Chicken Cordon Bleu is the eighth-grade home-economics class of French-American cooking. It is also the dish that the chef-host of What's Cooking with Lionel used to open Season 14 of Beat Bobby Flay and walk out with a win.
Lionel Haeberle has run kitchens in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, California. The Cordon Bleu technique is fussy: the chicken breast butterflied flat and pounded to an even thickness, the ham and Gruyère stacked tight in the middle, the whole thing rolled and chilled until the seam sets, then a standard breading procedure (flour, egg, panko) and a shallow fry that holds the temperature long enough to cook the bird through without burning the crust.
Bobby brought, per the broadcast, a Cordon Bleu. Haeberle brought The Cordon Bleu. The article matters.