The holiday season is just around the corner so it’s time to get busy in the kitchen with Chef Barb. The cooking classes are action-packed, fun-filled days where kids and teens have the opportunity to learn about the culinary arts through demonstrations and hands-on cooking in small groups. Menus are designed to be age appropriate, incorporate a variety of culinary skills and help children discover the process and pleasure of cooking and sharing food together. Food and kitchen safety is taught and emphasized at all times. At the end of each day a recipe book is theirs to take home so they can get busy in the kitchen.

Chef Barb Finley has been teaching in the lower mainland for over 20 years, as an elementary teacher, instructor with the Faculty of Education at UBC and as a culinary and pastry instructor.

If you’re looking to make some edible holiday gifts or a plate of sweets for the family, then join us for some festive fun. Chef Barb will give you a dose of seasonal spirit when we make rich, fudgey Chocolate Brownies, Raspberry Bird’s Nest Cookies and Chef Barb’s Mom’s Shortbread Cookies (the best there is). A yummy hot lunch and heavenly hot chocolate will be served to keep the young pastry chefs energized. Please bring a container to take home the festive fare.

To register please call 604.876.7653

Price: $80 + GST

Date/Time: December 16, 2007, 10:00am-2:00pm

Read the rest of this entry »

Land of the tomato killers

I am convinced of this little fact: cooks who store their tomatoes in the fridge will never understand Italian cuisine. I alluded to this when I talked about tomato sauce in my past blog. In my profession, I’ve almost always come across kitchens that store their fresh tomatoes in the fridge. In fact, the larger and more structured the operation, the more likely they will do this. Plus, they follow this quality control business of first in, first out (FIFO).

First of all, get those tomatoes out of the fridge. You’re killing them. They lose all their flavour and texture. They grow in the hot sun. When you go to the grocery store, you don’t find them in the cooler section, do you? No. They’re next to the onions, the garlic, the potatoes, the apples, the avocadoes. So why this crazy notion of storing them cold? Who started this and made it impossible to stop! The fridge has become the Slow Food version of a compost bin. And this FIFO thing. It means that the customer will never get to eat the freshest ingredients until the older stuff is moved. It translates as “in with the young, out with the old”. I have to teach this FIFO stuff at the school, but not without some prejudice. What I do encourage is greater respect and understanding for ingredients.

So what do I feel when I see a tomato in the fridge? Disrespect, torture…defeat. It will never change. But hopefully, if I’m Joe Pesci enough about it with my students (just with my mannerisms, of course, not with my mouth, knives, or pens), many will take good care of the tomato in their professional careers. For the time being, I’ll persist, I’ll keep taking them out of the fridge and save them from total death.

By the way, to answer the question whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable: who cares, it’s crap if it’s in the fridge.

Tony Minichiello, Cook (and not a tomato-killing chef) Instructor

The hardest thing to teach about food is its real essence, and by essence I mean the real flavour, the volatile oils of ingredients. Somehow, simply putting out the information is not enough. Getting the essence across sometimes requires emphatic persuasion, emotion, and a story to connect to the soul of the food. One clear example is an authentic Italian tomato sauce: absolutely impossible to teach this classic sauce without getting a bit Joe Pesci about it.

An enthusiastic non-Italian “chef” once had me try “his” tomato sauce. A real nice guy, very energetic, a good professional cook; but here he is, in his wide-eyed naivete, trying to show me a better version of a tomato sauce my family has been making for generations with the highest quality ingredients and deepest care.

“I know EYE-talian sauce is supposed to emphasize the tomato, but I find it lacks zip, so I add my little twists to it,” he tells me proudly as he hands over a spoonful from the pot. I tried it with as much an open mind as my body would allow me, but I could not over-ride the fact he knew little about the essence of IT-talian cusine, let alone what an authentic IT-alian tomato sauce, or even a real tomato (which he stored in the fridge…blasphemy), should taste like. He wants me, ME, who was born picking San Marzano tomatoes by the bushel in late August at a farm with the whole family, taking them home to spread in the garage over blankets, and covered by bed sheets so they can finish their last days of ripening comfortably; then boiling them in small batches for 10 seconds so the skins soften, and putting them through a passa-tutto (a brilliant Italian foodmill – invented around the same time as the toilet and unchanged since – specifically to puree, de-seed and skin tomatoes, ); then making the tomato sauce starting by frying gently some GARDEN FRESH onion, so fresh and sweet you can eat them like an apple, and GARDEN FRESH garlic, so fresh they ooze milk when sliced, in olive oil so extra-virgin and fruity you swear they come from olive trees by immaculate pollination; and enriched with last year’s tomato paste from tomato puree dried in the sun over two weeks, so earthy you can feel mother nature pinching the inside of your cheek; then simmered so gently with such motherly care by a group of devoted Italian women you think the baby Jesus was being bathed in that pot; and finally Read the rest of this entry »

Last week was charcuterie week at NWCAV. It started Monday morning with 3 half pigs carried on our shoulders to be butchered, separated into ears, jowls, trotters, belly, backfat and all. Then the process of transforming specific parts into specific charcuterie preparations started. We brined and smoked our own bacon, pounded rilettes, rendered pork and duck fat, made confit, made and hung some sausages, hung some duck prosciutto, orchestrated a cassoulet, designed a terrine and ballotine. We ended the week showcasing all this artisinal work on platters and enjoyed a wonderful sit-down, pre-Thanksgiving meal with the Pastry class, who provided wonderful treats to compliment the feast. It was a great day.

What made it special was the students’ effort and appreciation for the techniques and classic preparations learned in charcuterie. They looked forward to it. In the past, it was difficult to get students excited about rilettes, liver mousses, confit, duck crackling, etc.; seems all the fat turned them off. Now I am convinced it’s actually the fat that turns them on. Fat, especially duck fat, is beautiful. Fat is back, baby!

Why? Simple. It’s sexy, happy food. It’s sexy simply to just talk about duck fat, let alone gently bathe meats in it. It’s rich, old-fashioned, comforting food. It’s not meant to be eaten every day, but it sure has it’s place when we look for small bites of food to make us happy. I am of the firm belief that the main reason the Mediterranean live longer and healthier than us is not as much what they eat, but how they eat: it’s happy eating, not guilty eating. They do not shy from animal fats, sweets, and breads. They live to eat and, at worse, worry about the weather.

Always looking for happy food,

Tony Minichiello, Cook (don’t call me “Chef”) Instructor

Every term, at one point professional and foodie students will ask me my favorite places to eat. I hate disappointing them with my ritual answer. Some chefs will list fine dining restaurants and their favorite foie preparation. I enjoy the fine dining experience, especially to investigate and appreciate the skill and creativity of my colleagues. But for me, food simply needs to be yummy, period. I eat it with my elbows on the table, sleeves rolled up, grabbing the nearest utensil, not necessarily the appropriate sized one, and drink my wine like I would my beer. I don’t care who’s watching, what the occasion is, what class of people are around me, I eat and drink like Zorba (“…THE LAMB, BOSS, THE LAMB!), period. So when my answer to my favorite places is something like a Vietnamese Pho joint where a grandma watches over the broth, I disappoint some, but I know I also connect with others. And where it connects is the yummy part, the soul-comforting part, the FOOD = LOVE part. The primary reason any sane person would want to become a professional cook is to make people happy. Somehow the industry does not allow these fine people to do that in its simplest form. In fine dining, the food has to be “to die for” to make the grade; yummy is not good enough. And what would Zorba say to this? Food is only “to die for” if you ain’t got any to begin with.

One of my fantasies is to one day become a judge at a Southern BBQ contest, or even a baked pie (not pie-eating) contest – a lot of grandmas at that one, I bet.

Always chef searching for food=love experiences,

Tony Minichiello, Instructor

I did a lecture on quick breads the other day and wrote on the board that unfortunately too few cooks take advantage of the many sweet and savoury possibilities inherent in these simple preparations.  I actually wrote the word “advantage” on the board, rather than simply discuss their advantages, as is my natural tendency.  I had to step back and figure out why I did this.  As I was about to erase the word, I had one of those teacher’s moments…when you discover a new tool to connect to students on an intense level.  I left the word alone.  In fact, I worked it like a baker works a good dough.  I fell in love with it and used it all day long, all week long.

One thing’s for sure, this industry will take advantage of our students: of their time, their effort, and their passion. That’s how it survives.  Cooks, on the other hand, survive by reciprocating, taking advantage of the connections, technology, and ingredients the industry has to offer.  This art of taking advantage, however, must start by learning how to take advantage of your education.  Cooks are some of the most resilient, tough, persistent, savvy people I know…they have to be.  They are expected to become business people, managers, system developers, menu writers, trainers, sometimes magicians, and have public relation, marketing, and media skills.  Most of them learn to become these renaissance chefs by learning on the fly.  They learn by taking advantage of what lies in front of them.  They observe, grab it, and work it like a baker’s dough. 

The trickiest part of a culinary teacher is to instil this aggressive approach without pontificating on the “realities” of industry life.  I couldn’t stand my instructor’s telling me how hard things were in their days, in their “real” world…it simply didn’t do anything to inspire me.  But a few pointed out exactly what I should take advantage of, as a student and a graduate…and I did.

We train our students to take advantage of the industry.  Do it to the industry!  It wants you to. 

Always grabbing the bull by the horns,

Tony Minichiello, Instructor of advantage-based learning, NWCAV�

The holiday season is just around the corner so it’s time to get busy in the kitchen with Chef Barb. The cooking classes are action-packed, fun-filled days where kids and teens have the opportunity to learn about the culinary arts through demonstrations and hands-on cooking in small groups.  Menus are designed to be age appropriate, incorporate a variety of culinary skills and help children discover the process and pleasure of cooking and sharing food together. Food and kitchen safety is taught and emphasized at all times.  At the end of each day a recipe book is theirs to take home so they can get busy in the kitchen.

Chef Barb Finley has been teaching in the lower mainland for over 20 years, as an elementary teacher, instructor with the Faculty of Education at UBC and as a culinary and pastry instructor. 

If you’re looking to make some edible holiday gifts or a plate of sweets for the family, then join us for some festive fun.  Chef Barb will give you a dose of seasonal spirit when we make rich, fudgey Chocolate Brownies, Raspberry Bird’s Nest Cookies and Chef Barb’s Mom’s Shortbread Cookies (the best there is).  A yummy hot lunch and heavenly hot chocolate will be served to keep the young pastry chefs energized.  Please bring a container to take home the festive fare.

To register please call 604.876.7653

Price: $80 + GST

Date/Time: December 15, 2007, 10:00am-2:00pm Read the rest of this entry »

My formal culinary education some 20 years ago was 2 years in length, with much time spent theorizing in slow motion concepts I could have researched on my own.  In general, I was treated like a completely green “kid”, as if I had never cooked, let alone ever eaten before.  Thankfully, I did grab the bull by the horns and married my school education with industry work experiences…lots of them.  When I graduated, I was way ahead of most of my peers who chose to take a less aggressive stance.

This is why our curriculum at NWCAV is very intensive, and thus shorter than most schools.  I highly recommend to every student planning out the first steps of their career to devise a 2 year educational plan, one which will include as much industry experience to solidify the concepts learned in school. Plus, treat those industry experiences with the attitude of a student, as someone still learning to become a cook, rather than an employee complaining about long hours, co-workers, the industry climate, or (god forbid) the chef’s menu ideas.  Take advantage of the learning environment and all those repetitions the industry gives you:  the industry will take advantage of you because it needs you, so be smart, be aggressive and take advantage of it! 

So where will your confidence level be in 2 years?  School gets you ready, but its only in the industry that you build true professional confidence in your skills.  The recipe?  Learn what it takes to become a professional cook in school, then BECOME one in the industry.  Keep the plan simple, stay focused, persist, work damn hard, and please stay humble.

Have a great cooking day,

Tony Minichiello

Cook (not Chef) Instructor, NWCAV