Raymond Blanc is a star-powered French chef working in Britain and a well known tv face there too. He had a series called Kitchen Secrets a few years back detailing the construction of classic French dishes; chicken liver parfait, cherry clafoutis, pot au feu, and 46 more... For some these may be overwrought as simply from another era (and hell of a lot of pans get dirtied...) but his whole manner and explication is very entertaining. Lots of tips thrown around. Good stuff.
I can't eat mussels due to a past indecent w/ seafood lasagna at an inn in Scotland... but the broth is always great and maybe I'll just sub' littlenecks? Not you though...
In sort of Gallic Dudley Moore character mode ("...beating the h'air into it..."), he finished the series with a completely do-able lemon cake [no rising - good, lining the pan - great] plus giving one major tip on how to make it pro'. Fantastic.
