Tucker: Technique

Technique is the teaching restaurant of Le Cordon Bleu in Atlanta.  I've always enjoyed eating at cooking schools.  The staff are invariably very friendly, they have uniformly good food, and they are inexpensive.  Technique scored very well on all three accounts: a very attentive staff, excellent food, and unbelievably low prices.


The kitchen is huge---bigger than most apartments.  The appliances gleam, the students are spotlessly robed in their kitchen whites.  The chef stands at the front, intermittently calling out tasks.  He seems to inspect every plate before it goes onto the table.  My server explained that the kitchen staff are in their final week of a two-year program.

The standard meal is a five course dinner with choices on all but the initial amuse bouche.  At $15, that is an unbelievable bargain.


The amuse bouche (mouth amusement) was an eggplant concoction with a light sauce.  I believe that my server said it was fried but it was very light.

For my appetizer course I chose the french onion soup.  At first I was slightly disappointed that it didn't arrive with a little more cheese on top, but perhaps I am a philistine on those sorts of things.  The soup itself was full of flavor, which quickly made me forget about the cheese.

Next came a garden salad.  It isn't often that you can smell your salad, but I definitely smelled the vinegar as it was placed in front of me.  But the taste of the salad was very subtle, not at all strong as I had expected.  The combination of the distinct smell and the subtle taste was quite surprising and enjoyable.



Good Marilyn won the battle for the main course, so I had salmon.  The skin was lightly crisped and the flesh was just done to flakiness.


One of the dessert options was creme brulee, which I often use as a reference dish to gauge a restaurant.  But I decided to go for the apple tart, which was an excellent choice.  The entire tart was wonderful but it was the ice cream that left the longest-lasting impression.  Notes of both vanilla and egg came through very clearly, leaving me with a sensation of richness as I finished.

I've been thinking about trying Technique for quite awhile. I understand that they just completed renovating the restaurant, so I seem to have visited at just the right time.  I am very tempted to make my visits a semi-regular affair.  The entire experience reminded me of not just the joy of food but also the joys of preparing and sharing it.