How to Cook: The Big Picture

I can't believe we're in our fifth week of cooking school (47 to go!). It's been a slew of bite-size bits of know-how with occasional flurries of cutting and cooking skills, but last night it all settled into The Big Picture...sort of.

Chef Barbara started class with an overview of heat techniques, a General Theory of Cookitivity for Dummies. There are 3 heat elements: Dry (air, metal or fats), Moist (add liquid), and Combo (sear dry then add liquid). Each element comes with its own hotly contested areas of linguistic relativity. What's the difference between baking and roasting? Same as the difference between pastries and parsnips--sweet vs. savory. Poaching and simmering? The degree to which it is not boiling. Braising and stewing? Is it more than a mouthful? Size, it turns out, does matter.

Then it came time for the hands-on portion of our evening, and we little cheflings knew we were graduating from kindergarten to first grade. As chef listed our ingredients and instructions, something in her voice left not doubt: You will be tested on this later.

Fortunately, I was again blessed with an awesome team: clicking, contributing, confabbing and generally each carrying our own weight. The biggest drawback was--as chef had forewarned--the actual cooking time of the food. Be it roast or bake, with 4 teams and 3 ovens (open, close, open, is it done yet?, close), it seemed the night would never end. Then in a whirlwind of activity, we were plated and ready to be judged.

Though there were plenty of learning opportunities left on the table, with roasted potatoes and carrots, butternut squash, red peppers, baba ghanoush, even extra pita duty for my team, we all agreed it was our best meal yet.



P.S. Migrainer disclosure? I skipped the baba ghanoush.