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

This first class will feature everyone’s favourite fowl Duck!  Learn to butcher the whole bird & execute delicious dishes such as:

Rillette
Confit
Cassoulet (including sausage making)

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

time:  Thursday, February 28, 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 and chef’s discretion.

Our very own French Chef Extraordinaire, Chef Christophe, is delighted to present two 2-day classes on French Bistro Classics.  Cook with some of your favourite ingredients, such as lobster, truffles, lamb & quail.

The first set will run Wednesday evenings on February 6th & 13th, and the second will be on February 20 & 27.  Join us for two classes, or register for all four with a discount.  Classes include printed recipes, expert instruction, an apron for you to keep, wine pairing, and of course hands-on cooking.  This is the perfect class to do with your partner or friend as you explore the intricacies of French Bistro cuisine.

French Bistro Classics #2 will feature:

Bouillabaisse w/ rouille & ficelle bread
Rack of lamb Provencal w/ roasted garlic flan & ratatouille
Crepe suzette w/ Grand Marnier

Souffle w/ Cantal cheese
Entrecote Bordelaise w/ pomme pont neuf & pear-watercress salad
Tart aux pommes w/ house-made vanilla ice cream

cost: $245 + GST.   Get a discount by booking yourself for all four classes or booking this class with a friend for $470 + GST.

times:  Wednesdays, February 20 & 27, 2008.  6:15 – 9:45pm

to register:  Call 604.876.7653. Payment is due upon registration, and can be made with Visa or MasterCard over the phone.

please bring:  chef’s knife, paring knife, pastry/bench scraper, 2 hand/tea towels, closed-toe/flat-heeled shoes & an elastic to tie back long hair.

Our very own French Chef Extraordinaire, Chef Christophe, is delighted to present two 2-day classes on French Bistro Classics.  Cook with some of your favourite ingredients, such as lobster, truffles, lamb & quail.

The first set will run Wednesday evenings on February 6th & 13th, and the second will be on February 20 & 27.  Join us for two classes, or register for all four with a discount.  Classes include printed recipes, expert instruction, an apron for you to keep, wine pairing, and of course hands-on cooking.  This is the perfect class to do with your partner or friend as you explore the intricacies of French Bistro cuisine.

French Bistro Classics #1 will feature:

Alsatian onion tart & frisee salad w/ house-made bacon & verjus
Stuffed quail on potato galette, Frenched green beans & truffle sauce
Berry Clafoutis

Lobster bisque w/ cognac
Paupiette of trout w/ salmon mousse & spinach veloute
Floating islands

cost: $245 + GST.   Get a discount by booking yourself for all four classes or booking this class with a friend for $470 + GST. 

times:  Wednesdays, February 6 & 13, 2008.  6:15 – 9:45pm

to register:  Call 604.876.7653. Payment is due upon registration, and can be made with Visa or MasterCard over the phone.

please bring:  chef’s knife, paring knife, pastry/bench scraper, 2 hand/tea towels, closed-toe/flat-heeled shoes & an elastic to tie back long hair.

I have to make a comment about brushing sauces on plates.  It really isn’t anything new, it’s been done before, but definitely not to the extent we use it today.  This past week our students, getting ready for their final practical exams, had free reign to plate their own dishes.  Our criteria was to see all the components of the dishes executed with technical aplomb – the right consistency, doneness, temperature, and flavour.  However, nearly every sauce on their plates were brushed, for the sake of brushing, for this is the trend at the moment.  Unfortunately I had to put an end to their creative stroke, of course with good reasons.

Personally, I don’t like the paint stroke.   I love a good sauce, and most of the time I find I don’t have enough on my plate.  With paint strokes, I really don’t have enough, and by the time it gets to me it’s always cold.  So it may look cool to some, but it doesn’t function well.  Besides, a sauce is supposed to enhance the dish, not make it.  Give it to me well made, with a sexy sheen, well balanced, enough of it, and hot.

I like this concept of dining in the dark because it focuses the dining experience on flavours, no visual appeal.  I like to think I’m at the point in my life where I don’t judge the book by its cover.  In fact, two of my top ten dishes in the world look like hell – split, fried blood sausage from Burgos, Spain, and a chicken-barley porridge from Turkey. 

Everything has its place.  Foams, strokes, sous vide.  But everywhere I look these days, it seems these techniques is the only place.  Let’s give it a year or two.  I remember those cool coulis ‘80’s, and splattered chocolate ‘90’s.  I like Dr. McCoys’s line:  “Damn it Jim, I’m a cook, not a painter!”

Tony Minichiello, Cook (brushing egg wash only) Instructor

Join us on Saturday December 15 for our Holiday Baking class!  Stock your pantry with goodies ready for all those holiday visitors, or to give as host/hostess gifts when you call on friends and family.

The menu will include:

• Danish Christmas Kringle
• Bird Nest Cookies
• Almond Cookies
• Brune Kager (ginger cookies)
• Linzer Cookies

Space is limited, so register early!

Time: Saturday, December 15, from 9:00 – 3:00.

RSVP:  Please call 604.876.7653 to register

Cost: $92+GST, due at registration. We accept Visa or MasterCard by phone.

Please Bring: Chef’s knife, pastry/bench scraper, 2 tea towels & a container transport your goodies!

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

Jerah Verville, one of our current One Year Professional Culinar & Pastry/Bread Making students, was chosen to participate in this year’s “For the Love of Fish” Sustainable Seafood Competition. These are her comments about the experience, from start to finish. And congratulations Jerah for taking home the Silver medal!

Jerah’s dish (pictured at right) was called Tapas Pescado & featured:
-White salmon brandade with chorizo, olive oil poached chum & tapanade
-Orange pomegranate salad with whitefish crackling, smoked paprika vinaigrette
-Sunchoke puree, rapini & serrano ham with seared sablefish 

For the Love of Fish – 2007 Culinary Competition
First of all, kudos to Seachoice for organizing this competition to raise awareness on an issue that deserves much more attention. This was my first competition of any kind and I feel honored to have had the chance to participate in, and support something that I believe in so strongly.

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Ann Reynolds, one of our Professional Culinary students, provides her perspective on the whole competition experience.  Ann tells us about it from the day she found out she had been chosen to compete in this year’s Sustainable Seafood challenge, to the actual competition itself where she modestly refuses to mention that she took the Gold Medal for the student division.  Congratulations Ann!

Ann’s dish was a Dungennes Crab Trio (pictured at right) featuring:

- Chawan mushi shooter of crab & roasted red pepper, with a black sesame tuile
- Crab & ricotta ravioli, carrot & leek fondue, beurre blanc & gremolata
- Crab & confetti salad with poppy-seed vinaigratte & orange-herb cracker 

Chef Ian called me into his office on a Monday morning to ask if I had enjoyed a relaxing weekend? Lucky I had spent the weekend up in Whistler…..little did I know it would be my last free weekend for a while!!

I was swiftly brought back down to earth from the initial high of being chosen to compete by the gruelling practice schedule placed in front of us….  Chef Ian had drawn up an intricate plan for the coming month…. maybe he could have saved time by just saying we would be in the kitchen everyday. For the next 4 weeks we would eat, sleep and dream competition. I would go through sequences in my sleep: rolling pasta, nightmares about forgetting everything, and even being chased by crabs who were angry that my dish was not as ‘sustainable’ as implied.

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The Academy’s philosophy is, and always has been, about training cooks for their first day of employment in the industry. Therefore, we focus on what is happening in the kitchen as much as, if not more, than the final plates.  We know that what is expected from our students is a keen sense of workmanship that includes multi-tasking, problem solving, clear communication, understanding of costs & best usage of food with a minimum of waste, as well as impeccable station & personal hygiene.

Having said that, we recognize that encouraging and coaching some of our students to enter and participate in the right type of competition can have tremendous benefits for the right individuals.  There are basically three types of competitions:

• Individual or group Cold competition, where participants often bring a lot of their food items pre-prepared and finish assembling on site
• Individual Hot competition, where participants must (within a given time) perform as many skills and techniques as possible in front of judges & present finished plates.
• Fundraising competitions, where larger groups from hotels, restaurants & schools come together to perform a dish for 100-500 people.

Over the years the Academy students have successfully participated in several Hot Individual competitions. We also feel that we owe it to the community around us to participate in the fundraising group competitions whenever feasible.

Competition is not the Academy’s focus, but usually we do offer the opportunity to our professional students to compete in either Individual Hot or Group Fundraiser competitions. Here is a summary of some of the students successes in the past.

Last week I finished the Fall series of Serious Foodie Culinary Basics & Advanced classes.  I’ve been doing foodie classes for about 15 years – by my count, taught over 3000 people – and have come to the conclusion that they are easier to teach each time.  I don’t think it’s because I’ve gotten more comfortable at it; the real reason is that people are more relaxed learners.  The first thing that stood out with this group is how well they focused on the key techniques.  They were less hung up about what they don’t know, and, more importantly, what they do know but don’t know how to do.  People are appreciating a simple, honest, unpretentious approach to food…and hopefully wine.  I fielded fewer questions about oven temperatures and cooking times (I hate those questions) than ever before.  I noticed people trusted their instincts more.  This relaxed, let’s roll up the sleeves and just cook, attitude is really a good sign.

Read the rest of this entry »

The next Serious Foodie Culinary Basics series will start on Monday, January 21, 2008, and by popular demand, we will also have an identical Tuesday class starting on January 22!

Don’t miss out – register early by calling us at 604.876.7653.

Classes will run for 8 consecutive Monday or Tuesday evenings, 6:15-approx. 9:30pm, starting Jan. 21 or 22, 2008.

Learn proper knife handling skills, stocks & sauces, moist & dry heat cooking methods and more. All of our classes are hands-on, and you will prepare a 3-course meal each night.  For a detailed description of this delicious, enlightening & empowering course, please visit this page: http://www.nwcav.com/ncav_othercourses_seriousfoodie.html.

Happy cooking!

Tony, Owner-Chef Instructor