LCBO Courses

[Jake]

It has been brought to my attention that the LCBO is continuing to offer a number of cooking classes around the province, and that some of our members are teaching and/or attending some of these courses.

So, for those teaching, who chooses the courses? What is the set up like? Do you have limits on ingredient costs? Are they demonstration or hands on courses? What credentials are required to teach for the LCBO?

And for anyone else, have you attended any classes? What did you like/dislike about them?

I've added the one class I was told about to the calendar, if anyone else is teaching or attending one, PM me and I'll add them to the calendar as well.

[Kerry Beal]

It has been brought to my attention that the LCBO is continuing to offer a number of cooking classes around the province, and that some of our members are teaching and/or attending some of these courses.

So, for those teaching, who chooses the courses?  What is the set up like?  Do you have limits on ingredient costs?  Are they demonstration or hands on courses?  What credentials are required to teach for the LCBO?

And for anyone else, have you attended any classes?  What did you like/dislike about them? 

I've added the one class I was told about to the calendar, if anyone else is teaching or attending one, PM me and I'll add them to the calendar as well.

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I'm teaching a course at the Bayview Village LCBO in May. It's a demonstration class on Truffle Making which includes chocolate tempering techniques, just before Mother's day.

I was actually taking a course at that same LCBO in knife skills that a friend gave me as a gift for Christmas. He and I have attended the advanced knife skills last year in another LCBO, then attended knife skills 101 this year. These were hands on classes and you got a couple of great knives out of them. We have also attended a class given by Anna Olsen, who has the show 'Sugar' on the canadian food network, and her husband, also a chef. We got snowed out twice, so didn't get the original class on Basque cooking that we had hoped to attend but the class we did attend provided a nice meal and a couple of useful recipes.

I teach chocolate classes at a local cooking store in Burlington, so I asked the event organizer during the knife skills class if she would consider holding a chocolate class. She thought that would be great fun. She seemed to be getting a little nervous about it as we pinned down the details, so I went in one day with a whole bunch of chocolate I'd made, her nervousness disappeared, and the ingredient budget went way up. I notice you can smooth a lot of things with good chocolate.

In terms of credentials, they seem to run courses with chefs from local high end restaurants. The chef who taught my second knife skills class is a food stylist now as a second career, she teaches various classes at the LCBO. She has taught a truffle class there before but didn't teach tempering. A number of the students expressed an interest in tempering, so that was my in.

Their kitchens are great, very complete as far as I can see, with the mirror over the work surface so everyone can see easily. They accomodate 25 or so students. They showcase various liquors and wines with the class. Can't wait to see what they come up with to go with my chocolate.

They have a limit on ingredient costs, that includes what you feed people during the class. The event organizer wants me to provide take away items for the students, because unlike the other classes they won't get to eat a meal, but there will be lots of chocolate on the tables for people to try. Should see a few migraines and sugar highs that night.

Anyway, I'm not sure how much more it is appropriate for me to say about my class in a forum such as this, but feel free to PM me or ask any other questions in forum.

[sadistick]

I did a course...not really cooking, where they paired dessert wines and ports with my tarts for V-Day

[Kerry Beal]

I did a course...not really cooking, where they paired dessert wines and ports with my tarts for V-Day

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Is that what they call a 'Lifestyle' class, ie to showcase your tarts? Did you find it helpful to your business?

[sadistick]

Not sure what they call that class, They went pretty well actually...Summerhill wants to put me in their book for next season, so thats a good sign...It was somewhat helpful, if not only to reassure me that most people Reeeaaalllly like our tarts

Edited April 25, 2006 by sadistick (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Not sure what they call that class, They went pretty well actually...Summerhill wants to put me in their book for next season, so thats a good sign...It was somewhat helpful, if not only to reassure me that most people Reeeaaalllly like our tarts 

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That is a good sign. I didn't make it into the book with my chocolate course because the book was already at the printer. I'm not quite sure why the website can't show it however, unless it has to match the book.

I'll post a course outline tomorrow when I have more time.

So tell me about your tarts!!! Where can I try them so I can reeeaaallly like them too?

Kerry

[Jake]

Yes, let's hear about the tarts.

Kerry, can I ask who taught the knife skills courses you took, and/or their creds?

Great timing for your truffle course, before Mother's Day. Great going that you're teaching tempering as well - a very useful skill. I've never made truffles, mainly because I don't really like chocolate or sweets in general....

[sadistick]

We are just finalizing our website, once that is done, I will unveil more details...

To keep you interested, these are family recipies stemming from Vienna, passed down from my great grandmother.

We have 4 tarts which we will specialize to start with...

Swiss Chocolate Fudge Tart

Linzer Torte (Roasted hazelnuts and pecans)

Marzipan Dream Tart

Coconut Chocolate Tart

Although I was hesitant about egullet with its "different" policies regarding posting if I would be able to post anything about my tarts here...(???)

PS - All our tarts are baked then rapid-frozen for convenient storage in your freezer for up to 8 months, with the ability to refreeze leftovers with no deterioration of quality.

Edited April 26, 2006 by sadistick (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, can I ask who taught the knife skills courses you took, and/or their creds?

The first course we took was at the LCBO in St Catherines taught by Rob Fracchioni chef of the Millcroft Inn (though I think he was at one of the Niagara peninsula restaurants then). He showed us how to french a rack of lamb, how to remove the silverskin from pork tenderloin, and some fine dicing techniques. The lamb got taken back for use in his restaurant, but we took home the pork tenderloin, and he prepared us a meal with tenderloin, using the vietnamese chili garlic sauce that was quite wonderful. We were given a boning knife and a utility knife if I remember correctly.

The second course the the Bayview Village LCBO was taught by Adele Rogers, who is a chef and food stylist (googling her shows she was the food stylist for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy amoung other really neat looking things). She taught slicing, dicing, juilienne and tourne. The meal was a bit disappointing (fish not cooked), but I learned a couple of new tricks and went home with a decent chefs knife.

Great timing for your truffle course, before Mother's Day.  Great going that you're teaching tempering as well - a very useful skill.  I've never made truffles, mainly because I don't really like chocolate or sweets in general....

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You don't like chocolate or sweets? Oh my god! Mind you, while I buy chocolate about 25kg at a time, I don't eat that much of it myself. It has to be pretty special to call out to me. I create new chocolates, perfect them until they are absolutely fabulous flavours, then I lose interest in them and move on to the next one. That's when I turn the recipe over to my friend Mari who has 'Coco Chocolates' and she uses them for her chocolate of the month.

Following is the course outline for my upcoming truffle class.

I start by showing the basic composition of the truffle mixture, getting the ganache into a smooth emulsion and forming the centres. I then show a couple of techniques for tempering chocolate. I usually temper a fairly large amount of milk chocolate, then small quantities of dark and white to be used for decoration and contrast.

I go on to show techniques for coating the truffles in the tempered chocolate with dipping forks, fingers and hand rolling. When the truffles have set up, I use a piping bag to decorate with contrasting chocolate.

I also pipe out some mounds of truffle centre, add a couple of strategically placed almonds, dip in milk chocolate, then add the eyes with dark chocolate to make truffle mice.

I usually also demonstrate how to mold a plate of chocolates using a professional mold, and in this class will also show how to mold a nice little heart shaped box to hold the truffles for an elegant presentation.

With the left over chocolate I make bark, almond with the milk chocolate, peppercorn with the dark and white.

The class participants taste as we go along, then divide up the chocolate to take home.

[Kerry Beal]

We are just finalizing our website, once that is done, I will unveil more details...

To keep you interested, these are family recipies stemming from Vienna, passed down from my great grandmother.

We have 4 tarts which we will specialize to start with...

Swiss Chocolate Fudge Tart

Linzer Torte (Roasted hazelnuts and pecans)

Marzipan Dream Tart

Coconut Chocolate Tart

PS - All our tarts are baked then rapid-frozen for convenient storage in your freezer for up to 8 months, with the ability to refreeze leftovers with no deterioration of quality.

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I, for one, want to see pictures!! And I want to know when your next event will be at the LCBO so I can come and taste.

Edited April 26, 2006 by Kerry Beal (log)

[sadistick]

Ok ok...just a little "taste" to keep you interested...We had our plated shots done today, and will be getting the website done very soon!

Pictured is a shot of the Linzer Torte, a traditional Viennese tart, which consists of ground roasted hazelnuts and pecans, with a thin layer of apricot jam at the bottom.

More to come...

[Kerry Beal]

Ok ok...just a little "taste" to keep you interested...We had our plated shots done today, and will be getting the website done very soon!

Pictured is a shot of the Linzer Torte, a traditional Viennese tart, which consists of ground roasted hazelnuts and pecans, with a thin layer of apricot jam at the bottom.

More to come...

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I'm salivating, can't wait to see more.

[Manolo]

sadistick, i think I had some of your tarts at a recent Port tasting class at the Summerhill store. If so, those were damn good!

[sadistick]

Manolo - You sure did...

You actually had the one pictured here (Linzer Torte) as well as the Swiss Chocolate Fudge Tart.

Where were you sitting?

[Manolo]

I was sitting at the back table with a friend that I got the class as a gift for. Boy did I feel lucky when they pulled out that 77 Grahams.

[Kerry Beal]

Sadistick,

At what point did they choose the ports to go with your tarts? Did they just bring bottles out as the tasting went along or did they do some matching before the class happened?

[sadistick]

Hehe, yah, the 77 Magnum was really nice...definetly one of the better ports I have ever had. I didnt like many of the other ones to be honest, thought the next best one was the Taylor Tawny port.

Kerry - I told them of the tarts ahead of time and they planned accordingly.

The pictures are done, they look really good...website should be up soon!

If you want to try some tarts, you can always PM me and I can give you ordering info

Cheers.