I just finished reading Waverly Root’s “The Food of France”  and it was a delightful read on a country whose food I love and respect.  I also realized upon reading this book that it is the basis for all the regional French lectures we present at Cook Street.  So if any of you are planning to attend Cook Street’s 180° program, this book along with the “Food of Italy,”  which I have just started reading, should give you a leg up on those lectures.  I was also impressed with how much of the content I already knew.  I’m sure I won’t feel the same about the book on Italy.

I was checking out Dave Arnold and Nils Noren fascinating blog Cooking Issues and landed on this primer they wrote on Hydrocolloids.  This a detailed explanation on how all these different gums and thickeners work.   Dave has great way of explaining this fairly complicated topic and I thank him for making it available to all that are curious.

Dave Arnold and Nils Noren when they were here for the IACP conference in April

The new group of students just completed their first 180° fine dining event this past Friday.  The menu featured the food of Fruili which is in the northeastern portion of Italy bordering Austria and Slovenia.  This is hearty mountain fare with hints of the spices used in Venetian cooking.

The students performed well for their first dinner and I am sure they will excel on the next dinner which will be a French Christmas celebration on December 10.

The kitchen team

Antipasti: Sliced St. Danielle and Speck ham with frico and roasted garlic horseradish mayonnaise

Primo: Chialzons filled with smoked potato and riccotta with a brown butter sauce and a dusting of cocoa

Secundi: Roasted venison with red currant marmalade butternut squash puree and creamy polenta

Dolce: Pear strudel

Dolcetti: Macaroons, biscotti, truffles and lollipops

I finally got the time to put together the slide show of the food prepared by the June class.  It was a very enjoyable group and I will keep fond memories of them. Enjoy.

Today Roberto Solis came to our school.  He is a chef from Merida Yucatan and he is here on the behalf of the Mexican embassy to promote his country.  Roberto is a chef who owns the restaurant Nectar in Merida.

Roberto Solis explaining the dishes he was planning to prepare

Two weeks earlier the Mexican embassy sent some representatives to show off some the Mexican wines they are producing.  I must admit what I tasted surprised me.  I did not expect to taste good wines from Mexico.  Monte Xanic Cabernet Sauvignon was top shelf.

The team from the Mexican embassy. Baltazar, Marcella and Pilar

Roberto has spent his summers working at some of the worlds top restaurants.  He spent a summer at the Fat Duck in Bray UK working under Heston Blumenthal.  Another summer he spent working at Noma in Copenhagen which is run by René Redzepi and is equally avant garde.  Then to top it off he spent a summer working at Per Se in NYC.  Pretty impressive résumé for a 27 year old.

Roberto put together 3 dishes with the help of two of my students.  One of the dishes was a gelled cube of tomato with a purée of corn tortilla which was heated and the foam was extruded with a foam canister. The other was a deer tartare with a cilantro emulsion, avocado, radish brunoise and charcoal infused oil.

Deer tartare

It was a long day filled with tons of media diversions.  As a mater of fact our week has been one long line of media diversions.  Wednesday FOX network filmed some footage about career changers (this should air live this coming Monday on FOX report channel 42 on Comcast between 8-9am); a fine arts photographer took shots of us all day on the Wednesday; the following day someone from Colorado Homes & Lifestyles came and took some food shots for their magazine and a photographer for the Mexican embassy came to take shots of Roberto cooking with us.  Finally today a young student from Metro college came to take food shots to build a food photography portfolio.  She will be collaborating with us on a regular basis.

The day Roberto came was also filled with a little unexpected drama as we had a “cook for a day” (prospective student) that cut his thumb pretty bad and had to be taken in for stitches.   He was pretty tenacious and made it back in time for lunch sporting a well bandaged thumb.

The final dish that Roberto put together for us that day was the most impressive. He poached an egg in its shell at precisely 145 degrees in a thermo recirculator that I had to borrow from Douglas Baldwin (who if you have been keeping up on this blog is studying for a math PHD at CU Boulder and is in the process of writing a book).   Basically what Roberto did was to deconstruct a Taco.  The taco shell element was masa rolled into little spheres and deep fried, the black bean came in powder form, the red onion was turned into a foam and the chorizo was turned into a sauce. The precisely cooked egg was cracked and the white was delicately removed from the yolk and placed on the plate.  Eating all the elements together instantly conjured a taco. True deconstruction.

Deconstructed taco

Overall the day was stunning and memorable.  The opportunity to see how other chefs reflect on their traditional foods in exciting.

18 (missing one) eager new Cook Street 180 Culinary Students

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 present enrollment is any indication of a shift in consumer confidence then our newest class is a tangible sign.  There have been a few small adjustments made to accommodate our new group, but it is challenge we welcome.  We have enlisted the help of two of our alumnus as Teacher’s Assistants to help us to better serve this larger group.  It is a pleasure to help these TAs in their personal development and to show them what is involved in teaching. Thank you Sharon Talbert and Patricia Belaire for agreeing to help us.

I look forward to getting to know each of these new students as individuals and to help them reach their dreams.  Of course we are already eating good food and drinking good wine. Here was today’s menu:

Gorgonzola tart with roasted red peppers and parsley puree

Roasted pork loin with red pepper coulis and potato galette

Fig and prune clafoutis

My latest 180° class helped pull off a really nice dinner Friday night.  We featured a Spanish menu theme and used as many Colorado grown products as I could coordinate.  Once again the latest Deep Plate entry was due so I took advantage of our tapa dish to feature the cone they sent me.

Charred tomato gazpacho with a serrano ham croquetta

The equivalent dish we presented on our plates looked like this.

Our second course was a seared scallop on top of Olathe corn polenta with leeks fondantes, mussels and chorizo

We also put together a lamb and pork belly dish that looked like this.

Braised and glazed pork belly and roasted lamb shoulder with smoked potato puree

for dessert Chef Lexie and Abby put together a mille hojas of Paonia peaches and a beautiful selection of small pastries.

Paonia peach mille hojas with caramel

Assorted confectiones

All in all it was another successful student run dining event.  Thanks to all the students of the June 09 class for pulling off a nicely executed dinner.

On my last night before vacation we had a public dining event at the school.   The theme was Venetian cuisine.  The student’s did a great job on their first public event and the food was of high quality.  I had to leave right after the main course to pick up my wife and our visiting French guest.

Here are some pictures of the dishes we served:

Zuppa dei Doge, before consomme

with the gradual addition of a highly flavorful clarified Brodo

a full portion, notice how quickly the broth takes on the imperial color purple from the beets

Il secundi: Risotto al frutti di mare topped with frico

I had to leave shortly after the plating of this dish, but for dessert we had Sgroppino.  A layer of raspberry coulis topped with lemon sorbet and prosecco.

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 French cheese.

It has been awhile since we have enjoyed unpasteurized French cheese and it is always a special occasion.  It of course makes us yearn to return.  It was all we could do to restrain my son from digging in to the platter before my parents arrived.

This is a long article, but very well written by Michael Pollan who wrote “Omnivore’s Dilemma”   He goes about explaining our current fascination with the food TV network and our reptilian connection to the world of cooking.  The message is clear:  Cook your own food, it’s better for you.

I am happy I get to teach people how to cook, but I can honestly say I rarely practice the depth of cooking I preach when I get home and inspect the contents of my fridge.  What can I cook quickly and get on the table is mostly what I am motivated by.  Our family I’m happy to admit is not a take out or home replacement meal consumer, nor do we visit restaurants out of necessity.  We cook, albeit simple and easy to make food, but we cook and we try hard to avoid prepared foods.

I often loose the taste battle to packaged foods when my son is the judge.  Do you like dad’s homemade Mac and Cheese (made with a cheddar Mornay) better than Kraft’s?  My son replies “it’s almost as good”.  I guess if I had a whole consumer research team and applied my vast culinary knowledge to the challenge I might actually win.  One of the things I have noticed over the years is when we decrease the quality of the base products his satisfaction increases (i.e. if we substitute Barilla macaroni for Albertson’s).

Every parent faces the challenge to satisfy their children’s taste and to provide wholesome food they can feel good about, but we often concede to the path of least resistance.  Kraft wins.

I urge you all not to give up the fight.  Learn to cook. Avoid buying prepared foods. Take back control of the stove.  De-program your children.