WASHDC: L'Academie de Cuisine??



M

Michael Horowit

Guest
Anyone had any experiences with subject cooking school? I'm looking for an occassional day course
for a 'food enthusiast' - Mike
 
>Anyone had any experiences with subject cooking school? I'm looking for an occassional day course
>for a 'food enthusiast' - Mike

My niece took courses there and had a GREAT experience. Graduated and is now teaching privately.
 
"Michael Horowitz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Anyone had any experiences with subject cooking school? I'm looking for an occassional day course
> for a 'food enthusiast' - Mike

My mother-in-law has taken a few recreational classes there, and has enjoyed them very much.

I was just looking at their web site, and saw a few classes that looked worthwhile.....sorry to have
missed the Winter Soups demonstration class on Jan. 10, but the participatory Mozzarella Workshop
and Smoking and BBQ classes look interesting...heck, there are several I wouldn't mind attending.

I'd love to hear about it if you decide to go try it out!

Chris
 
Michael Horowitz <[email protected]> writes:

> Anyone had any experiences with subject cooking school? I'm looking for an occassional day course
> for a 'food enthusiast' - Mike

Yes. I've taken a few of the daytime and evening "demonstration" classes and they were fun. Plus
you get to eat and drink so if you think of it as a meal, with educational stuff thrown in, it's
a bargain.

What I really like, however, is the hands-on courses. I took a weekend-long Primary Skills class. I
thought I was a pretty decent cook, but had to unlearn a lot of bad habits. Taught me basics
(dissecting chicken, making stock, reducing stock for sauces) -- the the classic french techniques.
They had a Primary Skills 2 weekend which was also quite good. My S.O. took a cheese-making hands-on
class and really enjoyed it; we now get home-made mozarella for our pizza. I'm signed up for
participation courses in Thai this season, which is a full day, and looking forward to it.

They've got lots of courses. Brian Patterson's BBQ & Smoking class is a hoot. Others are more
serious. I had a bit of a disappointing class in doing pizza, because it didn't stress the crust and
variations thereof. Then again, I'm using Reinhart's "Pain a la Ancienne" wet wet retarded ferment,
and Thorn's beat-it-up dough from _Pot on the Fire_ so maybe I'm looking for more nerdy stuff.

(They have a weekend retreat thing in Mercersburg PA which we went to last year: real good time,
lots of hands on, lots of getting yelled at by the maestro himself -- "more salt, more salt! didn't
you taste it??". It was a bit intense but I learned a lot and had a good time. And of course the
food didn't suck at all :)