Hi Anthony,

You are doing all the right things.
A few options try to cook the chicken breasts almost fully, then proceed as you describe, but bake at 400 or 425 this will allow the humidity in the wellington and pastry dough (in form of fat) to escape faster.
Also try to place wellington on bottom rack while using only the bottom heat, make sure the oven is pre-heated first and or sprinkle some bread crumbs where the filling will be in contact with the dough, this will help insulate the dough, in restaurants we sometime roll the wellington in thin french crepes before placing it in the dough to absorb any excess of moisture, but that is only fine if you have some crepes on hand...unless you also want to make crepe suzette for dessert!!
hope it helps

Don't worry about making a hot emulsion sauce like a hollandaise or bearnaise, to succesfully make those your eggs have to be cooked in a ruban stage sabayon, so the eggs will be cooked. For a mayonnaise, there is a company called Vanderpool, that sells pasteuriseed egg products , you may be able to find them retails or contact them for more info.

Can be done, yet I would avoid it, as the tart freezes "slowly " in your home freezer and especially defrosting you may end up with a soggy pastry. However this pie keeps well for up to 3-4 days in the fridge, to reheat place in a 325°F oven for about 15 minutes - hope this helps.

Adding herbs and garlic for 48 hours will flavour your vinegar, but the vinegar is very acidic on the PH level even when mixed with oil, so for that reason vinaigrettes will last a long time, so to be clear infusing adds flavour but will not increase it's shelf life as it will be stable for a very long time anyway.
What will spoil your vinaigrette will be the shallots, herbs , garlic and so on left in your vinaigrette these ingredient will eventually go mushy and spoil it, but if they are removed, then all is well. Hope it helps

I have done cured salmon, gravlax for years always using fresh salmon, the more salt and longer you leave it on the more cured and the more safe your salmon will be, because the flesh will then be very alkaline inhibiting bacteria to multiply and parasite to nourish themselves, this process has been around a long time. Nowadays we do not cure it for as long because we do have refrigeration and don't care much for very salty fish, so the modern version is more a compromise, the salmon should be very fresh, either fresh or previously frozen when very fresh, it should be cured in the fridge and kept in the fridge easily up to a week after the curing process before it may spoil, you can also cure several fillets and freeze them. Defrosting and using one at the time, Hope it helps.

Hi Todd,

You need to add the stock in small amounts, especially the first time to allow for the roux to absorb the liquid, once you have a smooth, yet very thick gravy , you may add more stock until you reach the desire consistency. Hope this helps.

I only use a roux or a slurry if my pot roast sauce is too thin.
You could also thicken the sauce before you cook the pot roast. After sauteing your aromatics, deglaze with wine as instructed, reduce till syrupy and add a couple of tablespoons (30ml) of flour to form a thin paste, add your stock and or water/bouillon, your meat and you should end up with a liquid that has the proper sauce consistency once the cooking process is done.
Bon appetit

Hi Kahled,

First what you mention seems more like a case where the metal will change colour when heated, not much you can do about it, however if its grease that burnt under the pot or certainly on the outside or inside then in that case spray some oven cleaner in a well ventilated place like outside and scrub them clean the next morning, that is what we do at the school every couple of months....don't get copper because now we're talking lots of polishing every time you use them but cooper pots are the best but not pans.
Happy cleaning and remember a stained pot is like a lady with crow's feet at the edge of the eyes....it's experience!!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.