Hope Church Summer of Arts Cooking Class 2011

                                   Baked salmon with bok choy and a coconut thai chili drizzle

Over the summer I had the pleasure of teaching a cooking class at Hope Church in Richmond.  It was a four week course that had a limit of 14 students. When all was said and done, we'd snuck in a few more, making the final count 17.

Big thanks goes out to gary garbett art + photography for sending over the finals of these amazing images — they were like opening an early Christmas present over here at E.A.T.!

                                                                                      Antipasta plate (cheeses, grapes, almonds, honey, prosciutto)

                             

The theme of the class was of course seasonal and local ingredients as best as could be provided. Lots of mid summer tomatoes, squash and zucchini, collards, cabbage, spinach, eggplant, lamb, and the list goes on.

                                                                            Bruschetta with fresh roasted roma tomatoes from the E.A.T. garden

              

                                                                                                                  Shrimp and Spinach Risotto with Basil

                                                                    

I could not have asked for a more fun engaging group to cook with. There were many different levels of expertise and I even had one of the students bring in some homemade hollandaise a sauce I have on my own list to master from scratch. I had folks in the class who said they did not like certain dishes or ingredients and they left learning they do indeed like these foods — knowing it may just not have been prepared to their liking in the past. As I've always told people who say they do not like this or that, "You just haven't had it prepared correctly."

I have full menus from the entire class including a few Hungarian family recipes and this vegetable tart which I am missing as we settle into winter. If you'd like a copy drop me a note and I would be happy to email you the recipes.

E.A.T. local E.A.T. well