Sunday, October 23, 2011

L'Academie de Cuisine

 Last night I got to go to my first cooking class! Some people enjoying reading or sewing or some other craft during their downtime but lately I really like to cook, mostly because I also like to eat. I'm always looking for new recipes and new kinds of food to try. Well my mom and her sisters were having a "sisters weekend" and one of my aunts got sick at the last minute and couldn't come. They'd already made reservations for this cooking class in Bethseda and had an extra spot and offered to bring me! This cooking school is supposed to be the best in the D.C. area. There were about 20 of us in the class and we were divided into 4 groups of 5. The chef taught us a few things to start and showed us how to make our 4 course dinner and then we divided up tasks and as a group made the meal and got to eat all of it too!
 We were in this real professional looking kitchen and the chef was showing us everything we'd make and told us the order we needed to make everything, when he finally told us to get started I suddenly felt like I was on an episode of Iron Chef and that we'd be rushing around with people yelling "15 minutes!" For some reason I felt like I had to peel my apples really fast. My mom said "why are you rushing so much Julia?" I realized then it was going to be more relaxed than that. Pictured above is our first course: a warm goat cheese croquette with roasted tomato and wilted spinach salad with sweet potato ravioli with a brown butter sage sauce.
I used the same plate for the main course so it doesn't look as pretty but it was a cider brined pork with spicy apple chutney.  And I learned last night that yes, it is okay to serve pork with a pink center. It was really juicy and flavorful.
 For dessert we made an apple tart tartin with cranberry mousse. All of it was really good. I probably ate more than anyone else in my group. I feel confident that I could probably make all of it again, although probably not at the same meal (that would be A LOT of work).
 Here we are eating our gourmet meal after cooking it. I'd love to take another class, I'm just trying to find one thats less expensive and closer to home. Thanks Mom, Aunt Terry and Aunt Janet for treating me to this fun night out.

3 comments:

Heather and Eric said...

So jealous! I would love to take a cooking class like that. I would like to eat the food even more!

Emily Young said...

That looks like so much fun, and your food looks delicious! I am jealous too.

Shelly Moon said...

I want to go to a cooking class soo bad!! That looked so awesome and what a fun idea for a girls night! I wonder if they have any of those around here... That is so great you were able to do that!! The food looked so delicious too!