughout the world. Known as the Harvard of culinary schools, the name Ferrandi is well known and respected within the inner circle of restaurateurs worldwide.
I have a special connection to Ferrandi, for it is where my son, who is an executive chef back in states, studied several years ago. I went back to see the school the other weekend to show a young friend around during their Portes Ouvert, a time where they welcome the public in to see first hand all of their facilities.
Seeing their multiple gleaming stainless steel kitchens to the various laboratories again, all brought back many memories for me. I was fortunate to have been invited several times to try out the delicious creations that the students prepared for family and friends.
Throughout the year, the student chefs worked up a regional menu from different parts of France, highlighting various regional specialities. These were sit down affairs lasting three to four hours composed of multiple courses with an aperitif and the wines of the region,offering great food for the invitees.
Ferrandi was started in 1920 by the Parisian chamber of commerce and industry, which still financially underwrites much of the school. This assures that all the pride, glory and prestige of French cuisine is reflected throughout in a grand manner.
With the popularity of televised programs such as Top Chef and Master Chef and the stardom achieved by chefs here, the school has grown to recently opening a branch in Bordeaux. A big plus for Ferrandi students is the exposure they get from famous chefs who come to offer demonstration courses in their amphitheater.
The school boosts state of the art equipment in 15 kitchens and 5 laboratories. The students get the very best foods that France reaps from her oceans and lands to create their delicious masterpieces.
Though technique obviously is primordial in preparing future professional chefs, they need to know how to recognise and choose excellence in primary ingredients. Developing a seasoned palate is essential in order to correctly execute dishes.
For that reason, Ferrandi orders only the freshest and best of everything, from pristinely fresh fish and shellfish, first-rate vegetables, renown poultry, prized meats and last but not least, the freshest of artisanal foie gras and truffles. The students literally work with only the best that France has to offer.
I remember my son raving about the foie gras he used as having arrived directly from an artisanal farm via the TGV train, within a 6 hour time frame from having been taken from the foie gras duck.
Several of the professors have won the prestigious Bocuse D’Or or MOF, Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, which are awards given to the highest levels of competence in various culinary professions, such as pastry, baking, chocolate, cooking and ice creams, amongst others.
You might notice that some of the students in the photos are quite young, because Ferrandi also provides a professional high school education to students who have decided as a very tender age of 15 to enter the culinary arts, be it a chef, baker or pastry maker.
They also have culinary programs in cooking, baking and pastry for international students taught in english and french. All international programs consist of months of skill training and food preparation and end with stages, which are on hands experience in starred restaurants or pastry shops.
The higher levels of training are for students who have already completed a French high school baccalaureate and want to earn a university equivalent degree in pastry, baking, cooking, or restaurant management. They generally last three years and always end with several months experience in famous starred restaurants.
For those already in the culinary arts, the school offers post-graduate and tailor-made courses for professionals to enlarge their expertise in several cooking, catering or baking specialties.
All students enjoy school organised trips throughout France that focus on discovering each regions specialities in food and wine, that are a bargain in terms of on site visiting of producers and eating in acclaimed area restaurants.
People are often surprised that Ferrandi also trains future maitre d’hotels and servers for 2 to 3 years. Their destinies are not to work in mom and pop or chain restaurants but in elite and famous gastronomic establishments where the art of serving is taken to a lofty level of expertise and care, that can define the restaurant’s overall prestige as well as the chef in so far as providing a gastronomic dining experience.
With all the glorious food the students prepare, Ferrandi offers two in-house restaurants for them to practice cooking and serving real patrons. I can testify that their restaurant is a choice hidden jewel !
Where else, in the heart of Paris can you have a multi course gastronomic experience for 25 to 45 euros? Lunches are 25 euros and the dinners or 40 to 45 depending on the levels of training of the students that are preparing your dishes.
The wine list may be limited, but is impressive for the quality of bottles offered at extremely reasonable prices, that you hardly will find in any Paris restaurant. A plus for me was seeing the incredible effort put forth by the student servers wanting to score as much perfection as the student chefs, especially performing intricate table side carving and finishing off some of the dishes in front of their patrons.
Although Ferrandi restaurant may be a well-kept secret , it’s not for those in the culinary know, as their restaurant is completely booked till June for evenings, and only a few slots left each month for lunch.
One of the international students I talked to had left her government law job in Washington DC to pursue a personal dream of being a pastry chef.
One thing very noticeable, is the influx of female students. Though the industry is still male dominated, women chefs and pastry chefs are on the rise, even here in France.
An exception to that tradition was in Lyon, France’s third largest city, where it was les meres Lyonnaise in their small bistros that brought Lyonnaise cooking to the eminence of being called the heart and best of French cooking.
If you ask most French chefs today, they will tell you that their interest in cooking was initiated by their mothers and grandmothers passionate outpourings in the family kitchen. I know that my own son was well indoctrinated at an early age, seeing me with my flour dusted elbows making croissants, pastries and brioche, along with a nightly feast worthy of a king’s ransom!
Being a chef is very hard work requiring much skilful precision to detail and a constant striving towards perfection, expected by patrons. The hours are awful and the demands are seemingly never met in a days time.
The rewards are knowing that you are creating beautiful enjoyable moments and a memorable dining experience for those in search of gastronomic pleasures. I know I have had lifetime memories because of these gifted chefs in the past, and now I am enjoying creating new ones thanks to the hands of my own talented son, and Ferrandi graduate ,chef Andre!
South Florida has quite a few culinary schools . . . while they are perhaps a notch or two (or three) below École Ferrandi de La Gastronomie Francaise, some of them are well ranked nationally in the USA.
In the past, when we lived in Norh Miami, we dined at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school on a couple of occassions. They frequently are open to the public for dining, esp. on the weekends. As I recall, the meals were extremely good and well preseented . . . so much is in the presentation, huh?
These types of three to four hours multi-course meals are almost an experience from earlier ages, except for those who have the appreciation of such gastronomic delights . . . LOL . . . undoubtedly much more than June and I could handle except on rare occassions. It is more like the early 1900 era where fine dining was quite an art. (Such as depicted in the PBS series “Downtown Abbey” where dining was a high point in wealthy people’s day.).
I was surprised at the notice of two to three years course for maitre d’hotel and “servers”.also.
Even in our rather fast paced societies, an evening of fine dining can be a tremendously enjoyable way to the best of cusine, service, and company. Living in Paris must be an exceptional world of opportunities to enjoy life . . . history, culture, events, entertainment, and fine dining. What more could one wish for in life?
Thank you David for your informative comment. Le Cordon Bleu school is alive and well in several countries, and does provide good training in the US and elsewhere, but not at the same high bar as Ferrandi, which is the ultimate.
Gastronomie is a sought out pleasure that does require a good amount of discernment, that you either grow up with or learn on your own.
For me, and what I instilled in my own children, was that dinner time was a time of sharing your day , activities and feelings, while eating dishes lovingly prepared by myself. When you and your family are gathered around he dinning room table, it can become a sacred time for comtinued emotional bonding and sharing. It was imperative that we all ate together!
Great Post Mom! I have wonderful memories of Ferrandi. Top notch state of the art kitchen, all copper pots. Beautiful ingredients for the students to work with. Even though I had restaurant experience prior to attending Ferrandi, they get the students ready for a career in a “working kitchen” unlike a lot of culinary schools here in the U.S. To this day I still use my pastry book giving to me at Ferrandi. The experience there left a mark on my development as a chef that will stay with me forever
Thank you Andre for sharing your memories as a student at Ferrandi! It was a very special time for me too, as I vicariously enjoyed every detail of each day’s glorious preparation, almost as if I was there too!
Cooking for more than 6 people is laborious enough for me, so I am always amazed how you can cook for so many patrons every day, keeping a very high level of perfection in place. Being an executive chef and restauranteur is non stop multitasking and extremely demanding in all aspects! You deserved all the awards of excellence that you earned with your amazing gifts and talent. I am very proud of all of your accomplishments and miss the wonderful times that we cooked together, though now I am your sous chef! Love and Hugs!