This weekend, our friend Roy came over to cook us a fancy dinner. Roy’s our friend who’s in French culinary school and who told me enrolled simply because he loves food. Isn’t that the best reason? 🙂 He fixed up a really great fish dish called poisson en papillote served over a mushroom duxelles and tomato fondue with a side of rice pilaf. I had no idea what any of it was, so it was fun hanging out in the kitchen watching him cook.

 The fish was a striped sea bass which he brought over whole and filleted himself. I was so impressed.

When chopping, Roy says you should always place your hand right next to the knife so your hand looks like a claw with your thumb and pinky fingers pulled back. This way you’ll always know where your hand is at all times.

An interesting thing about French cooking that Roy says is a big misconception is that there’s tons of butter in everything when really there’s a lot of variety. For example, he described the fish dish he was making for us as “healthy + flavor = WTF” which really had me curious.

 The savory, garlicky tomato fondue was my favorite part.

Everything cooked in a parchment-paper pouch which reminded me of a calzone.

The fish cooked super quick (it was in the oven for just 7 minutes!) and when we cut open the parchment paper, the fish was perfectly tender and flaky. Each bite of fish was complemented perfectly by the mushrooms and tomatoes and those meticulously julienned veggies. Definitely healthy + flavor = WTF.