We are pleased to welcome back into our kitchens Jeff Van Geest, Owner & Chef of the award winning Aurora Bistro!

Chef Jeff will present to the Foodies a locally inspired menu featuring the best of BC’s bounty, including a selection of delicious BC wines. 

As always, our classes are hands-on, so you will not only benefit from Chef Jeff’s extensive culinary experience, you will also have the opportunity to prepare & savour these dishes:

• Spot prawns on asparagus wrapped in Oyama’s proscuitto with ginger sabayon
• Roasted Polderside Farm duck breast with rhubarb compote & aged cheddar-potato perogies
• Agassiz hazelnut tart with maple creme fraiche

I know, my mouth is watering too!

This class will sell out, so book your seat early! 

Time:  Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 6:15pm - 9:30pm 

Register:  You can register by phone 604.876.7653 with Visa or MasterCard, or in person with cash, local cheque or debit.

Cost:  $98 + GST

Please bring:  Chef’s knife, paring knife, 2 tea towels, a pen, closed-toe/flat-heeled shoes & an elastic to tie back long hair if you have it.

Note: Menu subject to change at chef’s discretion.

On the first day of class, within the first hour in fact, we put our students in groups and ask then to list the qualities that best define a professional cook versus a professional chef.  This is to eliminate any illusion that the focus of our school is not to create chefs, but cooks, and more specifically, students on their road to becoming professional cooks.  Amazingly, they do an accurate job of being quite real about this, eliminating any need for the school instructors to pontificate the reality of the industry (you know, that speech every industry chef believes no one has ever heard before).  So our students are asked to put into words what they feel they need to bring to the table AND what they feel a chef should bring to the table.  The following is a list of what they concluded, in no particular order:

Cook:  Hard-working, disciplined, hungry for knowledge and skills, consistent, persistent, team player, motivated, committed, organized, loyal, punctual, multi-tasker, stress management, good communicator, clean, humble.

Chef:  Leadership, passionate, good coach/teacher, respectful, disciplined, inspirational, graceful under pressure, loyal to cook’s development, organized, quality-conscious, open-minded, integrity, patient, available, professional at all times, humble.

Impressive, if you tell me.  It saves us 3-4 weeks of putting our students through a reality check.  They do it themselves…and nice to see the media hasn’t skewed their perspective and sensibilities. I only hope they can live to that standard.

Tony Minichiello

Humble Culinary Instructor who spilled clarified butter and split his beurre blanc today…a great day, nevertheless.

When asked if any of my students are superstars, I smile, bite my tongue, and pray that this might be the last time I have to answer such a stupid question.  Our obsession to over-dramatize the status of chefs and equate them to rock stars, celebrities, or superstars is as naive as our obsession to over-dramatize the food experience as “to die for” or “better than sex”. 

Now if the question posed was which student would I recommend most highly to an industry colleague, the answer would be simple:  the quiet, reliable, hardest working, and committed team player who does the little things no one else sees, does it with pride, with care, day in and day out. The cocky, wavy-haired, good looking, charismatic flash in the pan cooks make better mixologists.  The Gehrigs and Ripkens of the world make great cooks - and much in need these days.

In general, when it comes to describing great food and chefs, we’re simply too loud, if not obnoxious.  Fernand point once said “food…now that’s worth talking about.”  If we’re moving towards a trend of keeping things simple and mature, our language needs to follow suit. It’s only to die for, or better than sex, when you ain’t got any.

Tony Minichiello

Culinary Instructor

My old culinary school in Montreal, ITHQ, had an amazing library, especially their archives.  I was particularly blown away by Careme’s books, the insane details of his recipes (if not ostentatious) and particularly his drawings.  Careme is still considered one of the greatest chefs ever, definitely a (if not the first) “superstar”, “celebrity” chef of his era, perhaps the Mozart of French cuisine.  Though impressed at the time - and still - by his fascinating career and body of work, what truly fascinates me now is how he got there.

Careme was the most accomplished pastry chef in all of Paris and the most sought after chef in all of Europe by the age of 20, a testament of his mere talent.  But as an educator, I think it’s a testament of his will, his drive, specifically his will and drive to learn.  We know Careme was a disciplined note-taker, which he’d revise before going to bed.  We also know he was a voracious researcher, hitting the books at the nearby library after work for ideas, facts, inspiration. 

In essence, Careme was the ultimate student of his craft.  Naturally he learned from others, but I think he had the gift to teach himself, to intellectually elevate his game.  So it’s the 16, 17, 18 year old Careme that fascinates me, the one that took hold of his learning. To all students out there, have your pen and pad ready at all times. I still do. 

Tony Minichiello,  Culinary Learner�

There’s this perception out there that people go into the cooking field for the love of it, solely for the love of it, simply for the passion, not the money.  How naive to even think that people are willing to sacrifice their personal life - willingly, I may add -  in order for others to gain financially. This super-human species of cooks do not exist.   What does exist is a status quo, an unjust axiom that states that cooks must sacrifice like no other profession because that’s the way it is, it’s always been. Who’s benefited from this?  The restaurateur and the customer, and not the profession.

Wages are going up, but not because we suddenly feel for our cooks, but because demand for staff, especially qualified staff, is high and getting more desperate.  The industry needs bodies - it’s supply and demand.

Right now the hot topics are sustainability and local ingredients.  That’s very admirable.  So Chilean sea bass, wild coho get a lot of attention these days - a good thing.  But what about the cooks, the ones that cook 95% of customers’ meals (it’s primarily cooks, not chefs, that cook our meals)?  At the moment we’re not - as an industry, as a culture, as a local public, and definitely as a media - doing much to sustain their survival in their profession.  Attracting intelligent, ambitious, hard-working people into this field is becoming more difficult (sorry Food Network, you’re no longer helping). Won’t be long before we’ll have to import our cooks. 

I like fish, but I like people more, and love cooks most. Is the food business, like big corporate business, in denial?  Will it take as long as the global warming issue for everyone, including public and media, to get real about making the necessary paradigm shift?  I hope not. 

 Tony Minichiello,  Culinary Instructor

Today we started day 2 of the new class talking about knives.  I’ve changed it up in the last couple of terms from the past, ever since I saw Alton Brown’s Youtube video on how to sharpen a knife.  He states, emphatically, never, ever to sharpen your own knife, that even professionals don’t.  Well, last term we decided to take an opposite approach and emphatically convicned our students that you are not a true professional, a true craftsman until you’ve sharpened your knife to a razor’s edge with your own hands on a stone.  If the Japanese and European chefs can do this, why can’t we.

The results proved quite successful.  We had the best class I’ve ever taught produce professional standard cuts - at least at the industry starting level.  This term I am focused on improving the results even further, and I am convicned that the sooner I get all of the students to properly and professionally sharpen their knife with their own hands, the sooner that pride will empower them to do magic with their most important tool.

I hope craftsmanship comes back with a vengeance in our field, as it has slipped in favour of style and glory.  One thing I do know, the good ones that survive, that remain, that keep doing it with passion and commitment, know their craft and know how to get better.

Tony Minichiello, Culinary Instructor

In my opinion, chocolate should be considered its own food group! 

In order to satisfy your cocoa cravings, Chef Tim will be presenting a 2-day Introduction to Chocolate series.

We will be doing a chocolate tasting (did you know chocolate is as complex as wine?), and learning to properly temper chocolate to give it that beautiful sheen .  We’ll make. . . and you can take home

• Chocolate truffles
• Bon Bons
• Ganache and other fillings
• Enrobed chocolates
• Molded chocolates

Time: April 26 & 27.  From 9:00am - 3:00pm

Cost: $320 + GST

Register: Call 604.876.7653.  Payment is due with registration, and can be made by phone with a Visa or MasterCard.

Please Bring: Chef’s knife, pastry/bench scraper, 2 tea towels, silpat (1/2 sheet size), small electric heating pad & a container transport your goodies!

Note: Menu subject to change at chef’s discretion.

This term, more than any, I was privy to more details of every individual student.  I have always had an interest in the life of all my students for the simple reason that I connect to their very choice of work.  I am a believer that it takes a certain person – “good people”, as I like to call them-  to want to cook as their métier. Reflecting upon this, I am certain the reason is very simply the fact wannabe cooks believe it’s best to do something with all the passion and love one possesses. 

I’d like to share my view of these very fine people, for somehow they are not given the appropriate respect and attention they deserve.  Firstly, they are committed and , likewise, very passionate people.  They work hard, knowing even harder work and challenging wages await them.  Though many of my industry colleagues refer to them as “kids” (which I protest and correct them immediately), they are in fact some of the most mature people I know.  They are civilized, caring, thoughtful, team players, and honest -  literally salt of the earth.    

Graduation is an uneasy feeling for me.  I know these fine people must learn to persevere, take good care of themselves, be strong, organize their priorities, and basically survive the first 2-3 years.  The industry sometimes will take good care of them, and sometimes it will try to take advantage – too many businesses survive this way.  My hope is that one day cooks – the 99% of the people who prep and cook your food when you dine out, not the chefs – are treated by media and the general public with the respect they so deserve.  Long ago I entered this industry disillusioned, but fortunate to find myself with some really good people to keep me going.  I still feel our industry has a hell of a long way to go, and hope lies in the fact that each term I know there are very fine people going into the field with the vision, guts, and integrity to create change.  These students fuel my passion, my work, my métier.  Thank you.

Forever loyal,

Tony Minichiello

Chef Tim is pleased to present the 5th Serious Foodie Pastry class for 2008.  Expand your pastry repertoire with a focus on Tarts, Quick Breads & Choux Paste.

The menu will include:

• Gateaux Basque
• Sicilian Tart
• Rhubarb Tart (yes, it’s rhubarb season!)
• Buttermilk Scones with Rhubarb Preserves
• St. Honore Cake

Those recipes will give you experience with the following techniques:

• semolina custard
• short crust dough
• pate sucre (sweet dough)
• chemical leaveners
• mixing methods
• choux paste & profiterole
• creme patissiere (pastry cream)
• caramel sugar 

Time: May 24 & 25, 2008.  From 9:00am - 3:00pm

Cost: $320 + GST

Register: Call 604.876.7653.  Payment is due with registration, and can be made by phone with a Visa or MasterCard.

Please Bring: Chef’s knife, pastry/bench scraper, 2 tea towels, a piping bag & tips (if you have them), a container transport your goodies!

Note: Menu subject to change at chef’s discretion.

The “reality” of becoming a professional cook is the same old story no different than “when I was your age, I had to walk 3 miles to school, in the snow, uphill both ways.”   I hear it all the time, it’s well documented in culinary “reality” biographies and TV, pontificated by chefs and instructors alike. 

No doubt there is a reality culinary students must understand and compromise with when committing to this career:  it’s hard work, it takes patience and persistence, time, and incredible focus, even personal sacrifice to do one’s work very well.  But times have changed.  Those entering this field are no longer 14-16 years old - wide-eyed, malleable and dependent kids.  Can’t call the majority of them “kids” anymore as most going into this field, especially in North America, are in their 20’s, well-traveled, informed (and connected), bright (many with post-secondary education), independent (thus with their own living expenses), and willing change-agents (to borrow from Bill Clinton).  So that old story that if you want to make it in this industry you’ll have to make total sacrifices, work crazy hours, and receive little pay because that’s the way it was, has been, and will always be -  that doesn’t jive anymore.

What is needed, soon, is a paradigm shift.  I’m of this Barack Obama wave:  we can do better.  What is needed, soon, is fair pay, fair treatment, organized and structured training within the industry to keep employees, and responsible media.  In other words, the industry leaders need to assess the “old reality”, stop the denial, and create a new one - one that is fair to all, moves forward, and invites bright young people to commit positive energy for the better future of the hospitality industry that feeds so many people every day.  The public’s responsibility is to demand quality changes:  don’t forget, it’s people, not an industry, that cook your food and feeds you any time you decide not to feed yourself, and quality, cost, and health all go hand in hand.

Tony Minichiello, Culinary Instructor

There are still a few spots left in next week’s class.  Come & learn to fillet like a pro!  Call 604.876.7653 to register!

Attention Foodies!  Join us for these 1-day Advanced Culinary classes, featuring more detailed protein work. Classes will be periodically throughout the year.

This second class will feature Trout & Salmon!  Learn to butcher the whole fish & execute delicious dishes such as:

Seared salmon with beurre blanc
Tea smoked trout
Coulibiac
Trout apple meuniere
Gravlax

Classes will include expert instruction, printed recipes & hands-on cooking. And, of course you get to enjoy eating the dishes you learn with a glass of wine.

time:  Thursday, March 20, 2008.  6:15 - 9:45pm.

to register: please call 604.876.7653

cost: $98 + GST (due at registration)

please bring: chef’s knife, paring knife, boning knife, apron, 2 hand/tea towels

Menus subject to change based upon availability of ingredients & chef’s discretion.

There are still a couple of spots left for the class this weekend . . . Call 604.876.7653 to register! 

Chef Tim is proud to announce the next in his monthly Serious Foodie Pastry series. March’s class will feature Cakes & Mousses… just in time for Easter!

Our Menu: 

• Chocolate Trio Mousse Cake
• Mango Strawberry Entremet (layer cake)
• Basque Gateaux (sponge w/semolina mousse)
• Poppyseed Cake
• Raspberry Cream Cheese Mousse Roulade

 Individual techniques we will be learning:

• Vanilla Sponge
• Genoise
• Chocolate Dacquoise
• Japonaise
• Trio chocolate Mousse
• Mango and Stawberry Mousse
• Semolina Custard Mousse
• Cream Cheese Mousse

Time: March 15 & 16, 2008.  From 9:00am - 3:00pm

Cost: $320 + GST

Register: Call 604.876.7653. Payment is due with registration, and can be made by phone with a Visa or MasterCard.