The Kids Culinary Camps are action-packed, fun-filled days where the children have the opportunity to learn about the culinary arts through demonstrations and hands-on cooking in small groups.  The children will cook each day’s menu from scratch then sit down to enjoy a lunch they created.  Menus are designed to be age appropriate, incorporate a variety of culinary techniques and skills, to appeal to and develop younger palates and to help children discover the process and pleasure of cooking and sharing food together.  At the end of each day a recipe book is theirs to take and at the end of the camp, they will take home their apron so they can get busy in the kitchen.

Chef Barbara Finley has been teaching in the lower mainland for over 20 years, as an elementary school teacher, instructor with the Faculty of Education at UBC and as a professional culinary and pastry instructor.  Chef Barb is also the developer and teacher of a program being implemented in Vancouver elementary schools, Project CHEF: Cook Healthy Edible Food.  It is Chef Barb’s hope that exposure to cooking and a variety of foods will encourage nutritious, diverse food choices that the children can enjoy at home.

Kids Camp August 10 – 14 (ages 7 – 11)
A five-day camp that celebrates the flavours of the season.  We’ll be creating recipes from around the globe and some from our own backyard.  Fresh. Flavourful.  Fun.

Teens Camp August 17 – 21 (ages 12 – 17)
A five-day camp developed with teenaged taste buds in mind that focuses on developing a variety of cooking techniques and skills using B.C.’s bounty of seasonal produce. From snacks to fine dining entrees, we’ll stretch your culinary repertoire.

Times: 10am - 2pm

Cost: $425 (+gst) per camp

Register:  call 604.876.7653. Payment is due at registration & can be made over the phone by Visa or MasterCard.

The summer camp cooking classes are sold as a package and not on an individual basis.  Registration fees are non-refundable.  If you are unable to attend, you may send another person in your place.  With two week’s notice, you may transfer to another class, based on availability, or receive a class credit.

Learn how to make Croissants, Puff Pastries, & Danishes in this 2-day series with Chef Tim.  With expert instruction learn the technical methods for preparing “Laminated” Doughs.  Make the best Danishes and Croissants in town! Remember to bring a container for your goodies.

Time: Satuday January 24 & Sunday January 25, 2009
           9 – 2pm both days – SOLD OUT!

Cost: $280 + GST

Register: by phone 604.876.7653.  Payment is due at registration and can be made by phone with Visa or MasterCard, or in person.

Bring: Chef’s knife, paring knife, pastry scraper, 2 tea towels, closed-toe flat-heeled shoes, elastic for hair, container for your goodies!

There are many pillars of modern cuisine, but perhaps Fernand Point played the most important role in freeing the modern cook to explore beyond the repertoire of classics printed in stone.  Fernand Point is responsible for ushering in the nouvelle movement, and he did this by creating a professional kitchen at La Pyramide which produced France’s best chefs for over three decades, the likes of Paul Bocuse, the Troisgros brothers, Michel Gerard, Alain Chapel, and many others that went on to define modern cuisine in their own right.  And if you look at the menus of La Pyramide, they read not that differently from anything Escoffier would have eaten.  So what was so different about his kitchen?

The facts are these:  Point was at his height between the late 1920’s to the early 1950’s, a decade before the word nouvelle was first coined in 1964.  The best young cooks from all over France were knocking at Point’s door for a chance to work in his brigade.  So what exactly was going on in La Pyramide’s kitchen?  Why was this kitchen suddenly the coveted epicentre in all of France?  Point’s cuisine is not easy to pinpoint.  It’s like Tuscan cuisine, we know its damn good, but it’s not any particular dish or style of cooking that defines it, but extremely well crafted cuisine.  What was legendary about Point was his stature.  Not only was he a gargantuan man (imagine Orson Wells in chef’s uniform), ate and drank like a big man, Point was the most respected chef around.  When he spoke, people listened.  He emphasized the true role and responsibility of the cook, all to facilitate creativity, experimentation, individual thought… and teamwork.  What made La Pyramide a culinary epicentre was freedom, a freedom made possible by changing any behaviour that, in fact, impeded freedom.  Egos are left at the door.  Everyone’s a cuisinier, even the chef.  The language of the kitchen can now focus on ideas, the possible ways the hands and tools can transform the food.  The classics and our perceptions of them are allowed to be re-invented.  Le Guide Repertoire, the little book of classics every cook wore in his pocket, the duplication of the past, all that resembled yesterday was wiped clean.  Point had many witty sayings about the kitchen, all about the cook’s noblest relationship to ingredients, to each other, and to the profession. 

Point’s kitchen, I am certain, produced the best chefs of the 20th century because he was a special teacher, the kind of teacher I am always striving to be, though at 175 lbs I have a long way to go.

Tony Minichiello

Chef Instructor    

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 4 & 11 and the second will be on February 18 & 25. Join us for two classes, or register for all four with a discount and free NWCAV apron. Classes include printed recipes, expert instruction, 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:

Lobster Bisque w/ Cognac
Paupiette of Trout w/ Salmon Mousse & Spinach Veloute
Floating Islands

Alsatian Onion Tart & Frisee Salad w/ House made Bacon & Verjus
Stuffed Quail on Potato Galette, Frenched Green Beans & Truffle Sauce
Berry Clafoutis

Cost: $245 + GST.  Get a discount by booking yourself for all four classes and receive 1 free NWCAV logo apron or book this class with a friend for $470 + GST. 

Times: Wednesday February 4 & 11, 2009.  6:15 – 9:45 pm

Register: Call 604.876.7653.  Payment is due upon registration, and can be made with VISA or MasterCard over the phone or in person at 2725 Main Street, Vancouver BC.

Please Bring: Chef’s knife, paring knife, pastry/bench scraper, 2 tea towels, closed-toe/flat heeled shoes, apron, elastic for long hair.

Chef Tim will guide you in the art of making artisinal breads.  This 2-day course will teach you how to handle bread dough and learn the science & secrets of preparing professional quality bread at home. Some of the bread items may include:

- Crusty Hardrolls
- Bagels, Best in town
- Baguettes/Epis
- Fougasse/Foccacia
- German Rye/Scandinavian Bread
- Italian Country Bread
- Whole Wheat Toastbread

Times: Saturday February 21 & Sunday February 22 from 9 -2pm. SOLD OUT
             Saturday February 28 & Sunday March 1 from 9 – 2pm.   SOLD OUT

Cost: $280 + GST, includes recipes

Register: by phone 604.876.7653.  Payment is due at registration and can be made by phone with Visa or MasterCard, or in person.

Bring: Chef’s knife, paring knife, pastry scraper, 2 tea towels, 1 loaf/bread pan, closed-toe flat-heeled shoes, elastic for hair.

Note: menu is subjet to change at chef’s discretion.

This class is so popular both days are now sold out!  Please check back in March when this class will be posted again.  For more culinary classes check out French Bistro #1 and French Bistro #2 held in February. Remember to register early!

Its time again!  The next Serious Foodie Culinary Basics class will start Tuesday January 20, 2009.  Let Chef Tony guide you from basic skills to preparing 3 course meals.  Empower yourself by taking these classes and become an excellent home chef or give as a gift to the chef in your life.

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 webpage: http://www.nwcav.com/serious_culinary.php

Date: Mondays January 19 – March 9, 2009 – Sold Out!
          Tuesdays January 20 – March 10, 2009  – Sold Out!

Time: 6:15 – 9:45 pm evenings

Cost: $695 + GST.

Bring: Chef’s knife, paring knife, pastry scraper, 2 tea towels, closed-toe/flat-heeled shoes, hair elastic.

These classes will sell out.  Please call 604.876.7653 to register early.

Nothing, but nothing beat butter.  Good butter, that is.  Our cultured products have made improvements over the years: cheese, wine, breads, and charcuterie.  But our butter is, for the most part, lacking any culture what so ever.  In fact, I’d say its worse.  Water content is higher, flavour, well, like a cheap vanilla ice cream.  I know chefs bringing in butter from other parts, as far as New Zealand.

The fine cuisine of a city is only as good as its butter.  This is not according to me, but the gospel of Fernand Point.  Mediocre bread, coffee and service is tolerated in our fair city.  I’ve even come to expect less in those three areas so I can tolerate mediocrity.  But I do not know how much longer we can go with sub-par butter.  To the fine cook, working with mediocre butter is far worse than working with mediocre ingredients and equipment combined.

Now that everyone accepts butter as a healthier fat than most (only if it’s cultured), it’s time we tolerate no one messing with waht’s supposed to be a real good thing.

Tony Minichiello

Culinary Instructor

I am always weary of experts on any specific subject.  After all, it is possible for two experts with their expertly use of their lingo to produce two completely contradicting truths.  Take the case of global warming, oil prices the Middle East conflict, etc. 

Wine experts, for instance, influence what we buy.  Food experts, especially those in lab coats with their lab evidence, influence what we eat (and stop eating).  Celebrity chefs may influence the flavour of the month.  Food, because of its essential nature, warrants the voice of various experts.  In a way it’s a good thing, depending on the experts one chooses to listen to.  On the other hand, with food there are too many voices pulling us in all different directions.  To stay focused, balanced, confident, grounded, free, and overall healthy on how we think, cook, and eat our food, we need to be a lot more diligent and discriminating about where we get our information.

As a culinary instructor, I am expected to have answers to questions about food at my fingertips.  I’ve noticed that with every year of experience, I’m actually offering fewer answers than before.  There is this rule in teaching that there is no such thing as a stupid question.  I don’t agree with this.  Some questions are lazy for all they do is encourage a wide-eye faith in verbal answers rather than physical solutions.  Big difference.  Answers are supposed truths, mere words.  Solutions are investigated possibilities offering some enlightenment, words put into action via a process.  I do more for a student by guiding him or her towards a self-managed solution than by simply offering an answer.  The one rule about teaching I completely agree with is that we learn from our mistakes.  With food, that is the only road to excellent solutions.  To say that the kitchen staff at El Bulli are experts in the field of experimental cuisine is so far from the real picture;  they actually put themselves in the challenging position to make numerous mistakes only to find a single brilliant solution. They are experts in investigation. Whether its teaching with the team at Northwest Culinary Academy or working with the staff at Rouxbe to create the instructional videos, we’ve discovered that the best (and refreshing) position to take is not one of an expert, but as part of a team involved in finding solutions. 

Tony Minichiello

Chef Instructor