We Interrupt this Program...

Obviously, I'm a little behind on writing about the cooking class.  Everything has just been so overwhelmingly wonderful this week (I've really had the best time and am so glad I chose this as my graduation present) that I've hardly had time to post.  Well, in all honesty, I've just been eating too much to post! 

Anyway, I'm headed to Costa Rica tomorrow with Wright so I will abruptly stop my Cooking updates and continue them upon my return, next Sunday July 6. 

So that you can imagine where I am all week, here is a brief outline of our trip: 

We're flying into San Jose tomorrow morning, and immediately renting a car to drive down the Pacific Coast to Manuel Antonio, a town in between Jaco (surfers) and Quepos, and right next to Manuel Antonio National Park.  We're staying at a beach resortish type place to spend a few days relaxing.  We're then driving the rest of the way down the Pacific Coast all the way to the bottom of the Osa Peninsula.  This area is supposed to be much less touristy and more untouched--thick rainforests with a large diversity of birds and mammals.  Should be much more rustic than the first place, but hopefully Wright will protect me from any scorpions in our bungalow! It should be a really great trip, and I will certainly be writing about it when we get back.  

Cooking Day Three: Italian

We started off Wednesday with an even more luxurious breakfast - Italian pastries at Ferrara's in Little Italy.  The restaurant has been there for over 100 years (back when Little Italy wasn't quite as little) serving delicious Italian food, and most notably, pastries.  Unlike yesterday's chocolate croissants, which we could justify as somewhat breakfast-related, these pastries were 100% desserts.  We ate scrumptious chocolate-dipped cannolis and creme-filled sfogiarellas and chocolate mousse chimineras at 10am with no regrets! Mmmmm what a delicious way to start off Italian day! 

Chef Ron (who had also been the wine connoisseur leading our tasting on Monday) then led us through Little Italy to investigate all of the specialty shops.  He pointed out where to get the best meats, cheese, bread, fresh pasta and bread! Everything was homemade, Italian-style, and reasonably priced.  I'd highly recommend heading to Little Italy to pick up affordable and authentic fresh pastas.  Chef Ron gave us a full list of the different stores and their addresses so let me know if you want any of the information! 

We spent the afternoon cooking an absolutely amazing Italian four course meal.  For our antipasto, we put together trays of meats, vegetables, and cheeses that we picked up that morning, as well as made a Tuscan bean and tuna pasta salad. Chef Ron also led us in a wine pairing throughout the meal, so we had a nice dry Prosecco with this course.  The picture above shows the antipasto buffet, and Chef Ron getting ready with the wine!

For the pasta course, we made cheese ravioli (fresh from Little Italy!) with homemade tomato sauce, sausage cooked in tomato sauce, linguine with broccoli sauce, and spaghetti with shrimp sauce.  We paired with a Chianti.   The third course (yes, there is more - hard to believe, but true) consisted of sausage and mushrooms with a homemade polenta (be sure to have multiple hands to make this one - 20 mins of constant stirring makes for a very sore arm!), swordfish stewed in vegetables, and veal wrapped with prosciutto and sage.  My mouth is still watering - and this is all after the pastry breakfast! 

We completed the meal with a light and delicious Amaretto cake, which was much more successful than Tuesday's souffle, and we dolloped it with grand marnier whipped cream.  The perfect finish to a day of complete gluttony.  We had a great time acting like Italians and sitting around eating delicious food, drinking wine, and laughing with friends all afternoon.  The best day so far! 

Cooking Day Two: French

On Tuesday morning, we met Food Historian/Chocolate Expert Alexandra Leaf at Payard Patisserie on the Upper East Side to start off the day.  She spoke to us about the history of French cuisine and its unique characteristics, the history of Payard Patisserie and its chef, Francois Payard, and about French pastries in general.  It was a mouthwatering discussion, but luckily there were baskets of every type of pastry made at Payard in front of us!  Alexandra encouraged us to try bits of each one, rather than each taking one or two for ourselves, and I gladly obliged.  A dream! Finally able to taste every pastry rather than having to choose! I tend to be an order regretter, so this was perfect. 

By the time we got out of there, we all had gained ten pounds and therefore chose to walk down to Bridge Kitchenware, on 45th, for our next event of the day.  Alexandra introduced us to this historic high-quality restaurant supply store, and we spoke for awhile to the owner.  Hearing the history of opening up a store that sells strainers, juicers, and cutting boards was not all that interesting, but hearing that we all got the 50% off moving sale price a day before the sale began was! We all pretty much went wild, and as much as I tried to constrain myself (since not only is my apartment tiny, but I am not even in Charlottesville!) I still ended up with new lemon and lime juicers, one of those basket scooper/strainers, and an olivewood mortar and pestle.  

Alexandra next led us down to Fleur de Sel, a tiny upscale French restaurant near Union Square.  There, we had a tasting menu, discussed French restaurants, met the Chef (who was so kind), and drank too much wine.  Ah to be French! Who knew we'd be hungry again after the pastry party that morning, but I cleaned each of my plates.  My favorite dish was a goat cheese and artichoke ravioli with a sweet beet sauce - total melt in your mouth.  The wine were were drinking (red, to go with the delicious braised short ribs) was a Pinot Noir from California, and though we thought the Sommelier was kidding at first, the vineyard was really called Trainwreck.  Yes, I felt like a trainwreck walking out of there, and was beginning to think I'd signed up for an eating course, not a cooking one.  Was I complaining? Absolutely not. 

We met up again at ICE at 6:30pm for the French cooking course.  All of this glutton stuff was about to change.  We cooked many courses with tough-loving Chef Jane: Sweet Pea Soup with Mint Creme Fraiche, Artichoke and Leek Salad, Asparagus and Onion Tart, Duck Confit with Grilled Endive and Radicchio, Braised Oxtail with Root Vegetables, and Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake.  I know.  We all went over the techniques and recipes together, but then split up into groups for the actual cooking of the meal.  Not only was I immediately assigned oxtail (uh...lovely), I also got the ultimate Top Chef nightmare: Souffle.  

It was pandemonium. With only four hours,  getting the oxtail braising had to be immediate, so my group was going nuts getting the vegetables prepared and the meat browned.  We also had to start melting the chocolate, separating the eggs, and prepping the pan as soon as possible, since the beating of the egg whites and folding them into the chocolate was not exactly going to be a breeze.  And it wasn't.  We survived, however, and though one of the souffle's neither rose nor fall, the other actually worked!  (We attribute this to an oven not being calibrated correctly, since they were made with the same batter, just different ovens). 

The meal was heaven--pounds of butter were put into every dish, and by the time we sat down (around 10pm) we were famished and dying for a glass of wine.  We had a great time with a long and delicious meal.  The highlight was definitely the Asparagus and Onion tart, and the duck was great as well.  I fell right into bed that night, overfed and overworked! 

Again, let me know if you want any recipes--we got a whole book with all of them, and I of course took extensive notes.  

Cooking Day One: Knife Skills/Chinese/Wine

This week, I'm taking a full time class at the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE) in the city as my graduation present from my parents.  The class is called "Cooking in New York: A Global Culinary Adventure," and consists of walking tours, restaurant visits, wine tastings, and, of course, cooking classes at the school. Each day centers around a specific cuisine: Chinese, French, Italian, Latin, and American.  Today, the first day, was Chinese. 

Fifteen of us arrived at the school (in the Flatiron area) at 9:30am this morning.  I wasn't really sure who else to expect in the class, but since it takes place full-time for a week, it had to be people either on vacation or not working; my only guess was students like myself off for the summer or stay at home moms, but neither were prominent.  It actually consisted mostly of non-New Yorkers, in town to explore the city for an extended period and wanting to do this as part of their visit.  There were also a few students or recent graduates, some older couples, and even some burnt out ex-bankers taking a few months off from their hectic lives. Most people were there alone and everyone seemed motivated and excited. 

We began with a two and a half hour session on knife skills.  Though I consider myself comfortable in the kitchen, I'd never really had a specific knife lesson before, and it was really interesting to think so specifically about the motions.  We spent quite some time cutting up various vegetables and learning the uses of different knives, but by the end we were all relieved that the week began this way: we felt increasingly comfortable with the cooking class dynamic and with our basic skills.  (Ha, we'll see what I say after tomorrow evening's French bistro dinner lesson!) 

For lunch, we went down to Chinatown and met our instructor (the same one as knife skills - Norman Weinstein) at Mandarin Court, on Mott St, just south of Canal.  I hadn't been to a Dim Sum lunch in awhile, and this was like Dim Sum on steroids! We had 18 different items, plus 4 desserts.  Most were some variation on chicken, pork, shrimp, vegetables in a dumpling, but we also had things like pork spare ribs (yum!) and chicken feet (no thank you...).  Our instructor explained each thing to us as it came out, helping us to pronounce it as well as explaining how it's made.  It was just "the tip of the iceberg of Dim Sum," as he described it, but we all could barely walk on our way out! 

Overwhelmed and overfed, we all stumbled out of Mandarin Court and followed Chef Weinstein for a brief walking tour of Chinatown's markets.  Yes, I closed my eyes, looked the other way, and pretended to have a coughing fit so I could stand outside during the fish market section.  Also, I now know to watch out with Chinese soups, they put a lot of dried ingredients in that you might not find so appetizing if only you knew!! It was great to venture into a cuisine that I enjoy eating, but I'm not exactly what one would call an "adventurous" eater, so many items and techniques seemed a little bizarre and gross to me. 

To finish up the day, we headed back to ICE for a two hour lecture on New World vs. Old World wines.  We tasted nine wines (yes, we were ready for a long nap by the time we even got to the third). Eight of them were from "new world" areas such as Oregon, New Zealand, Spain,  Australia, and California.  A few years ago, Wright and I did a wine tasting trip through Bordeaux (old world), so it was really great to get some more information on other areas.  I've also been (unfortunately or fortunately) getting used to wine tasting in Virginia, where the wines are cheap, and--I apologize to loyal Virginians--really not that good.  So it was fun to do a tasting with some nicer wines, most valued at over $50, and many aged for at least 5 years.  We even had a Spanish dessert wine from 1971 that, unlike the upchuck reflex dessert wines I've had at recent Charlottesville tastings, was actually quite good.  I'm not saying that I'm completely sold -- I'll always love a great St. Emilion -- but it was great to see an instructor who was interested in the history and development of these new world wines.  (No, Virginia was not mentioned once as being any part of any new or old world)

I got on the train exhausted and excited - what a day!! I can't wait until tomorrow, the French day, and will certainly keep the blog updated. Please let me know if you have any questions or want more information on the course or things we do.  ICE has been great with handouts and really given us a lot of literature on the various things we're doing, and I'd love to share.  

Superheroes

This morning, I met Andrew at the Met to see the Costume Institute's "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy Exhibit." I love going to see the shows that the Costume Institute - which is part of the Met and has an extensive collection of historic outfits, famous costumes, and notable couture - puts together because they have this great "Met" feel to them, as if you really are seeing an art exhibit, but they are centered around fashion. Recently, they've had some great exhibits, including "Blog:Mode," which featured technologically-inspired couture and encouraged audience pariticipation through a blog station; a collection of the Socialite Nan Kempner's clothes, which she donated to the Met upon her death (could this be considered a Retrospective?); and "Poiret: King of Fashion," which featured the early 20th-century designs of Paul Poiret.

"Superheroes" definitely had a different feel from the aforementioned exhibits. This was no Chanel Retrospective. (It also didn't take place in the Costume Institute's galleries, but instead, on the main floor off of the Greek and Roman Galleries). It was loud, flashy, and exciting. One might have expected that, from a show about Superheroes, but for some reason I didn't picture it quite as bright white and mirrored as it was. Overall, I thought it was a fantastic exhibit, with broad commercial appeal that hopefully will open more people up to the interesting things that the Costume Institute does. There were all sorts of characters in the exhibit - from little kids pretending to be Batman to older tourists wondering when they had left Ancient Greece and entered a comic book.

Since I'm hoping to go into Art Education, I'm always aware of the effectiveness of exhibitions' wall text and labels. Some museums tend to be minimalist in helping to educate a viewer about an exhibit, allowing them to interpret for themselves, while others are extremely enthusiastic and overload the viewer with information. I thought this exhibit did a great job of finding an intelligent balance. There was a brief introductory essay about the importance of Superheroes as they relate to our goals and values as humans and as a nation, and from there, the exhibit was split into eight displays, each with one accompanying wall text.

The essays were short enough that they didn't lose your interest, and well-written enough that you felt engaged with the ideas of the curators. After the introductory essay presented a broader view of the superhero within our culture, the themed essays looked at the outfits. Sections like "The Mutant Body," "The Graphic Body," "The Aerodynamic Body," and "The Armored Body," explored the different superheroes whose outfits fell into the category, and then attempted to summarize the creator's and viewer's perspectives on that superhero as it relates to their outfit. Each section contained (usually) one costume from a film (for example, they had Christopher Reeve's costume from Superman in the "Graphic" section, and Michelle Pfieffer's Catwoman outfit in the "Paradoxical Body" section), as well as numerous couture ensembles from designers such as Balenciaga, Dolce and Gabbana, Pierre Cardin, and John Galiano.

I would highly recommend this show really for anyone. Seeing the actual costume that Wonder Woman wore is very cool, and so is seeing the designer outfits, each one more bizarre than the last. I don't even know if I can choose a favorite. Probably the "Paradoxical Body," (aka Catwoman) section. The curators did a great job at chronologically tracing the development of Superheroes (they've gone as up to date as "The Postmodern Body" and have included Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man costume in the "Armored" section) while at the same time pulling out themes and breaking down sections clearly. The couture choices are really smart and really fun to see, whether you enjoy high fashion or not. Another great exhibit from the Met!

For more information:

www.metmuseum.org/special/superheroes/index.asp

www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/the_costume_institute