My Last Plate It Up! Cooking Class, Part I

Not like in ‘the most recent’. ‘Last’ in like ‘No More’. Heather is moving my favorite gourmet kitchen tools store to a new location. The good news is that she is going to be right in the heart of everything: on GLendale Ave, right across from Murphy Park, right next door to that terrific new wood-fired brick-oven pizzeria.

The bad news is she’s not going to hold cooking classes (for now, she says). So a couple of weeks ago, my Sweet Lady Wife and I went their for our last cooking class: Date Night, by Chef Bernard Chirent. I have taken several classes from Chef Bernard and they are always fantastic. This one was no different. I always learn a lot from him and he has probably helped more than anyone else become a better cook. That night, for example, he had to come up with two entirely new dishes because the expected ingrediants were not available. Me? my brain would have locked up. Chef Bernard, on the other hand, just took it in stride and delivered substitutes with grace and ease.

Papillote of Smoked Salmon, Cream, and Chives

Thin slices of smoked salmon just the right size. Rolled ‘just so’. Filled with whipped cream, chives, and a tiny bit of freshly-squeezed. lemon juice. This is not cooking class. This is art class. There is so much more to cooking than simple food preparation that I need to learn. One of the biggies is presentation. I learn so much about presentation from Chef Bernard. I’ve yet to find a book that will teach me what I learn just by watching him spend twenty seconds plating up a dish. If I could win the lottery tonight, I would go to work for him just to learn.

When he opens his French Bistro in a couple of months, I hope that he does not mind that I bring my camera.