How to Make a Vinaigrette

Today we had the pleasure to have Chef Virginie from Sur La Table for two wonderful workshops at Addison Primary School. Chef Virginie introduced the kids to the five tastes: Sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. It was amazing that some children in both workshops knew about umami!

Chef Virginie used her workshop to teach the students about vinaigrette. She explained how mixing an acid with an oil creates an unstable vinaigrette, since the vinegar (the acid) and the oil will separate. To make sure the vinaigrette is stable, an emulsifier like mustard, honey, or an egg yolk is added.Vinaigrette Separation

Chef Virginie introduced the kids to two different dressings: A red wine vinaigrette made with red wine, olive oil and Dijon mustard; and an Asian vinaigrette which used rice vinegar, oil, sesame oil and honey. The children were instructed to mix the acid with the emulsifier first, and then slowly add the oil … as the kids whisked the ingredients together, the dressing became thicker and thicker!

Towards the end of the workshop, some kids had a chance to chop lettuce and vegetables, and then everyone enjoyed two nice salads!

Thank you Chef Virginie!

The “Secret” to Cooking Vegetables

Private chef and teacher, chef Laura Stec, held two engaging workshops for kindergarteners and 3rd graders at Nixon Elementary on Thursday Nov. 9th.  The students learned all about the “secret” to vegetables and thNixon Chef Laura e proper cooking technique to coax this secret out.  By the end of the workshop even the kindergarten students were shouting the correct answers to cooking temperature questions!  And everyone enthusiastically finished off the Asian Lettuce Cups at the end of the demonstration.

Wait — Pretzels in a Salad??

Briones Rebecca's Five Senses 1Today Bay Area Tasting Week founder, and fearless leader, Rebecca Scholl led two workshops for 3rd graders at Juana Briones Elementary School. The “Five Senses” workshops taught the kids how sound, smell, sight, texture and flavors all contribute to the tasting experience.

After doing a “mindful eating” exercise using pretzels, Rebecca showed the students how to put togetherBriones Rebecca's Five Senses 2 a multi-colored and multi-flavored salad. She really got the creative juices flowing; before you knew it, they added pretzels to the salad. What???

Magical Spices and Food

lavender-coucous-saladChef Ellie Lavender wowed the students at Palo Verde Elementary School with her workshop on vegetarian Mediterranean foods. The children journeyed to Morocco with Chef Ellie, explored this land of magical spices and food, and then feasted on a Vegan Moroccan Couscous Salad with Lavender Tahini Dressing. To read more about the workshop, see more pictures, and get the recipe for yourself  – visit Chef Ellie’s Blog.

Kicking Off Tasting Week 2016 With a Salad Dressing Competition

chef-christy-salad-dressing-competition-1To kick off Tasting Week 2016, we welcomed Chef Christy from Sur La Table to Juana Briones Elementary school. After introducing the kids to several new fruits and vegetables such as quince, rhubarb, radicchio, and jicama, she explained the process in creating the “umami” or “savory” taste. Umami is created when you break down amino acids into glutamate on your tongue – for instance when you brown meat, dry fish to make fish sauce, transform soy into soy sauce, or age parmesan cheese. The secret umami ingredient that chefs will never admit to using but that they use all the time? Garlic powder!

Then chef Christy set up two competing teams to make salad dressing. In any dressing you will need an oil, an acid, an emulsifier and flavoring. The first dressing was Asian, with grapeseed oil, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil and soy sauce. The second one was European with olive oil, chocolate balsamic vinegar, mustard, and…garlic powder. The kids loved them both!

The Balance of Flavors

Chef Christy WolfChristy Wolf, resident chef at Sur La Table visited Peter Lee’s fifth grade class at Hoover Elementary school today for Tasting Week. She focused on the elements of tasting with the students. Discussion started with the students recalling the sweet, salty, sour and bitter taste buds. She went on to mention one more which many students were unaware of, umami (Japanese origin) – a savory taste. She taught the students that the amino acid glutamate is responsible for this particular taste. Browning/searing the meat and aging the cheese breaks down the protein leading to this flavor.

Chef Wolf went on to make a healthy, colorful and balanced (taste) salad which the students enjoyed greatly. She mixed together Dijon mustard, Cranberry Pear Balsamic Green Salad With Radishes and Beetsvinegar, rice vinegar and Tuscan herb olive oil as a dressing with salt, black pepper, chili, garlic powder and lime. For the salad, she tossed together the mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, beets, apples, persimmon, watermelon radish and parmesan cheese. She also used melon and apple mixing them with salt, chili and lime to make a quick and tasty fruit salad.

Christy Wolf’s visit was a huge hit with the fifth graders and helped the students realize that eating healthy can also be tasty!

From the Perfect Tomato to the Perfect Pasta Sauce

Today Chef PePicking Anchoviester Rudolph, from Madera, taught the children of Juana Briones Elementary how to make home-made tomato sauce from Early Girl tomatoes (the last of the season), garlic, and anchovies. And can you believe it, many adventurous children tasted the anchovies on their own!Tomatoes

Chef Peter showed the kids how to choose the perfect tomato — what to look for when selecting tomatoes, and how to tell if they are ripe. These kids will be experts at the farmer’s market so make sure to take them with you next time you go.

At the end of the workshop, Chef Peter poured the sauce over some perfectly cooked, al dente gluten-free pasta. Everyone enjoyed a serving of the pasta, and then the kids lined up for seconds and thirds!

Can’t Get Enough of That Kale

Tasting Week at Barron Park continued today with a visit from Calafia chef, Kimberly Beck. She helped kindergarteners and 1st graders make one of Calafia’s specialty salads: Kale, Feta cheese, Kimberly Beck Making Kale Saladcranberries, and quinoa. Kids ate it right up! Thank you to Rebecca Scholl and Bay Area Tasting Week for arranging such a wonderful experience for our students. Thank you also to all the parent volunteers for coming to help out (and getting to taste as well)!

Tasting Food with Your Eyes and Nose

Beverlie Terra at Addison 2014On Monday, all the 4th grade students at Addison enjoyed the visit of Chef Beverlie Terra of Dolce Hayes Mansion and Chef Kathy Niven. Chef Beverlie discussed the benefits of eating fresh seasonal foods, visiting local farms and farmers markets, while Chef Kathy shreded the vegetables.

The students were surprised to learn how we can taste food with our eyes and our nose. The kids mixed together vegetables that had an array of different colors, and they “tasted” the vegetables with their noses by enjoying all the different smells.

Chef Beverlie and Chef Kathy then taught the kids how to make lettuce wraps. Each child took a lettuce leaf and filled it with all the different shredded vegetables such as yellow Lettuce Wraps at Addisonsquash, zucchinis, cucumbers and rainbow carrots…. They added some homemade Ranch dressing, and voila — delicious lettuce wraps. While the students were busy eating their wraps, Chef Beverlie demonstrated how to make Ranch dressing using a whisk.

The line for seconds was huge!! The lettuce wraps were a big success!