Hey, are you interested in what Shuna is up to? Do you need a baking & pastry workshop for the advanced? She's here for you, please contact Shuna: shunafish *at* earthlink (dot) net
It isn't often I leave my immediate surroundings, I'm attempting to do better. When Jenn of Life Begins @ Thirty sent me an email asking whether I'd be interested in a knife skills class, I took a deep breath and said, "YES, count me in for 2 places." There, I did it. Phew! My wife don't need no dumb knife skills class, so I invited my sister.
That was yesterday, Sunday. Mrs. Meathead and I headed out for the great unknown, San Francisco. Oooooo. Aaahhhhh. I grabbed a few of my old carbon blades and my F. Dick Multicut steel, neat. We made it in fine style and hung out for a while, waiting for the 8 or so of us to show up. I met the author of World On a Plate, sorry I forgot your name! You were really nice. I also sorta met the author of A Full Belly. I suppose I should really take notes if I'm going to post about such things, eh? I'll do better next time, I promise Amanda.
Everyone was really nice and Shuna got right to work. Our group weren't professional working cooks or chefs, so she started talking about knives, the basics. After a while she got to slicing, mincing and some crazy fancy French terms for preparing fruits and vegies. She even showed us this little cube, it's about the 12th of the size of a pencil eraser. Something The French Laundry's prep cooks spend a lot of time making. She says they have 43 people in the kitchen and only 5 are cooking. Dang, that's a lot of prep. No wonder the stuff costs so much. It was really fun to hear about all the stories from behind the kitchen doors. Something most of us don't get a chance to hear. But we were there for cuttin'. So we finally got a chance to slice a few things. Two things I will remember from this day is knowing how to Supreme a Lime/Orange/Citrus. I went home and did a tangerine first thing, MUCH better. Love it. It's quite simple, just slice off the top/bottom of the lime. In a downward stroke following the contour of the beast, remove the skin and pith. Hold fruit firmly in hand and using one slicing motion, cut the wedges of love out. I've seen it done on teevee, but never tried it. It wasn't tough. The other thing I will take away, is the ... how do I put this? When creating a recipe, or putting together a dish, don't choose sizes and textures of food that will battle each other in your mouth. Which is why she recommends to peel the tomatoes, Supreme the citrus. When it hits your mouth, we're talking harmony. Everything comes together nicely. This is a great mantra to have while putting a meal together.
Thank you Shuna and thank you Jenn for making it happen. It was a really nice afternoon with good people. Oh, Jenn, I hope your skills improve and your need for bandages decreases.
Xo Xo
