Howdy to all serious foodies,

I’ve lined up a couple of interesting one day classes with some interesting chefs for the new year, probably starting in mid-March.  They are as follows:

1.  Nadine Barner.  She’s a macrobiotic chef originally from Toulouse France with many years of experience as a macrobiotic chef – in other words, cooking and eating for well-being (there’s a concept for the post holidays).  She presently works out of San Francisco and New York, has done years of classes and one-on-one consultation (for Madonna and recently toured with Sting).  You can Google her for more info, and her website will be coming out in January, and is currently writing a couple of cookbooks.  But the kicker is Nadine called me last week (we have a mutual colleague) to discuss potential classes at the school,and I have to tell you that when it comes to passion about food I met my match.  This looks like the beginning of a wonderful relationship – I’m trying to convince her to make Vancouver her new base.  Her classes here will probably take place March 26-28, again the 3-4 course deal with wine, recipes, and cooking, and plus some illuminating information.  For an interesting article about Nadine, go to

http://www.commonground.ca/iss/202/cg202_eatslow.shtml

2. Chef Gurpreet Virdee.  He does our professional East Indian menu, and has designed a foodie menu for probably the third Thursday in March.  Details to come.

3. Chef Jason Malloff.  He has a science degree and is composing a menu that showcases modern culinary techniques and key science the home cook should be aware of.  Again, details to come.

Plus, I’ll will be doing a fundraising foodie class some time in May.  It raises money for the Soren Fakstorp Scholarship.  Chef Soren was a dear and influential colleague of mine (I wouldn’t have the school without his influence) who passed away in the summer of 2008.  The menu will be themed around fish and a game bird, perhaps pheasant.

So here’s the tease.  Specific details for each class will come in the new year.  Happy holidays and happy cookin’.

Cheers,

Tony  

Tony Minichiello

Chef Instructor, Owner 

The number one asset of any starting cook is a good attitude.  Unanimously, this is what chefs ask, demand, and want from our students.  But what does it really mean?  We toss the word around without meticulously analyzing its full meaning.  It does not mean just one thing, but a combination of many positive assets.

1. A willingness to fully accept your present role.  If you’re a student, you learn and work as a student moving towards graduation.  If you’re a graduate, you work and behave as a graduate moving towards becoming a professional.  If you’re starting in garde manger, you perform your garde manger duties to the best of your abilities and move them towards your next step.  In other words, before projecting yourself too far forward, take care of the here and now.
2. Perfect listening skills.  And I mean perfect.  Prick up your ears for learning, for direction, for responsibility.  Your ears are more valuable than your lips.
3. Always be ready.  This means at least 30 minutes before you start your work shift, 30 minutes after, and every minute in-between.  No cell phones! (with extreme prejudice!)
4. Positive people skills.  Get along with everyone:  the chef, the dishwasher, the owner, the busser, the front manager, the delivery person.  Keep your petty complaints about people to yourself.  Show the best of your personality, not the worse. 
5. Be a solution, an asset, and not a liability.  Hone your fundamentals at all times, especially your weak ones.  And don’t wait to be seen and acknowledged to do good work.  The best work is often unseen.  Eventually it is recognized.  You’ll have to take one in the gut, for the team, once in a while.  Do so, then move on. 
6. Always, always show you are learning.  And don’t always go to the chef with your question.  Learn with your eyes, from those around you, from anyone who uses their hands and skills in a way you have never seen before, including the dishwasher.

Basically, the cook with a good attitude is someone you like to have around, the kind of person that is a pleasure to teach, to give your time…that you’d like to hire one day when you’re a chef. 

Tony Minichiello

Culinary Instructor

We invited Ted Anderson, chef de cuisine at Fuel Restaurant, to demo and talk at our school about sous-vide.  We feel it’s more empowering for our students to have certain topics discussed by an industry professional who is daily involved with that particular technique.  Ted fits the bill, and wonderfully at that.

Having an incredible amount of respect for Ted as a chef, or as he describes himself,  a chef behind the chef, and confident he would do an amazing job demonstrating, discussing, and answering any questions on the subject, what I really wanted our students to pay attention to was Ted’s humility.  Although it becomes immediately evident Ted is a true pro, and a smart one at that, what emerges as he talks to the students is his humbleness, the persona of someone who puts his head down, works hard, loves every minute of it, and looks forward to doing it again the next day, without any desire or need for accolades except for perhaps respect from his peers.

I’ve realized that even a guest chef needs to earn our students’ respect.  The students don’t really care about one’s past, or one’s present success, as much as people think.  They care about what one has to say that day.  Guest chefs know their words represent who they are, both as a person and a cook.  When Ted demonstrated, he had the floor for almost 2 ½ hours.  Believe me, that is a long time.  But it went by real fast, and that’s an indicator that Ted not only had important content, but the students were interested in what he had to say.  Every word was real, had intention, was carefully chosen, was authentic, and intended to benefit the student.  Chef Anderson may not get a lot of attention in the media, but no visiting chef has ever received more attention by our students.  It’s impressive to see the real deal get the attention it deserves.   

Tony Minichiello

Culinary Instructor

No doubt Vancouver has become an interesting food city.  When I first visited the city in 1982, choices of places to eat were rather slim.  When I came permanently in 1990, the scene was dramatically changing and being driven by talented chefs making an impact with their dedicated work. Today the menus reflect an even greater impact, namely familiarizing and connecting us to our home grown ingredients and wines.  But does this truly define a food culture?  It sure helps define a food scene, but are we ready to throw the word food culture around? 

Food culture is more accurately defined by what happens in the home, not in the kitchens of restaurants.  The industry of fine dining has helped consumers become more sophisticated about food and wine.  But a food culture must still be defined by what occurs around the family table. If Vancouver, Victoria, or the Okanagan want to be identified as places of food culture, it requires more grass roots education.  If grade school children’s lunches consist of peeling cheese snacks or fruit in a cup, and fries continue to outsell all other items combined in high school cafeterias, and university students feed their brains with 2 for 1 pizza or instant noodle cups, and parents continue to use the “no time” excuse to put a home-cooked meal on the table, then a food culture we definitely are not.  Until food knowledge and skills become the fabric of a child’s upbringing, only then can we begin to define our food culture.  

A lot of energy is devoted to inspire, influence, and sell adults the benefits of better food and eating.  Doing the same with very young kids when they are sponges of life requires simply making food part of their lives.  In other words, the more energy we devote to educate and feed the very young well, and doing much more than just telling them to eat 10 portions of fruits and vegetables, the more we truly nurture a food culture.  Until food skills and knowledge are as fundamental as reading and math, our food culture has some ways to go.

Tony Minichiello

Chef Instructor

The older I get, the more it takes to Wow! me.  Or maybe, I should say, the simpler things at their best Wow! me.  A warm sunny day in the middle of winter on a weekend means a lot more to me now than 20 years ago.  I value and savour it that much more.  With food, the same is true.  Perfectly cooked and seasoned food, not too manipulated but given just the right notes (and never truffle oil please, with extreme prejudice!) blows my mind.  Perfectly cooked beans and succulent sausage, my goodness, buckles my knees.

Next week our professional culinary students prepare for their practical finals, cooking 3-4 course meals for invited guests over four days.  Keeping them within their limits is always a challenge.  Most want to Wow! the guests, want to do things way outside the box.  Our challenge is keeping them within their curriculum, what they have learned.  Hopefully they reach for their curriculum binder rather than Thomas Kellar or, god forbid, Adrian Ferran.  They are not in that league.  But they are potentially in the league for making very good knife cuts, excellent stocks, great soups, solid sauces, cooking their proteins just right, cooking tender vegetables, solid starch work, wise use of herbs and spices, never forgetting to season EVERYTHING, and putting everything on a hot, clean plate in relatively short timelines.  And it’s in their league to work professionally, clean, in an organized fashion, communicating well with their teammates, and with a sense of urgency.  If they do all that, they will immensely impress any chef.  It’s cooking, not a magic show.  Forget the brush stroke of useless puree.  Make an excellent sauce made from an excellent stock. 

Convincing students that solid, precise work, even if within the box, can be mind-blowing is truly a challenge.  Real food is Wow! food. 

Tony Minichiello

Culinary Instructor