French cooking with local ingredients

Attended a French cooking class conducted by a French chef, Mr Emmanuel Stroobant. A handsome Chef. What makes me decided to go for the class is more than the French cuisine but also the use of local ingredients and done it in the French way. 4 dishes in total:

- Prawns and Tomato;
- Risotto Rataouille;
- Braised chicken with mushroom and
- Lemon tart

The class of 8 participants was conducted in his apartment (nearby the Great World City complex) that has a very nice view of the neighborhood, a very well decorated and modern kitchen. I like the kitchen very much. Wine, coffee, rice crackers and some smoke salmon in between while the Chef demonstrated and explained the dishes. Mr Emmanuel Stroobant speaks well and is lively in his presentation.



We started with a visit to the Smith Street market to buy some of the ingredients for the day. Though I have been to market pretty regularly, I was still surprised to learn that the stall owners spoke good English. When we were back to the kitchen, Mr Emmanuel Stroobant played background music as he started to explain about how to prepare each dish as he was doing the actual cooking.


Participants are free to move nearer to see how he did it, to ask him questions along the way and to have some hands-on to prepare the food voluntarily. Mr Emmanuel Stroobant shared more than just the dishes but also talked about French cuisine, his restaurant, basic skills in handling some of the kitchenware etc. In fact, Mr Emmanuel Stroobant made some minor changes to some of the dishes to better suit the day. The food is served once done. The food presentation is good just like those served in a restaurant.



I have enjoyed the session and of course picked up some knowledge from the Chef himself.

A bit more about Mr Emmanuel Stroobant. He has been in Singapore for 10 years and owned at least one restaurant such as Saint Pierre. A very easy going and friendly Chef with much passion to share his love for food. If u are interested to learn more about their cooking class, pls feel free to contact Mr Gene Mok at gene@ Emmanuelstroobant.com or Tel: 64380887.

Next cooking class? Will try a new session organized by the Raffles Hotel. I prefer a smaller class else I should have already signed up for the class conducted by Sam Leong. 40 participants are just too big a class to share and interact with the Chef.