Despite being overstretched, [Chef] Bugnard [of the Cordon Bleu cooking school] was infinitely kind, a natural if understated showman, and he was tireless in his explanations. He drilled us in his careful standards of doing everything the “right way.” He broke down the steps of a recipe and made them simple. And he did so with a quiet authority, insisting that we thoroughly analyze texture and flavor: “But how does it taste,
Madame Scheeld?”
One morning he asked, “Who will make oeufs brouilléstoday?”
The GIs [my fellow students] were silent, so I volunteered for scrambled-egg duty.
Bugnard watched intently as I whipped some eggs and cream into a froth, got the frying pan very hot, and slipped in a pat of butter, which hissed and browned in the pan.
“Non!” he said in horror, before I could pour the egg mixture into the pan. “That is absolutely wrong!” …
With a smile, Chef Bugnard cracked two eggs and added a dash of salt and pepper.
“Like this,” he said, gently blending the yolks and whites together with a fork. “Not too much.” He smeared the bottom and sides of the frying pan with butter, then gently poured the eggs in. Keeping the heat low, he stared intently at the pan. Nothing happened. After a long three minutes, the eggs began to thicken into a custard. Stirring rapidly with the fork, sliding the pan on and off the burner, Bugnard gently pulled the egg curds together—“Keep them a little bit loose; this is very important,” he instructed. “Now the cream or butter,” he said, looking at me with raised eyebrows. “This will stop the cooking, you see?” I nodded, and he turned the scrambled eggs out onto a plate, sprinkled a bit of parsley around, and said, “Voilà!” …
It was a remarkable lesson. No dish, not even the humble scrambled egg, was too much trouble for him. “You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made,” he said. “Even after you eat it, it stays with you—always.” …
I was in pure, flavorful heaven at the Cordon Bleu. Because I had already established a good basic knowledge of cookery on my own, the classes acted as a catalyst for new ideas, and almost immediately my cooking improved. Before I’d started there, I would often put too many herbs and spices into my dishes. But now I was learning the French tradition of extracting the full, essential flavors from food—to make, say, a roasted chicken taste really chickeny. …
But not everything was perfect. Madame Brassart [the school’s owner] had crammed too many of us into the class, and Bugnard wasn’t able to give the individual attention I craved. There were times when I had a penetrating question to ask, or a fine point that burned inside of me, and I simply wasn’t able to make myself heard. All this had the effect of making me work even harder.
I had always been content to live a butterfly life of fun, with hardly a care in the world.
But at the Cordon Bleu, and in the markets and restaurants of Paris, I suddenly discovered that cooking was a rich and layered and endlessly fascinating subject. The best
Part 2 (Questions 9–20)
Directions (9–20): Below each passage, there are several multiple-choice questions. Select the best suggested answer to each question and record your answer on the separate answer sheet provided for you.
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40Comp. Eng. — Jan. ’13 [6]
9 The description of Chef Bugnard as a “natural … showman” (line 2) indicates that he was a teacher who (1) engaged his students
(2) demanded obedience
(3) expected success
(4) discouraged his students
10 The reference to Chef Bugnard’s “standards of doing everything the ‘right way’” (line 3) probably means that he required
(1) compliments (3) attention
(2) payment (4) perfection
11 The narrator uses the phrase “After a long three minutes” (lines 17 and 18) to emphasize a sense of (1) completion (3) anticipation
(2) unreality (4) boredom
12 As described in the passage, Madame Brassart’s policies caused the narrator to feel
(1) overworked by unscheduled assignments
(2) frustrated by large class sizes
(3) desperate for financial support
(4) embarrassed to ask for assistance
13 When the narrator describes her previous
“butterfly life” (line 38), she implies that she had been (1) casual (3) unhappy
(2) forgetful (4) fragile
14 What is the format in which this passage is organized? (1) order of importance
(2) chronological order
(3) personal anecdotes
(4) comparison and contrast