A dream come true, and you too can cook and bake at Le Cordon Bleu during your next trip to Paris!

I discovered the short course option last year, and immediately put on my calendar to sign up for a class when the spring session opened for 2025. Released on their website a couple of months prior to the date of the course, all of the classes – savory and sweet, wine, specific skills and general courses too – How to Cook Like a Chef! – are offered, and seasonal recipes are shared. So even if you are taking the Sauces course, if you take it in March as I did, if you signed up for it again during the summer, there would be different sauces taught. All of the detailed recipes are shared on the curriculum page for each course and organized by season.

Signing up for the L’Art des Sauces et des Jus (The Art of Making Sauces and Jus) as it was the course offered during my time in Paris that I knew would strengthen my skill set as I have always had questions about making a sauce, and how to save a sauce!, I couldn’t wait to step foot in this famed and beloved culinary institution.

Now, as many of you already know, their are Le Cordon Bleu schools around the world, so wherever you call home, or wherever you might be traveling to, be sure to explore their website and click on the city where you will be to see which courses they have available. Of course, the Grand Diploma is the most commonly known and most prestigious to receive after years of work and classes, but now, they also offer Short Courses. And did you know that if you enroll in the Grand Diploma, you also take French language classes as you move through the culinary portion so that you will be proficiently speaking French when you graduate.

The Short Courses are not to be confused with the classes they offer in Paris at Hôtel de La Marine, while taught by Le Cordon Bleu chefs, the courses at the hôtel are shorter still, taught in English and more leisurely and fun, but still, you walk away with new skills about the topic you choose. Explore those courses here.

The Short Courses are all taught at the same building as the Grand Diploma courses. This is the official home of Le Cordon Bleu Paris, and you will see the professors (head chefs) wearing their toque blanches as they walk about the school if they are teaching or about to teach a course. Students are not wearing these yet as they receive them upon graduating. Yep, to answer your question, Patrick, our head chef for our class wore his toque blanche the entire time, for six hours.

Explore all of the Short Courses available at Le Cordon Bleu – Paris here.

Two Short Courses are typically taught each school day in their front cooking/teaching classroom that you see above and below. There are sixteen cooking stations with each student having their stove, oven and counter behind them.

All our tools and utensils were set up for us, and all of the necessary ingredients were prepared by the students enrolled in the Grand Diploma, the sous chefs so to speak, creating the mise en place for all of us which saved time.

We each received a booklet filled with all of the recipes that potentially would be taught. I say potentially because due to time, we couldn’t cook them all, but he would reference those. Patrick, the head chef, would also deviate from the recipe from time to time, and that would not be in the booklet, so a pencil is provided for you to take copious notes if you would like. I did my best!

In fact, one of the ‘extra’ recipes he shared had to do with how to cook a salmon, and since this wasn’t a class about seafood, of course, it wasn’t in our notes, but oh, my goodness, it was delicious. So grateful to have learned this technique, and I will be teaching it in TSLL’s Intro to French Cooking Class that will launch on August 24th (2025).

They advise wearing comfortable shoes and for good reason, you are standing the entire time – six hours in our case, and my calves ached when I arrived back home at my apartment (and I was wearing supportive shoes!).

Throughout the entire class, Patrick spoke only French, which I loved and welcomed; however, they do have a translator in the room (she was British) and she translated everything into English just in case. However, if you weren’t standing next to her, you had to listen carefully to make sure you heard her if there was a room full of whisking. She was incredibly kind and would repeat anything you may have missed, as would Patrick in French.

About Patrick. Oh my goodness. What a gem of a teacher – stern, but hilariously funny. A straight face that would always be followed with a coy smile. These classes are to be enjoyed, but challenge you so that you grow as a knowledge cook or baker, and both objectives were definitely met.

While we continued to make as many of the sauces as time allowed, the sous chefs were finishing certain items, and by the end of the class, the dining room was set up for us, complete with baguettes and wine to enjoy all that we made. A truly special way to end the day.

The class was full, and students came from all over the world, and even right there in Paris. The woman cooking directly in front of me lives in Paris and regularly comes to the school to take courses. Another woman had a pied a terre in southern France and was from Australia, and while she was up in Paris, she wanted to take a cooking class. There was only one couple, and the rest were all individuals who thoroughly loved cooking, and they were great cooks in their own right! And yes, most of the folks spoke French, even if it was their second language, but some knew about as much as I did, and took the class to both improve their cooking as much as to practice their French language listening and comprehension skills. So much fun to be with people who loved to cook as well as the language.

Prior to the course, you have a special discount and can buy items from their store – kitchen tools, notebooks, towels, etc. Because our course finished late after the shop had closed, if you had not purchased anything, you were out of luck, so just a head’s up that if you sign up for an afternoon course, to shop before your class begins.

If you are looking to expand your cooking skills, and will be in Paris in the future, why not sign up for a class? I had an amazing time, and I am confident you will as well.

See below the building of Le Cordon Bleu at night as I was departing, which is just a few blocks down the Seine from Le Tour de Eiffel.

Simply walk up those circular stairs on the left and onto the balcony and there you will find the automatically opening doors to begin your culinary journey whether it be a short or grand one. Bon appétit !

Click here to learn more about their Short Courses and enroll! Oh! and yep, you do get a proper apron, a very nice one in fact. ☺️🇫🇷

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