Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole Hosts First Event for U.S. Travelers

On February 23, 2017, the Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole hosted its first event for a group of U.S. travelers to Paris!

As the Académie's Ambassador to the U.S., I was pleased to propose a culinary workshop to Jacqueline Cofield, founder of J Rêve International, for J Rêve's second Paris Global Arts and Culture Exchange Program for educators. This professional development excursion took place from February 19-25, 2017 and Cofield was excited to include culinary arts as part of the activities for attendees.

Isabelle Tulle, the Académie's communications consultant, arranged for the workshop to be held at La Canne à Sucre - an Antillean and Reunion Island restaurant of long standing in Paris' 18th arrondissement.

La Canne à Sucre
© Discover Paris!

Jacqueline Cofield at La Canne à Sucre
© Discover Paris!

Chef Stéphane Sorbon, winner of the Académie's 2016 Trophée Entrepreneurs (Entrepreneur Trophy) for traditional Créole cuisine, was the creative force behind the event. When we arrived, he was busily setting up the preparation stations for the afternoon.

Chef Stéphane Sorbon sets up for the atelier
© Discover Paris!

On the menu were the following Caribbean classics:

• Punch Planteur (Planter's Punch) - cocktail
• Accras de Morue (Cod fritters) - starter
• Colombo de Poulet (Colombo Chicken) - main dish
• Blanc Manger Coco (Coconut pudding) - dessert

Preparation Stations:
Upper left and right - Punch Planteur and Accras de Morue
Lower left and right - Colombo de Poulet and Blanc Manger Coco
Individual photos and collage © Discover Paris!

The eight participants formed four teams of two persons. Each team was responsible for preparing one part of the meal.

To make things even more interesting, each team was asked to evaluate the appearance, presentation of the preparation, and taste of the dishes prepared by the other teams. The team with the highest score won a prize.

Chef Sorbon instructed each team in turn. Because he does not speak English, I served as translator.

We began with the Blanc Manger Coco because it had to cool and set in time for dinner. Team members Autumn Scroggin and Bobby Couch took turns grating, chopping, stirring, and cooking the ingredients for what turned out to be a delectable finish for the meal.

Team Blanc Manger Coco: Autumn Scroggin and Bobby Couch
© Discover Paris!

Upper left and right - Bobby grates nutmeg; Autumn grates lime zest
Lower left and right - Autumn stirs the milk mixture; Bobby cooks the milk mixture
Bobby cooks the milk mixture - © Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole
All other photos and collage - © Discover Paris!


Next, we turned our attention to the Punch Planteur. Chef Sorbon told team members Maria Pascual and Jonathan McBride the order in which to add the spices, fruits, juices, cane liqueur, and rum. They carried out his instructions to the letter!

Chef Sorbon and Team Planteur: Maria C. Pascual and Jonathan McBride
© Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole

Left to right - Preparing spices, chopping fruit, adding juice
© Discover Paris!
Jon then placed the punch in the refrigerator so it would be cool in time for dinner.

The Colombo de Poulet was the most complicated dish to prepare. Team members Louis King and Lancey Alexander gave it their all.

Team Colombo de Poulet: Lancey T. Alexander and Louis King
© Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole

Lots of herbs, spices, and peppers go into a Colombo dish.

Colombo Herbs, Spices, and Peppers
© J Rêve International

Louis and Lancey scored the chicken to allow the marinade to penetrate, then chopped and combined the ingredients for the marinade. Chef Sorbon browned cumin seeds and mustard seeds in the oil that would be used for cooking the chicken, then Louis did the cooking. Both team members chopped the vegetables that went into the pot once the chicken was browned.

Upper left and right - Lancey scores chicken; Louis cuts shallots
Lower left and right - Louis cooks chicken; Lancey chops vegetables
Upper level photos and collage - © Discover Paris!
Lower level photos - © Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole

Once these were added to the pot, we gathered around the team that would prepare the starter.

Team Accras de Morue: Patty L. Frazier and Robin Lyons-Couch
© Discover Paris!

There was lots of chopping to do to prepare the cod mixture. While the peppers used for the chicken dish were mild, the variety used for the accras was spicy. Chef Sorbon warned team members Patty Frazier and Robin Lyons-Couch not to include seeds when they added the pepper.

Once the vegetables were chopped, Robin mixed them into the fish by hand. She continued mixing as Patty added the flour and baking powder. She then took the preparation into the kitchen, where she deep fried it by the spoonful.

Upper left and right - Monique translates for Chef Sorbon as Patty listens;
Patty chops garlic
Lower left and right - Robin mixes the fish and vegetables; Robin fries the fish mixture
Upper and lower left photos - © Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole
Upper and lower right photos and collage - © Discover Paris!

Chef Sorbon had the members of Team Planteur and Team Colombo work on a surprise mise en bouche (appetizer) called Sucettes de Tomates Cerises - an innovative preparation of cherry tomatoes topped with caramelized sugar and dipped in sesame seeds.

Preparing Sucettes de Tomates Cerises
Left: Louis, Jon, and Maria spear cherry tomatoes
Right: Louis and Lancey dip tomatoes into caramelized sugar
© Discover Paris!

Finally, everything was ready and we prepared to sit down and enjoy the meal.

Preparing the table
Left: Robin and Patty bring the accras to the table
© Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole
Right: Maria and Jon prepare glasses of Punch Planteur
© Discover Paris!

Sucettes de Tomates Cerises
© Discover Paris!

Punch Planteur
© Discover Paris!

Accras de morue
© Discover Paris!

Chef Sorbon plated and served the chicken dish.

Colombo de Poulet
© Discover Paris!

The blanc manger coco, which had been prepared with and without a pineapple topping, was retrieved from the kitchen at the last possible moment.

Then we ate.

Enjoying the meal
© J Rêve International

Blanc manger coco
© J Rêve International

Patty repeatedly declared that the meal was the best she had eaten during the entire time she'd been in Paris!

The evaluations were quickly tallied at the end of the workshop and we waited to hear who would emerge victorious from the afternoon's activities. The winner was Team Accras de Morue.

The prize was a gift bag of Chef Sorbon's homemade banana marmalade, Colombo spices, bitter almond extract, and vanilla extract. Chef proudly informed us that these products will be available for purchase on line in the near future.

Robin and her prize
© Discover Paris!

The sun was setting as we left the restaurant. Everyone agreed that the afternoon had been magical!

Paris Global Arts and Culture Exchange Culinary Workshop Participants
© J Rêve International

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Chef Stéphane Sorbon - private chef, caterer, and gourmet boutique owner
Telephone: 07 69 69 23 25
E-mail:

Chef Stéphane Sorbon
© Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole

La Canne à Sucre
2 Rue Coysevox
75018 Paris
Telephone: 01 42 26 51 28
Hours:
Tuesdays through Fridays from 12:00 noon - 3:00 PM and from 7:00 PM - midnight
Saturdays from 7:00 PM - 2:00 AM
Sundays from 12:00 noon - 9:00 PM.
Closed Mondays and Saturdays at lunchtime

La Canne à Sucre restaurant (interior)
© Académie de l'Art Culinaire du Monde Créole

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Beauford Delaney's Montparnasse - Entrée to Black Paris' Newest Walking Tour

When I organized the Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color art exhibition at Columbia Global Centers | Paris at Reid Hall, I created a new Entrée to Black Paris walking tour to honor the artist.

Beauford Delaney
© Carl van Vechten 1953
Beauford moved to Paris in 1953 and died here in 1979. For the majority of these years, he lived in the historic artists' district called Montparnasse. The walk features his homes and haunts in the 6th and 14th arrondissements, and includes two sites that bear plaques commemorating him on their façades.

Mural - Théâtre de la Gaîte - Montparnasse

 © Discover Paris!

On the day after the exhibition's grand opening, I gave the tour for the first time to students from the University of Arizona and their professor, Dr. Bryan Carter. This group traveled to Paris for the purpose of creating an Augmented Reality app that allows exhibition attendees and owners of the exhibition catalog to access information and spoken word performances on the Internet that are associated with several of the works in the show.

Professor Bryan Carter (far right), University of Arizona students,
and Monique (front left)
© Discover Paris!
The second group to experience the tour consisted primarily of travelers from Beauford's hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Four of them represented the Knoxville Museum of Art, which has since expressed keen interest in hosting the exhibition during the spring and summer of 2017.

Knoxville group at Théâtre de Poche
© Discover Paris!
One of the participants remarked that it was very special for her to see Knoxville's name displayed on two façades in Paris!

Plaque at Hôtel Le M
© Discover Paris!
The following week, teachers attending the exhibition and participating in J Rêve International's Global Educator Program for professional development took the tour.

At Hôtel Le M
© J Rêve International

At Montparnasse Cemetery
© J Rêve International

Crossing boulevard du Montparnasse
© J Rêve International
Their mission in attending the exhibition was to learn about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education and to explore ways to incorporate the arts into teaching practices for their respective disciplines with Beauford's life and art serving as inspiration. For a full week, the group attended and participated in several conferences on these themes, including a meeting with the Fulbright Commission.

The exhibition was originally scheduled to run from February 4 to 29, 2016, but due to its tremendous success, it has been prolonged until March 15, 2016! Entry is free and registration is required to visit. To sign up for a visit, click here.

If you'd like to experience the Beauford Delaney's Montparnasse walking tour, send e-mail to

.

Beauford Delaney
Rue Guilleminot
France 1973
© Errol Sawyer

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Beauford Delaney Exhibition in Paris

Happy New Year from Entrée to Black Paris!
In two recent ETBP blog posts I mentioned that plans are underway for a Beauford Delaney exhibition in Paris.

Today, I'm sharing details about this groundbreaking show and Entrée to Black Paris' involvement in it!

I recently founded a U.S. non-profit organization called Wells International Foundation (WIF). Beauford Delaney: Resonance of Form and Vibration of Color (formerly entitled Beauford Delaney and Paris: A Breathtaking Evolution)is the foundation’s inaugural project. Three of WIF’s focus areas will come together through the exhibition – the arts, study abroad, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).

To bring the project to fruition, WIF is partnering with a number of organizations, including Les Amis de Beauford Delaney, a French non-profit association that I founded in 2009, and Columbia Global Centers | Europe at Reid Hall in Paris. Columbia Global Centers is providing 1400 sq ft of exhibition space that will permit the display of over 40 paintings and works on paper by Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), most of which have never been seen by the general public before. The grand opening is scheduled for February 3, 2016 and the show will run from February 4-29, 2016. This will be the first solo exhibition of Beauford's work in Paris since the 1992 show organized by the Galerie Darthea Speyer.

Portrait of Beauford Delaney
1953 Carl Van Vechten

Untitled
Beauford Delaney
1957 Oil on canvas
Centre Pompidou, Paris
© Estate of Beauford Delaney,
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

During the spring semester, Columbia University will be offering an undergraduate course entitled "Le Pari(s) du Jazz,” taught by Professor Alexandre Pierrepont, at Reid Hall. Upon learning of WIF’s plans for the exhibition, Professor Pierrepont decided to incorporate it into the course in the following ways:

• Spoken word artist Mike Ladd will speak at a public event about jazz in conjunction with the course. He is personally acquainted with Beauford’s biographer, David A. Leeming, and appreciates Beauford’s work. Given that his talk will be held in the exhibition space, Ladd will speak about the works in the exhibition as well.
• The university will host a public screening of a documentary about the African-American experience in Paris. Entitled Paris Noir, When African Americans Came to Paris (Blue Lion Films, 2015), the film includes several references to jazz and to artists, including Beauford.
• I will give a private presentation of Beauford’s art to the undergraduate students of the class.

Mike Ladd (detail)
Image courtesy of Mike Ladd

J Rêve International, an organization that fosters visual and performing arts, creative education, and global exchanges to transform lives and communities, will host a Global Educator Program workshop on STEAM education and multiple intelligences inspired by Beauford’s life and work. Six teachers from New York, South Korea (via Ohio), and Texas will participate in the week-long workshop designed to develop experience that equips them with the global competencies necessary to bring an international arts perspective to their schools.

Jacqueline Cofield, founder of J Rêve International
Screenshot from Beauford Delaney Paris Program video

Additionally, the University of Arizona and WIF are working together to organize the Augmented Reality Project that I described previously on this blog. Six students, led by Professor Bryan Carter, will come to Paris to create an app (a small, specialized program that is downloaded into mobile devices) that will allow persons attending the exhibition to view videos on their smartphones that provide information about the paintings. Mike Ladd will provide commentary for several of these videos. The teachers from the Global Educator Program will be able to use this app during their workshop in Paris and take the technology back to their respective school districts in the U.S. at the end of the program.

Teachers and students will also enjoy the newest Discover Paris! walking tour, Entrée to Black Paris' Beauford Delaney’s Montparnasse, which I created for the exhibition.

Going forward, WIF will work with Discover Paris! to support its study abroad initiatives and with Discover Paris! and Les Amis de Beauford Delaney to support its arts initiatives.

The University of Arizona students are currently raising money for their trip to Paris and have created a 2’15” video that explains why they are so passionate about this project. Click on the link below to view it and make a donation to support them. If you need a last minute tax deduction for 2015, this is a great way to get one!

University of Arizona Students Travel to Paris for Art/Technology Project

University of Arizona Students
Screenshot from U of A fundraising video
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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.