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Voume 3, Number 1, Winter 2008
Creating spring in January, in the Garden Cabin (bouquet by Eve Davis)
Dear Culinary Friends,
Greetings to you, one and all, from a gray winter garden in the Loiret. The earth is still slumbering in the bread belt of France, but a few slender beginnings of wheat are to be seen poking out of the ground in places, and the fields will soon turn a vibrant green.
Our line-up for July’s two sessions (July 13-19 and 20-26) is firm at last! We will begin Week 1 with a demonstration by Chef in Motion’s Mauricio Abreu (otherwise known as Chef Mo). Monday will kick off with Laurey Masterton (of Laurey’s Catering) and Chris Aquilino (Earth Fare South’s chef in residence), leading you through recipes designed around squash & onions. On Tuesday Wally Maria Mazzucco (our Italian specialist) and Barbara Swell (Log Cabin Cooking) will tempt you with tomatoes and garlic. Wednesday is our mid-week baking day. You will spend half the day exploring grains with Pierre Lestieux at the Paris Bakery and the other half with Diana Schmitt McCall experimenting with beer-based recipes. Thursday’s program is fish & wild food, and will be orchestrated by Tres Hundertmark, executive chef at the Lobster Trap, and Everyone Cooks’ Michael Gentry. Friday will close with Marge Porter (The Chef’s Gallery) and Perry Hendrix, executive chef at The Market Place.
Week 2 will kick off with a demonstration by New York’s Hiranth Jayasinghe. Hiranth will also teach on Monday (innovating with greens & beans), joined by his wife and catering partner Elizabeth McGraw. Tuesday’s herbs & flowers will be explored by Eve Davis (chair of Asheville’s Slow Food convivium) and sustainable agriculture specialist Marc Williams. Wednesday’s grains & beer will be led by Pierre Lestieux and Tres Hundertmark, Thursday will be a southern treatment of potatoes and corn, starring Laura Boosinger and Chef Mo for a mix of Appalachia and South of the Border. The week will wind up with Asheville’s cornerstone Mark Rosenstein (founder of the Market Place), accompanied by yours truly for a journey with eggs and cheese.
Both weeks will begin with morning walks around campus, led by Dean Ian Robertson and Marc Williams, with special guest Mark Brenner appearing one day. Afternoon/evening sessions include wine & cheese tasting with Asheville Wine Market’s Eberhard Heide and Pierre Lestieux, beer tasting & brewing secrets with Brian Cole & Chris Aquilino, High Tea with Ian Robertson or Japanese Oyatsu with Cynthia Pierce, palate-training sessions, food songs & stories, picnics, and final celebration dinners. The bridge session on Saturday, July 19th, if you opt for that extra, will include a guided tour of Dr. Tom Michaels’ truffle farm and a picnic with song and dance hosted by homesteaders Peter & Polly Gott, high in the Carolina mountains.
January was a whirlwind of culinary activity in North Carolina, with WNC Magazine gracing us with a day-long photo shoot to accompany a story which should appear in their March/April issue. (If you haven’t yet seen this impressive publication, check it out at www.wncmagazine.com/fooddrink.html.) Instrumental in creating the right atmosphere for a spring meal in dead of winter were Eve Davis, who provided live flowers from her greenhouse as well as a delicate mixture of fresh greens that was like eating green lace, Michael Gentry, who prepared a rich savory miso dressing to accompany the salad, Tres Hundertmark, who created a new dish of trout topped with oysters Rockefeller and a hollandaise sauce, Mark Rosenstein, with a chicken and pork cassoulet redolent of southern France, Dee Dee Arthur with roasted spring potatoes and asparagus, decked with crumbled goat cheese, to accompany an herbed and roasted leg of lamb (prepared by yours truly) which came from Jamie Ager. A savory mushroom and leek bread pudding brought by Cynthia Pierce complemented the lamb as well, and we followed that with a cheese plate from the Asheville Wine Market and French baguette and beer bread prepared on the spot by Pierre Lestieux. Three desserts brought us to a close: a tart plum focaccia with creamy gorgonzola brought in by Wally Maria Mazzucco, a strawberry mascarpone cream cake by Cynthia, and a chocolate delight with the regal name of “Queen of Sheba”, by Diana McCall.
If you aren’t already salivating beyond control, you can read on about our next event which was a lecture on the mystery and mastery of truffle production led by Dr. Tom Michaels and topped off with hors d’oeuvres (provided by Tres Hundertmark, Michael Gentry, Diana McCall, and Tom himself), including a risotto with freshly-shaved truffle and a truffle omelette. If you’d like to know more about truffle production in the Western North Carolina/East Tennessee climate, please join us for the bridge session mentioned above (be sure to reserve early, as transportation must be arranged). You can also check out the upcoming article in the spring issue of Marquee Magazine (www.marqueemagazine.com, for future reference) entitled “Tennessee and Tarheel Truffles: You’ve Got to Be Kidding!”
And while you’re clicking away, The Asheville Citizen-Times’ new food writer, Carol Motsinger wrote a feature story which ran January 27th, in the Living section, which you can browse here: www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080127/LIVING/80125086/1275
Just in case you can’t wait until July for a bit of extra culinary inspiration, Pierre Lestiex will be representing the SSCA by offering an afternoon (2:00-6:00) workshop on Classic French Breads, at his Paris Bakery for the 4th Annual Asheville Artisan Bread Festival, which will take place March 29th (see www.asapconnections.org/bread2008.htm).
As every year, we are busy preparing a cookbook which will detail all the recipes students will be learning this summer. You can get an idea of the recipes we have divulged in the past by visiting www.schoolofculinaryarts.org/Market.php. To ease you through the late winter doldrums, below you’ll find a recipe from Wally Maria Mazzucco. If you wish to make it more seasonal, you can substitute winter creasy greens for the arugula, and later on try substituting some branch lettuce or dandelion greens. You might also try replacing the garlic with sautéed or freshly-diced ramps and the tomatoes with sautéed morels.
Bon appétit et bonne santé!
Susi Gott Séguret, Director
Auxy, France
Chef Tres Hundertmark, Dr. Mark Brenner, and Chef Michel Baudouin, savoring truffles and more…
“Truffles…anyone who does not declare himself ready to leave Paradise or Hell for such a treat is not worthy to be born again.”~Maurice Goudeket
~WMM~
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Remove from the oven and let cool. Reserve the oil.
Prepare the salad: On a large platter, place the washed, drained arugula, arrange the washed and sliced tomatoes all around, and scatter the crumbled ricotta salata on top.
Make the dressing with the reserved garlic-infused olive oil, some additional oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pour it over the salad and serve, placing 2 or more roasted garlic cloves on each serving.
