Rouxbe

Liz, you're right, you can't rush the caramelization of the onions...however you can do that step earlier in the day or even the day before, deglaze with an Alsatian reisling to cut down some of the sweetness...and finish the bottle with your friends.

Ashley, I'm glad you had success with the onion tart and yes in can be done with a pie plate. However, because of the slopes of a pie plate versus the 90 angles of a removable bottom tart shell, it is imperative to well rest the dough before par baking or it will slide down.

The theory is that the eggs having a porous shell, ( that is why they need to be kept protected from unwanted fridge odors and why we place eggs with fresh truffles to impart them the aroma before making a truffle omelette), will absorb some of the salt from the water, but to answer your question they will not benefit a great deal, it is more important to respect the cooking time and shock them in cold water to preserve the colour of the yolk.

They're all good. When I do a salad at home, I make the vinaigrette in a large bowl then add the greens to it, however if I have too much vinaigrette then my salad is greasy or overdressed.
The jar works best for home, because you can control how much you add to your bowl of lettuce, easy to add more but not the other way, it's also great because you can make enough to last a few days if you don't add fresh herbs or garlic to it. Finally the drizzling on the salad itself is used usually in banqueting, it allows the cooks to pre plate hundred's of salad and then drizzle, usually from a squeeze bottle, the dressing/vinaigrette at the last minute, not as good because the dressing is not well mixed with the greens but never the less a practical way for large quantities. Now if you are dressing items like a tomato salad, asparagus, beets and so on, the drizzle works well because usually these items are spread on a plate and you can better control where the dressing ends up, but you mentioned "greens" so I ultimately recommend the jar method.

Olive oil, grape seed and butter, these are the fats I use...but I don't like to use the word FAT as it has always such a negative tone in English. My father who is from Nice in France uses Olive oil in his cooking all of the time even to fry his eggs on Sunday, personally I used Organic extra virgin olive oil in my cooking often but I make sure not to get it to the smoking point...if I need to get to a higher temp. I use grape seed.
Please stay away from Pommace olive oil.

Hi Jamie,

We will be covering the plating part in the cooking school, but here are a few tips for you.
Use White plates, like you would a white canvas, no food on the borders, no cracked pepper or parmesan...please!
Inside the rim leave about 30% of the space empty, only have 4-5 components on the plates if the plate is too crowded serve the starch or vegetables on a side dish... remember the most important factor, make sure the food is hot and don't play with it too much.
Chef Christophe