Upgrade your culinary skills while on vacation.
Try taking a cooking class with a regional chef.
Cooking classes for kids are very popular at the St. Regis in Monarch Beach, Calif., at left. Courtesy of St. Regis Hotel
Courtesy of St. Regis Hotel
Americans have become much more adventurous about food and cooking. They eat out more than ever before and, as a result, they've become more familiar with dishes from other countries and with different ways of cooking.
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"I'd love to be able to prepare that at home," people might say after a wonderful restaurant meal. For them, such cooking may seem beyond their culinary capabilities. But it needn't be. Learning to cook impressive meals doesn't have to mean taking a week's (or month's) worth of classes. Around the country, many chefs offer short cooking programs that can, if you like, be combined with a vacation.
On June 25, I wrote about two recreational cooking schools that are included my upcoming book, "Gourmet Getaways." To guide you to the goal of culinary finesse, here are two more.
The Washington Hotel Culinary School, Washington Island, Wis.
Visitors to Washington Island at the northern tip of Wisconsin's Door County have an unexpected surprise awaiting them. They will discover a bucolic and historic fishing and agricultural community committed exclusively to the sustainable food movement.
At the center of this movement is the Washington Hotel Restaurant and Culinary School, run with typical Midwestern graciousness by chef-proprietor, Leah Caplan.
An honors graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Caplan is a local authority on the sustainable food movement.
Her interest in the subtleties of food preparation began during her formative years, while traveling abroad with her father. It was then that she acquainted herself with some important concepts about food preparation that have remained with her ever since.
The concept that influenced her the most was taught in Japan, where she learned to balance food harmoniously in quantity and quality with aesthetic simplicity. A crowning example of this influence is evident today in her thin-crust smoked whitefish pizza with a sour cream base. In this pizza, all parts are blended seamlessly to create a judicious balance of key ingredients, appetizingly presented.
As a chef, she makes it a point to stay in close contact with organic and sustainable food producers. Students in her classes will learn about the foods of local producers directly from the producers. Chef Caplan will then take their products and turn them into a delicious, unforgettable meal.
The year-round teaching program encourages students to buy, grow, and eat local and sustainable foods and to master sensible techniques for preparing and preserving food. Students are taught to create elegant (but restrained) meals that look the way meals ought to look – attractive without being artificially decorated.
At the end of each class, students receive original recipes to use at home.
Types of classes that have been offered include the science, secrets, and nuances of baking in a brick oven; how the cacao bean is grown and processed; techniques for creating superb chocolate dishes; and the art of making handmade pasta from wheat grown on the island.
