What Comes to Mind When You Think of French Cooking?

This morning as I was making my way through a hotel lobby lined with a lovely array of breakfast buffet items, I began contemplating French toast. I thought to myself, why is French toast any different than regular toast? The answer was so obvious and so immediate that I don't know why it didn't slap me in the face before: eggs.

Now, let me be clear: I was not ignorant of the fact that French toast is made with eggs. That's been a generally accepted fact of life ever since I first tasted French toast. Perhaps it was because this information was such common knowledge to me, that I didn't really care what that meant. French toast is French, not because it is different than other types of toast, and not because it is any better than other types of toast, but because it is made with eggs.

Before attending a French culinary school, I was painfully unaware of the techniques and ingredients used in a lot of the traditional gourmet cuisine. At first it was kind of a joke, an observation, that I voiced in the school cafe during a dinner (where all the students present what they cooked that evening). "Wow, there's, like, eggs in everything..." But it wasn't very long into my first semester when I was basically punched in the gut with the knowledge that I had better become very comfortable with eggs if I wanted to succeed in (and enjoy) my pastry courses.

A large quantity of what I was taught to make in those classes involved a substantial amount of eggs, egg whites, egg yolks, or egg wash (and every chef has his own "correct" method for making egg wash, folks, don't screw it up). In fact, if there had somehow been a shortage of eggs at the school, our classes might have been ruined if not for the chocolatier practice! Various forms of sponge cakes and biscuits, custards, creams, meringues, mousses, macarons, breads, crepes, waffles (yes, the waffles tasted pretty much like waffle-shaped eggs!), royal icing, buttercreams - oh, the list goes on and on, and the list calls for a LOT of eggs. Even cookies required just yolks or just whites.

I tell you, folks, by the end of my education there, I could crack and separate eggs in my sleep (and there were debates about whether to crack your eggs on a flat table surface or on the edge of a bowl, too). I got to the point where I didn't really want to taste a lot of the things we made because, well, eggs. Maybe that's why I enjoyed the chocolate, candy-making, and sculpture portions of class so much -- no eggs (well, except for one technique in our sugar sculpture lessons, and the royal icing, hah!).

Okay, sure, that's just the pastry side of things! While it is true that I didn't attend the cuisine courses, I did get a chance to see and sample just about everything the cuisine classes cooked -- multiple times. The eggs were there, too; sneering at me with the hauty air of eggy superiority. Luckily people didn't have to make fun of my egg aversion at the dinner presentations, too. Most of the time I declined the food because it was already quite cold by the time we were actually able to start eating it. (Nothing more appetizing than cold eggs, am I right?)

This whole experience taught me two very clear lessons (well more than two, but I'm only listing two here for relevance): one, traditional French cooking and baking relies heavily upon eggs; and two, I am not very fond of eating eggs.

Bon appetit!