In the shadows of a legend

Cooking shows...some I love, some I don't but it's great when you find a good one. You get inspired. You get to see creativity in action. If only you got to eat it too, am I right?

One such inspiring cooking show for me was La Pitchoune: Cooking in France. There are some unique things about this show. First of all it is set in the previous home of Julia Child! Talk about inspiration. In this show the new owners of what is fondly referred to as "La Peetch" have what they call the Courageous Cooking School. What makes it courageous? They teach recipe-free cooking. Another unique thing is that the students pay to stay at the school for a week and are immersed in all kinds of lessons.

Their website asks the question, "When did we start figuring out dinner instead of preparing a meal"? They indicate that recipes have replaced our intuition. Don't get me wrong, I love recipes and cookbooks, but I have learned a lesson from this show. I now use the recipes more of a guide but not an exact method. If I don't have an ingredient I don't freak out, I see what I have that can work instead. I also experiment a lot with spices. In the show they have a whole episode dedicated to cooking courageously with experimenting with spices. 

They believe that a courageous life begins with courageous cooking. They believe in trusting our gut so to speak. Making cooking more of an experience and an outlet for out creativity and exploration. 

Things they believe at La Pitchoune:

1. Your are trustworthy, we are just here to tap you into your abilities.
2. Your intuition is better than any book
3. You can cook. If you enjoy eating, you're naturally inclined to be a great cook.

The goal of the Courageous Cooking School is to teach anyone to cook from the hip and develop skills that will make cooking pleasurable. They have an amazing chef and culinary team that will teach you how to cook in a whole new way. They create without the option of failure.

What happens when you learn to cook without recipes? You learn to trust your instincts, that technique is more important than perfection, and if you are having fun it's going to be good. 

The school is located just outside of Grasse, France, and they focus on instilling solid French cooking techniques with new flavors and changing your relationship with cooking. 

What this show introduced me to is the creativity and freedom of cooking. I was always a strict recipe follower, and I would get frustrated when things did not go well. I never felt like I was a good cook. Through this show I have learned the freedom of going with my instincts in cooking. I mostly do this by playing around with ingredients, changing the type of chicken I use, or adding spices that I think will compliment. I also play around with cutting back on things like sugar. Does it always work? No of course not but it's a process and a learning curve. Next time I use more spices or different ones. 

I love the inspiration of this show and how they teach everything from how to shop at the market to picking spices to use, to methods of cooking. So far, there has only been one season and it is available on both the Magnolia Network and HBO Max.

*All info obtained from the La Peetch website for copyright purposes*