Mistral Cooking Class

[Schielke]

Hey everybody,

I emailed Chef William today about the possibility of an eGullet cooking class. I will update this as soon as I hear a reply from him.

Feel free to suggest possible topics for this class, some may or may not be fesable, depending on what William can do.

Ben

[nightscotsman]

Thanks for looking into this, Schielke .

My suggestions: knife skills, foie gras, or truffles.

[scrat68]

Fois gras! Fois gras! Fois gras!

Pleeeeeeease....pretty please?

[Schielke]

All of those suggestions sound great! Once we have a few more people chime in I can contact William to talk about details and such. Naturally a truffle or foie gras class might cost a little more, so take that into account too. Although I might be partial to a truffle class since I have never had the chance to eat them before.

If we do do a knife skills class, does everybody have sharp knives they can bring in? I know that there are a limited number of chefs knives available in the Mistral kitchen.

I am also interested in learning more about sauteeing. I have yet to be able to come close to replicating william's perfectly crusted scallops or halibut in my own kitchen and believe it would be interesting to get right up there and try one myself with some guidence.

Another possibility would to do a mixed menu kind of thing that highlights different dishes and techniques that we find interesting. Perhaps learning how to sautee a piece of fish or scallop then learning a foie gras technique for another dish and finally touching on something for dessert or the like.

William, if you are reading this please let me know any thoughts you have on them if you have time.

Thanks everybody! I cant wait until we get this hammered out!

Ben

[col klink]

I have sharp knives that I can bring and would love a knife skills course.

[mb7o]

I'd be up for most anything not requiring advanced professional kitchen skills.

Knife skills might be cool, though at this point I have one old Sabatier which can be made very sharp but is a pain to take care of, and some garbage from the supermarket.

Oh, I can probably bring along a friend or two if we need more people.

Edited November 22, 2002 by mb7o (log)

[mamster]

Knifery sounds good. Schielke, you got me thinking that fish cookery might be nice, since it's probably where I'm least comfortable in the kitchen and know I could learn a lot quickly. But really, I can't argue with anything suggested so far. Count me in.

[snooky]

I'd be into a knife skills class.

How about sauces or stocks? Not flashy but a nice skill to

brush up on nonetheless.

[Schielke]

snooky, welcome to the board! Since you posted about this event I assume you are a PacNWer. I hope you can make it to this class or any other events planned.

Sauces and stocks would be a great class! Lets add that as a seperate option since it could easily fill a whole class.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Ben

[ivan]

Ben, your new avatar is disconcerting.

I live in Southern California, so there is no way that I can contribute substantive content to this thread, but I'm down in solidarity with the PNW contingent of eG, because I've been to Pike Place more than once and seen the guys throw the fishes. Yeah, and I also saw Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet Himself, tooling about Pike Place in his motorized wheel-chair.

Honest, I have.

Edited November 22, 2002 by ivan (log)

[scrat68]

Knife skills would be great!

I just had all of our knives sharpened at:

Nella

112 South Mead Street (off of 1st)

Seattle

206-766-8341

They did a great job - I don't think our knives were ever this sharp! And, very reasonable pricewise - $2 - $3 per knife. These folks handle most of the restaurants and hotels in the city - they really know what they are doing!

[Schielke]

Ok party people, I am going to throw out a couple dates for the Mistral Cooking Class that was discussed at the BBQ event. For those of you that missed it, Chef William had suggested to Tighe that we do a class where we go to the Market, pick out what looks good and then go back and cook it all up.

I thought this was a fabulous idea.

Possible dates:

May 17th

May 31st

June 7th

Obviously we would have to coordinate with Chef William and his schedule.

What works for all of you?

Ben

[Schielke]

I sent an e-mail to Chef William at Mistral to see which dates work for him. I will let everybody know when I hear from him.

Ben

p.s. Tighe you owe a review!

[col klink]

Any date that works for him works for me.

[MsRamsey]

June is best for me.

May 17th I'm out of town.

[LEdlund]

I'm available all of those dates.

[Mr. Toast]

Can I join the party? May 17th probably wouldn't work for me, but the other dates are fine.

[tighe]

I'm sure that scrat and I can make whatever date work if necessary, and this is necessary....

And you young man, will get your review when I'm damn good and ready, and you'll like it!

[Schielke]

Ok, so it appears that the 17th is out. No problem. Consider it gone.

Ben

[Schielke]

Ok, the 31st is now booked for the final NSM Cocktail Party.

Ben

[nightscotsman]

Ok, the 31st is now booked for the final NSM Cocktail Party.

Sorry I nabbed the date - I hope I haven't thrown a wrench in the works.

[Schielke]

Ok, the 31st is now booked for the final NSM Cocktail Party.

Sorry I nabbed the date - I hope I haven't thrown a wrench in the works.

No, not a problem. It was just a date I threw out there.

I am very pro-cocktail party.

Ben

[LEdlund]

Do we have a date set for this? I have June 7th on my calendar, but don't know if that was ever confirmed.

I read in the yesterdays Times that the Market hosts their own "cooking class" with local chefs. It will be interesting to see these groups of people roaming the market!

[col klink]

It's not June 7th is it? Batgrrrl and I are out of town!

[Schielke]

We still have not confirmed a date yet. I have yet to hear back from William. I will give him a ring today and find out.

Ben