Gracious fellow beginning to buy foreign bread of a very high culinary standard (6,4)
I believe the answer is:
cordon bleu
'of a very high culinary standard' is the definition.
(French term meaning the best quality in cooking)
'gracious fellow beginning to buy foreign bread' is the wordplay.
'gracious' becomes 'cor' (both are exclamations of surprise).
'fellow' becomes 'don' (both can mean an academic).
'beginning to' indicates taking the first letters.
'foreign bread' becomes 'leu' (currency or 'bread' of Romania).
The initial letter of 'buy' is 'b'.
'cor'+'don'+'b'+'leu'='CORDON BLEU'
(Other definitions for cordon bleu that I've seen before include "Old bouncer (anag)" , "Of a very high standard (food)" , "(Of cookery) very high standard" , "High-class cookery" , "High class chef" .)