The largest class I have ever taught

There has been a lot of activity here at Cook Street in the past few months.  CFD (cook for a day) after CFD and interview after interview.   All this activity has resulted in the largest class I have ever taught.  The downturn of the past year took its toll on every business and if our [...]

Platter of cheese brought over from France

We have the daughter of a good friend of ours visiting us from France.  Her mother is my good friend Robert Brunel’s girlfriend and owns a chocolate factory outside of Chateau Neuf du Pape: Chocolaterie Castelain.
She brought all kinds of chocolate and other delectables from Provence.  More importantly she brought us a selection of fine [...]

Powerpoint Presentation: a Brief History of Haute Cuisine

My student’s had a hard time getting down all the names of the key players in my lecture on a brief history of  Haute Cuisine today, so I decided to post the presentation for all to access.  Trust me it is very hard to narrow down some of the most influential chefs to a one [...]

Cook Street March 180° class 2009

Here is a presentation I put together of the most recent graduating class.  I have to admit I have been less diligent in photographing every dish as it came out. Nonetheless, enjoy.

Vinaigrette demo for the 5th graders at Fireside elementary

On Monday the 18th,  I went to my son’s elementary school to do a vinaigrette demo for the 5th graders as part of the “Garden to Table” project.  The vinaigrettes were designed to go with the salad greens that were planted in the garden we dug up and prepared at the school.  The goal: do [...]

Slideshare presentation of the December 180 class

This is all I could get on the blog before I left.  I will post a small presentation of the last class (which I really enjoyed) along with little excerpts of each student when I return.  I’m off to Uruguay tomorrow to talk about spud trends.  The adventure continues and I am sure I will [...]

IACP Conference: Day 2 the storm drops to category 3

They provided me a room in the hotel.  I go to sleep at around 11pm after the round of drinks with Rick Moonen, Barry Estabrook and Adam Sobel.  The room is tiny, has a huge flat screen but no remote so I just go to bed.  I have a hard time sleeping because H-Vac doesn’t [...]

Day 1 of the IACP Conference: Nils Noren and David Arnold

I drive to Denver early to get to the Sheraton by 8 am.  I forgot to mention that the night before I received a call from Terry our C.O.O.  saying that Ian Kleinman was coming by the school by 7:45 to pick up some liquid nitrogen to take to a TV shoot that Terry had [...]

Just a quick note

I have too much to write about in order to give my readers an inside view of the IACP Conference n Denver.  Once it is over and the dust settles I will attempt to do a comprehensive review of the events I witnessed and the people I met and worked with.
Generally it has been a [...]

D-Day minus one

Yesterday reminded me of my experiences taking students to France and getting them all installed in their new homes at the start of their month long stay.  Crisis after crisis to be solved by a think on your feet perspective at a very rapid pace.
I guess  all my 19 trips to France prepared me for [...]