Monday, June 25, 2012

Chef Marthe - Macaron Class

 I drew this portrait business card for Chef Marthe as a 'Thank you' for letting me attend her class.
 Then she turned around and invited me to her macaron class the next day!
 My class mates were 4 British bridesmaids + the bride. This was their surprise gift - a trip to Paris and the macaron cooking class.
 I hope the bride(here) is happily making lots of macarons for her honey now.
 Chef Marthe demonstrates the perfect beaten eggwhite texture.
 We used the 'Italian method' for making the meringue shells, which entails heating the sugar and using the dreaded candy thermometer.
 Of course I fell madly in love with chef Marthe's adorable rooster kitchen timer but n'existe pas on Amazon thus far...
 Chef Marthe prefers Picard frozen raspberries to fresh for filling the macarons, because the berries are whole and not mushy. Who knew?
 I'm skipping around in the gazillion macaron making steps. Here the beaten eggwhites are being introduced into the colored almond flour.
 Chef Marthe has a gazillion tricks up her sleeve.
 Has the bride taken this class before? She's making perfect little round shells.
 Into the oven they go.
And out they come looking as perfect as can be with dainty little 'feet'.
 Another Marthe trick - removing the shells from the baking paper without breakage.
 Enfin...
 The tasting begins and goes on and on.
 The lucky bridal group is heading off to a night at la Moulin Rouge.
Au revoir et merci !

27 comments:

  1. Carol, fascinating to see how they are made. Thanks for sharing the process, I know they are not easy to make and practice is required. Do like the stylish design for the business card !!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great drawing on the business card.
    I love the shots of "the girls" - everyone semms to be having a great time.
    Macarons are just too complicared :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boy are they complicated.
      Two strikes out and I think I'm on the sidelines for good.

      Delete
  3. Charming post. Love the card!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does she print the little circles or what? I just drew them and then learned I had to turn the paper over so I didn't have pencil marks on the bottoms of macs.
    xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the circles were on a separate piece of paper underneath...I think
      I better take her class again :)

      Delete
    2. Oh, that's a good idea. Only one time to make the big dots.

      What a fun thing for the bachelorette party!

      Ann

      Delete
  5. Merci Carol for this nice mention about Meeting the French and Chef Marthe's Macaron Class. Love the photos and those British girlies look like they had such fun ! Please check out our Meeting the French Facebook page and Meeting the French Blog !

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would love to take a class there. I love macarons and I can't eat just one!!! I get the at the Japanese place downtown, just don't know the name. My favorite flavor is rose... Love this...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Her card is wonderful! Wow what a treat for la mariée to be~
    Unheard of in my milieu:)
    I too would love the op.to take a class there.You must have had a ball:)

    Would you settle for a chicken timer? That is a bit too quiet?:)If time is NOT of the essence:)?

    Love her template!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Geri, NJ5:03 PM

    Yikes ~ What a fantastic gift! I love that they all showed up wearing stripes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, the business card is truly special (and memorable)!

    This is a fabulous story, Carol, the bride and bridesmaids clearly had a ball (and the macarons too).

    ReplyDelete
  10. Two amazing sweeties! The bride for surprising her gals with a great trip experience and chef M for including you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Chef Marthe Brohan6:39 PM

    Thank you Carol,
    for this very nice article on my macarons,
    It is elegant and the souvenir of a very good work and moment together.
    Mille mercis encore
    Marthe

    ReplyDelete
  12. How incredibly fun!!! You must be the world's number 1 all around Macaron expert, who finds all the other macaron experts! They look so delicious. Love the stripes and the dots and the rooster and the fun girls too!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow. What a treat to be able to take a class like that! Your card for her is wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous9:23 PM

    After reading your post I got out the eggs and started making chocolate macarons,using a recipe from the internet. Its try number 3. Although its raining hard here in Oregon,making humidity a factor we managed to get "feet" this time.Yay! I re-read your post about class at Lenotre & other links. Everything you say is helpful and the pics are great. Some cracked,some are beauties.
    But,they taste great.Thanks for the inspiration. Todays post is so sweet.merci~

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love your card and what a fun class! Love that they all wore the striped shirts in honor of Bear ;) How sweet was that?!

    ReplyDelete
  16. You got me so hooked on macarons by your lovely stories that I just signed up for a macaron class in two weeks time. Alas, it’s not in Paris but in Berlin, the school is not Lenotre or the Ritz but called Kochlust and the chief is not Marthe but Anna, but definitively macarons it’ll be :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. How fun! What a great activity with your friends.

    ReplyDelete
  18. What a lucky group! Next time, take some shots of French interiors!

    ReplyDelete
  19. what fun!! and you're increasing the macaroon business by hundreds of euros each time you post! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Terry Tan12:28 AM

    Those British girls look like Parisians now in their striped shirts. And their macarons look amazing. Very good teacher.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Maryanne (bridesmaid)7:01 AM

    Amazing,

    Thank you so much for this. I looked on your blog for a few weeks after we returned hoping to see us but had given up so I would never have found this without your direction.
    Thanks again.
    I still tell everybody about our amazing macaroons but havn't quite gathered the courage to try myself.

    Best wishes

    Maryann

    ReplyDelete
  22. Richard2:18 PM

    Amazon UK has the Chicken timer for£9.99 (€12.50) with free delivery within UK.
    It is in Kitchen & Home under KITCHEN TIMER CHICKEN white.
    I hope this helps you and they will post to the Continent.
    Regards,
    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous10:23 AM

    hello, i'm french, i just went to the macaron class of Marthe this week: it was awesome, even for a french!! if you look after her roosten kitchen timer, i just saw it in a "casa" shop today...

    ReplyDelete

Love hearing from you