American Wine and Food Festival 2010

DENISE FONDO

Since 1982, Wolfgang Puck (left) and Barbara Lazaroff have raised over $15 million dollars for Meals on Wheels Programs of Los Angeles.  The Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation has raised millions primarily through the wildly popular American Wine and Food Festival.  Meals on Wheels Programs of Los Angeles is an extraordinary and vital service serving thousands of meals every day to homebound senior and disabled people.  Each year prestigious chefs and many businesses donate their time, talents, and wares to the festival.  Ticket prices are steep for the event but worth every dime for what people get in return, channeling money to a very worthy cause and enjoying a world class event.

This year’s American Wine and Food Festival is over but we can all continue to donate money and time to Meals on Wheels Programs of Los Angeles.  You’ll find plenty of useful information on their websites.  There are a number of Meals on Wheels programs in Greater Los Angeles including St. Vincent Meals on Wheels and Meals on Wheels of West Los Angeles.

I attended the Saturday evening (September 25th) Grand Tasting of the American Wine and Food Festival.  It was held on the Universal Studios Old Europe backlot.  As I pulled up to the festival, on one of the ubiquitous Universal Studios trams, the aroma of roasting meat was a very appropriate welcome to the evening.  Inside the festival, just to my right was Floyd Cardoz and his staff from Tabla, from New York City, grilling lobsters.  This was just the beginning of an evening of sensory satisfaction.

Everywhere I turned I saw chefs whose careers have been very important to the advancement of my own cooking skills.  I was, in all honesty, humbled.  It was such a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with Chef Paul Prudhomme (left), the man responsible for bringing Cajun cuisine into the national and international spotlight.  He spoke to me about the struggles in New Orleans, a region still in recovery from Hurricane Katrina and now the Gulf oil disaster.  Chef Prudhomme urged me to come back to New Orleans and talked about how the food is as wonderful as it always has been.  He, like so many of his fellow New Orleans cooking brothers and sisters, are working so hard to breathe life back into the city.  He knows how to use his celebrity for good and found the time to come to Los Angeles to help out our own charities.

Everyone who participated deserves recognition for their contribution.  The food, wine, and other beverages served were all deserving of the $300 ticket price.  Not one table served up a sub-par meal. I talked to people who raved about the fried clams from Chef Jasper White and Chef Dean Fearing's fried quail.  The raw bar at the Bouchon table was very, very popular.  I was a little surprised that Nancy Silverton and Mozza decided to go with corn dogs and frozen bananas dipped in chocolate.  The more I thought about it, the more I understood the joke.  Yes, this was food more appropriate to the Los Angeles County Fair, but it struck a chord with people.  It was fun and the frozen bananas were a welcome treat on a sweltering evening. 

I think a lot of chefs made last minute changes to their menus based on the hot weather.  Chef Amar Santana from Charlie Palmer Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza served a cooling avocado gazpacho and a tequila and lychee juice cocktail, El Lychedor.  People loved both.  Both Chef Santana and Charlie Palmer worked the table.  Fiji Water was a big sponsor of this year's festival and Chef Santana used Fiji in the dishes he presented.  Please check out the complete list of chefs who were there at the festival website.  My one regret is that I didn't take the opportunity to speak Chef Jose Andres outside the Cosmopolitan (air conditioned!) cocktail lounge.

My favorite foods of the evening were the sandwich from The Hitching Post, featuring their very delicious house-made bacon and the pork belly sandwich from Slanted Door.  What was up with the location for Slanted Door?  Hidden away.  No line.  Is this San Francisco gem unknown to Los Angeles diners?  Chef Charles Phan playfully beckoned me to his table, where I was the only diner.  Buttery, tender pork belly.

Chef Wolfgang Puck was wearing a smile on his face as he worked the crowd and talked with his friends from the culinary world.  It was great to watch everyone, including the chefs, (Thomas Keller lobbing beach balls!) having fun.  I know setting up and working in the heat must have exhausted everyone before ticket holders even got into their cars to drive to the festival.

There was a very poignant end to the evening for me.  When I arrived at the tram pick-up, there was a huge line.  Hundreds of people were waiting for the tram to take them back to their cars.  The heat caused a number of the trams to suffer hydraulics failure.  So, in a small way, as we waited for the one working tram, we experienced what it feels like to be inconvenienced by a very brief lack of mobility.  However, unlike those who are housebound and dependent upon Meals on Wheels for daily sustenance, our inconvenience was temporary.

Cooking at Swinton Castle

SWINTON PARK

While reading about the history of Swinton Park and the description of the cooking classes, I envisioned myself strolling the lushYorkshire grounds on my way to meet Chef Rosemary Shrager.  Yes, Rosemary Shrager teaches at Swinton Castle a few times a year!  On her website she refers to herself as the castle chef.  I've always loved her cooking!

I long to book myself into one of the castle's 30 rooms and get down to the basics of cooking with Chef Shrager.  The website offers this description of her classes:

The two day residential cookery course is designed and run by Rosemary Shrager and concentrates on the classical preparation of food, and mastering the essential techniques. These would include patisserie, baking, sauces and soufflés, boning and filleting, amongst many others.

The two day courses are themed on various styles of cooking, such as French & Italian, Mediterranean Food, Fish and Seafood and Modern British.

The courses start either on a Sunday or a Wednesday afternoon at 4.00pm and the first cookery session ends that evening with dinner served in the Cookery School. On the second day the class will cook morning and afternoon, with lunch and dinner served in the Cookery School, and free time in the afternoon to relax and enjoy the hotel's facilities (such as a treatment in the spa) or take a stroll in the grounds. The course ends on the third day after a morning's cooking and lunch served in the Cookery School.

A typical selection of dishes for dinner on a Modern British course would be :

• Seared Sea Bass on a Bed of Saffron Risotto served with Parsnip Crisp
  
• Roast Duck Breast with Jerusalem Artichoke Dauphinoise, Pak Choi and Ginger and Walnuts
  
• White Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries topped with Bitter Chocolate Mousse served with Coffee Anglaise
  

A typical selection of dishes for dinner on the Mediterranean Food course would be :

• Rosemary Focaccia
  
• Gazpacho
  
• Seared Tuna with Hot Sauce
  
• Roast Loin of Lamb with Garlic Sauce and Provençal Gnocchi
  
• Ratatouille
  
• Red Fruit Jelly with Basil and Sauterne Sabayon
  
• Orange and Almond Tuile 
  
    
  All that lovely food, a castle in Yorkshire, and classes with a top chef. Sounds fantastic. Swinton Park offers a number of food related classes and events. All that information can be found on their website, as well.
  
  
  

  
  
   
  
  
  Here is an absolutely beautiful recipe from Chef Scrager for Chicken and Potato Pie:
  
  Serves 6-8
  
  Ingredients:
  
  

  • 500 g puff pastry
  • 4 large chicken breasts, boned and cut
  • into thin strips
  • 720 g peeled potatoes, thinly sliced
  • 130 g butter
  • 3 shallots, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons tarragon leaves
  • 2 tablespoons chives, chopped
  • 2 egg-yolks, lightly beaten
  • 240 ml double cream
  • seasoning
  • Oven 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4

  
  
  It helps to have a baking-mat, in which case don't bother to butter the tray but put the pastry directly onto the mat.
  
  
  Turn the potatoes in half the butter over a gentle heat until they are just tender - don't let them brown. Remove them from the pan and allow them to cool in a large bowl. Meanwhile, soften the shallots in the remaining butter and add the herbs and chicken, turning it over a steady heat for a few minutes until it is partially cooked. Mix it all carefully with the potatoes, season to taste and again, allow it to cool.
  
  
  Roll half the pastry into a circle about 36 cm in diameter and put it straight onto a lightly buttered baking tray. Brush the edges with egg-yolk then pile the mixture in the middle. Roll the rest of the pastry into a slightly larger circle and cover the pie with it, sealing and crimping the edges. Cut a little circle in the top (about 10 cm diameter) to make a lid, leaving it in place. Brush the whole surface with the rest of the egg-yolk.
  
  
  Bake the pie for about 50 minutes, checking that it's not too brown - in which case turn the oven down slightly. Heat the cream. Take the pie out of the oven, remove the lid and pour in the boiling cream, lifting the mixture gently to allow it to permeate the pie. Return it to the oven for 10 minutes.

Arctic Cuisine on I Cook the World

In the mood for a some muskox?  Check out my blog entry on Arctic Cuisine at I Cook the World.

Historical Cooking Classes

Part 1 (in an ongoing series)


I love studying food anthropology, the history of food and its societal and political meaning and influence.  It really is one of the most enjoyable ways to learn about a culture.  Check out my blog I Cook the World as I make dishes from every country on Earth in a very tasty education.


I've begun researching cooking classes designed to teach us a little history.  The first classes I found in the search are held in historic venues, using centuries-old recipes, historically correct ingredients, cooking tools, and methods.  Exactly what I'm looking for in this type of class.  This is Part 1 of an ongoing series on Truffles, Chestnuts, Cherries.  If you've taken an historical cooking class, I'd love to hear about your experience.


Southwestern Pennsylvania's Woodville Plantation was the home of one of Pittsburgh's wealthiest families, The Nevilles, from 1780 to 1814.  Seasonal cooking classes are held in the original kitchen at Woodville using recipes from the The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse.  This cookbook was first published in England in 1747. Glasse's story is a poignant tale of a woman's struggle to earn a living in 18th Century England.  Glasse fell on hard financial times after the death of her husband, which forced her to sell the copyright to her book.  She even spent several months in debtor's prison.  Though she wrote two other books after The Art of Cookery, neither achieved the wild popularity of her first work.   Flip through some of the pages of this cookbook at Amazon.   It is very possible that recipes, recipts or receipts as they were called at the time, from The Art of Cookery were used in the Woodville household.

Woodville Plantation Kitchen

At one point, John Neville had 21 slaves registered to the Woodville Plantation so there is little doubt it was the slaves who were doing the cooking in the kitchen. Makes me so sad to even write the word slave. In fact, it makes me physically ill.  I hope the people who organize the cooking series find a way to incorporate the culinary input of the slaves into future classes.  As we know, this input was significant throughout the United States.


Here is an excerpt from Hannah's book on how to make an inexpensive gravy:

If you go to Market the Ingredients will not come to above Half a Crown; or, for Eighteen-pence you may make as much good Gravy as will serve twenty People. Take twelve Pennyworth of coarse lean Beef, which will be six or seven Pounds, cut it into a little Pot or large deep Stew-pan, and put in your Beef: Keep stirring it, and when it begins to look a little Brown pour in a Pint of boiling Water; stir it together, put in a large Onion, a Bundle of Sweet Herbs, two or three Blades of Mace, five or six Cloves, a Spoonful of Whole Pepper, a Crust of Bread toasted, and a Piece of Carrot; then pour in four or five Quarts of Water, stir all together, cover close, and let it stew till it is as rich as you would have it; when enough, strain it off, mix with it two or three Spoonfuls of Catchup, and Half a Pint of White Wine, then put all the Ingredients together again, and put in two Quarts of boiling Water, cover it close and let it boil till there is about a Pint; strain it off well, add it to the first, and give it a boil all together. This will make a great deal of rich good Gravy.

The BBC 4 did a documentary on Hannah Glasse in 2007 hosted by Clarrisa Dickson Wright of Two Fat Ladies fame.


Upcoming classes at Woodville include carrot puffs in autumn and Cheshire Pork Pie in winter.  If Cheshire Pork Pie wasn't served at Woodville, I bet something quite similar was served up using a Neville family recipe.  Would love to know if any of the historic recipes from the Woodville kitchen are available, either from the Nevilles or the subsequent owners the Cowan family.  Cowan descendants lived at Woodville from 1816 to 1975.

Chef Omar Allibhoy Checks in with Us!

How wonderful to wake up to an e.mail from Chef Omar Allibhoy today, as the Tapas Revolution continues to roll through England.  It is going to be so much fun following them on this journey.  Very imaginative use of crisps in Manchester!


From Chef Omar:

Well, we have endured some heavy conditions and had to drive our silly bikes through floods in Liverpool.  Finally we reach Manchester, a beautiful vibrant place.  This is home to students in England so we came here to find them and teach them how easy Spanish cooking is even for the lazy!!  So, I invited any students down to a local park where I teach them my special lazy boy tortilla.  Just use crisps (I think you call chips in America) instead of having to chop up potatoes finely or in a mandolin.  Just ordinary crisps but they have to be ready salted!! and hey presto beautiful tortilla in minutes and no fuss.  I will post full recipe in blog later today.

On Saturday we will take over a local fish n chip shop in Grimsby and show them spanish style battered fish. Maybe some lovely calamari fritta with some aioli And patatas bravas.

Check out the blog Eat Like A Girl for a great piece on Omar and the Tapas Revolution.  The writer Niamh has some wonderful images up on her blog.

The Revolution will be Motorized!

I am energized by anyone's enthusiasm for teaching others about food. This summer nobody beats the excitement I feel for Spanish Chef Omar Allibhoy's great Tapas Revolution!

Chef Allibhoy and his friend Dani Sancho, are blazing through England on motorbikes bringing tapas to the people. Allibhoy drew the letter T across a map of England and this is the path they are following. With pans, a burner, tent and sleeping bag strapped to their bikes, they are on a journey to teach people about the beauty of Spanish food through tapas. They'll cook for you if you give them a call or send an e.mail. They use local ingredients and ask people to bring plates, utensils and something to drink. I would love to see an organic farm along this tapas trail invite the guys to cook using ingredients just pulled from the earth.

Seriously, you just have to call! How can anyone not love the pure joy of this adventure?

Allibhoy has quite a cooking pedigree. He was trained by Spanish master Ferran Adria of El Bulli and worked under Jason Atherton at Ramsay's Maze restaurant. Allibhoy is now Head Chef at El Pirata de Tapas in Westbourne Grove.

I wouldn't expect this trip to run smoothly most of the time. Will make for some very entertaining reading on the website. Here's an excerpt:

We arrive in Liverpool. We buy ingredients. We go to Anfield! We make pinchos. A drunk man with black teeth says I look like a Franciss Rossi in Status Quo??? Two “chavs” say I stink. An old lady with union jack bag doesn’t like foreign food. Builders at the stadium stop working and eat with us. It rains. It rains harder. We call a newspaper and offer to cook. We find a campsite and I cook for the campers....

I'm sent an e.mail to Chef Allibhoy, wanting some word from the road on the reception he's receiving and what he's prepared to date. Check out his site for contact information and a map of his travels. If you are lucky enough to set up a cooking class with Chef Allibhoy, let me know and send pics!

Image at the top is of Dani and Omar from left to right.

Cooking in Normandy with Susan Herrmann Loomis

photo by Michael Loomis

For most people a vacation means an escape from the kitchen. Not me. I can think of no better way to spend my vacation than in a cooking class. Cooking classes are one of the very best ways to learn about any region you are visiting. You learn about and use local ingredients in recipes taught by people who usually know the region well. Extended classes often offer the chance to meet local food and wine makers and learn about what goes into their craft. Many are committed to preserving traditional methods of production.

Susan Herrmann Loomis

I’ve never met Susan Herrmann Loomis but like so many who began following her career after reading On Rue Tatin, I feel I know her. We share a love of writing and a love of cooking with local ingredients. We both respect and work to preserve the best of our collective past and embrace all good things that support and enhance what and whom we love. Having an opportunity to cook side-by-side with Susan would make me very, very happy.


Lucky for you and me, Susan holds cooking classes in France. Most are at held in her own home, whose restoration is the core of her book On Rue Tatin. A chance to cook in an exquisitely restored 15th Century home! I read the 5-day course description on her Web site and immediately imagined myself in Normandy, where she lives in the town of Louviers. I make great use of spirits in my cooking and love using calvados, the apple brandy produced in the Lower Normandy region. What a treat it would be to take Susan's 5-day course and tour the Normandy region.

The 5-day course includes cooking classes, meetings with local men and women who create some of the best food and drink in the region, a trip to a farmers market as well as a day in the town of Rouen. Rouen is your place if you like to shop for antiques or the pottery for which this town is quite famous.

People in America, have a few chances to cook with Susan as she travels the country on a tour for her latest book Nuts in the Kitchen in 2010. Frankly, anyone who has ever been under pressure in the kitchen should get a laugh from the possible double meaning of the book's title! The book really is about cooking with all types of nuts, with recipes Susan collected from all over the world. You can check out her American class schedule on her Web site, as well. Susan also offers classes in Paris throughout the year.

Here is a sample class menu from her Web site:

Beet Soup with Cream Clouds

Wood-fire Grilled Marinated Pork Chops

Braised Coco Blanc with Garlic

Salad with an Almond Oil Vinaigrette

Locally and Artisanally made Goat Cheeses

Caramelized Oranges with Candied Zest Biscotti

Susn Herrmann Loomis' recipe for Pear and Honey Clafoutis


Serves 6 -8

This clafoutis is unique — with the honey and the egg whites, it makes a richly flavored, elegant dessert. Comice pears are ideal, though any perfectly ripe, fragrant pear makes a delicious clafoutis.

3 large pears (1- ½ pounds;750g total) pears, peeled, cored, and cut in sixths

1/3 cup (5 tablespoons;75ml) mild but perfumed liquid honey, such as lavender
4 large eggs
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (115g) flour
¼ cup (50g) sugar
Pinch fine sea salt
1 cup (250ml) milk
4 tablespoons (60g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled


For the caramel
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons water
Preheat the oven 400°F (200°C). Butter and flour an 11-inch (27-½ cm) round baking dish.
Arrange the pears in an attractive pattern in the baking dish. Drizzle them evenly with the honey.

Separate three of the eggs. In a large bowl mix the flour, all but 1 tablespoon of the sugar, and the salt. Make a well in the center and add the three egg yolks and the one whole egg. Reserve the egg whites. Whisk together the egg yolks and the whole egg, add the milk, then gradually whisk in the dry ingredients to make a smooth batter. Quickly but thoroughly whisk in the melted butter.

Whisk the egg whites with a small pinch of salt until they are foamy. Add the remaining tablespoon of sugar and continue whisking until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter, then pour the batter over the pears. Bake in the center of the oven until the clafoutis is puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
To make the caramel, heat the tablespoon of sugar with the water in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally to evenly distribute the sugar, until the mixture turns a deep golden brown, which will take 3 to 5 minutes. Don’t stir the sugar, which might encourage it to crystallize, just rotate the pan so the sugar and water caramelize evenly. When the sugar has caramelized, drizzle it over the top of the clafoutis. Wait about 5 minutes so the caramel hardens, then serve.