P i s t a c h i o

Cooking class highlights with Bonnie Stern, as promised:

Challah making and shaping
We’re using Jenny Stolz’s recipe, Bonnie’s grandmother, who had 11 children. She was famous for repeatedly winning top honours for her challah at the county fair. The prize? Enough flour to feed the family another year.

Should I make a three-, four-, five- or six-strand braid for challah? Bonnie gave us drawings and clear instructions, but it was Bonnie’s hands themselves that sorted out each of our challahs.

Shakshuka [eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce]
Her descriptive phrase above describes this dish perfectly. Shakshuka is one of Israel’s most popular dishes. Although it’s simple, Bonnie’s rendition shows a fine sensibility and requires restraint and a light touch. The sauce is a gentle cook-up of mashed tomatoes, not a homogeneous puree. The heat comes from harissa and the ancient flavour accent from cumin. Bonnie says she’s eaten versions of the dish from Jerusalem to Australia. Some break the eggs [Shakshuka means “all mixed up”], but the dish is much more elegant following Bonnie’s technique, leaving the eggs undisturbed.

Soufflé rolls with smoked salmon
The foundation of this dish is classic soufflé: béchamel, separated eggs, beaten whites folded in to aerate. The mixture is cooked on a shallow tray and becomes a sheet of soufflé. Once cooled, spread with mascarpone/sour scream/yogurt in the combination you prefer [we had mascarpone] and lay down some smoked salmon. The roll is then sliced to showcase the spiral filling.

Bonnie’s suggestions for substitute fillings: cold shrimp, crab salad, a hot seafood mix or even creamed broccoli.

French toast casserole
Bonnie calls this a cross between French toast and bread pudding. Nuff said. Except maybe a teasing mention of brown sugar and mable syrup.

On patriot maple syrup
A third of the students were expat Canadians, which made it interesting to hear one of them pipe up about how silly we are in our nationalistic zeal to make it sound like Canadian maple syrup is the best.

“Vermont produces great maple syrup,” he rightly points out. In terms of terroir, there can’t be that much difference between Vermont and Quebec maples.

But why self-deprecate? It was an odd little moment away from home. It’s impossible not to compare your destination to it, but really, we don’t need to pit an apple with an orange. Vive notre difference.

Finally.

Foodservice training specifically designed for English-as-a-Second-Language workers, a no-brainer that has been in the works at George Brown College for some time.

This academic year, ESL workers will be able to formalize their foodservice training in a course that deals directly with their communication skills.

“Visionary” is an apt moniker for Hospitaltiy School Dean John Walker.

“We’ve been listening to our customers,” says Walker, and in this case, the customer is the resto/foodservice sector screaming for trained labour.

There’s a lot of great immigrant labour available, with an outstanding work ethic and new lives to build, but if they can’t understand the directives or can’t advance once they’ve mastered their duties, no one wins.

Until now.

Nice work George Brown.

Read my news story for Ontario Restaurant News.

The best part of watching Bonnie Stern teach a class at James Beard House in New York City is not having my own ball of challah dough to play with, although that was fun. The best part is watching Bonnie spar affectionately with co-instructor Mitchell Davis.

To celebrate the new book each of them published this year, they put together this cooking-class weekend: a workshop on Saturday and a multi-course brunch the next day.

Mitchell grew up in Toronto and moved to New York in the mid-1980s. He has been the Beard Foundation’s communications executive for 14 years. They met when Bonnie started keeping the Foundation abreast of Toronto’s restaurant news. [It turned out their parents spend summer vacations at the same resort.]

Simply on his own, Mitchell is impressive. He’s an adjunct professor and PhD candidate in New York University’s food studies program, which would explain his encyclopedic knowledge smattered throughout the workshop. He’s published four books and contributes to GQ and Food & Wine. Worth mentioning: he makes his own butter and his own vanilla extract.

Ten years of friendship have Bonnie and Mitchell finishing one another’s sentences, good-naturedly disagreeing on cooking times and piping up with, “I didn’t know that,” when the other has offered up a choice bit of information, and all of it ego-free.

Mitchell was the day’s value-added, but it was Bonnie I came to see, and she didn’t disappoint. Her understanding of food is visceral. It’s a pleasure to watch her hands, and she’s comfortable under close scrutiny.

The set-up is intimate, with instructors surrounded by a U-shaped butcher-block counter that puts their students less that a meter away. She’s warm and has her students bursting into laughter more that a couple of times.

Favourite lesson of the day:
The challah dough should feel like the inside of a woman’s thigh.

“Or the underside of a man’s forearm,” Mitchell pipes up.

Tomorrow: reports from the class

Me.

How many ways has Bonnie Stern distinguished herself?

I can confidently say …

:: no other Canadian cooking teacher has written as many books,

:: invited as many acclaimed chefs and cooking instructors to teach at her school

:: or hosted as many respected authors to discuss their work with a dozen of their fans at a time — while serving them a meal inspired by the book.

I’d like to know which American would match her accomplishments. [An unofficial mission beginning today]

Count’em…
Books

Food Processor Cuisine, 1978
At My Table, 1980
Cuisinart Cookbook, 1985
The Bonnie Stern Cookbook, 1987

Appetizers, 1990
Simply HeartSmart Cooking, 1994
In the Kitchen with Bonnie Stern, 1995
Cooking with Bonnie Stern, 1996
More HeartSmart Cooking with Bonnie Stern, 1997
Simply HeartSmart, 1997
Desserts, 1998
HeartSmart Cooking, 2000
HeartSmart Cooking for Friends and Family, 2000
Simply HeartSmart Cooking, 2003
Bonnie Stern’s Essentials of Home Cooking, 2003
HeartSmart: The Best of Bonnie Stern, 2006

Chef/Cooking Teachers
[a partial list]

Marcella Hazan
Giuliano Bugialli
Carlo Middione
Thomas Haas
Rick Bayless
Rob Feenie
Nina Simonds
Madhur Jaffrey
Caprial Pence
Susur Lee
Mark McEwan
Mark Bittman
and more

Authors
[another partial list]

Vincent Lam
Stuart McLean
Margaret Atwood
James Chatto
Margaret MacMillan
Marnie Woodrow
Lori Lansens
Camilla Scott
Nino Ricci and more