In the Kitchen

What's New at Paulding & Company

September 2008

Great Classes!

Are you confused about the many choices you have, buying chickens? Have you wished you could simply cut one up yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you? Yearned for homemade chicken broth when you wanted to make soup? Wondered what else you can make with a chicken?

If you can say “yes” to any of these questions, we have the class(es) for you! Take one, or take all three, so you can become a chicken expert like Butcher Dave Samiljan, owner of Baron’s Meats (this is the best butcher shop in the east bay), who will be teaching. Dave is also a CIA trained chef, and I will be delighted to assist in his classes.

101 (Tuesday evening September 9th) will provide a survey of what’s in the market, how it’s produced and processed, and then you’ll get to work with your very own bird, learning how to cut it properly, and cook several great dishes that will include a variety of cooking techniques, plus we’ll make a chicken stock.

201 (Tuesday evening September 23rd) delves deeper--boning techniques, reduction sauces (using our homemade stock), and more.

301 (Tuesday evening September 30th) goes into chicken charcuterie, including pate and making a galantine

You can take the whole series or sign up for any of the classes individually, although we suggest you start at the beginning. We will feed you a great dinner, your chicken plus a good salad and dessert, each night. Signing up is simple on our calendar.

Before you start the chicken series you might want to take our great Knife Sharpening class, taught by Eric E. Weiss, master sharpener. That class is Monday evening, September 8th. One of our recent enrollees commented “I really need this class, I can’t even sharpen a pencil.” There are many of you out there who would have a much easier time cooking if you knew how to keep your knives sharp.

Wednesday, October 8th I’ll teach a delicious Autumn menu for entertaining your friends. A menu that is a breeze to make, and will impress anyone. Invite the in-laws or the boss for dinner shortly thereafter, and you’ll feed them with confidence.

The following Wednesday, October 15th, the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce mixer will be held at the kitchen--an annual event, where we provide the food, and Brendan Elaison of Periscope Cellars, our next-door neighbor, pours the wine. Every year I hold an hors d’oeuvres prep class the night before--we make all the food for the event, you learn to make excellent appetizer dishes, and eat well too. It’s a production class, which means you will be learning a bit about catering too, such as how to make things efficiently in larger quantities. And, because you’re helping with catering work, you get this class for a rock-bottom price!

Rosetta Costantino, our fabulous Calabrian chef and cooking teacher, whose book is due out next year, has a whole roster of new classes up for the fall. And, five of them still have spots available--a rare event indeed. There’s even a pizza-making class with space, and she’s sold out countless sessions of this perennially popular evening. Check the classes list, or go directly to her website to sign up.

Kitchen News!

Our friends at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana will be opening mid-September at Pier 1 1/2 in SF. Chef José Luis de Cossio and his crew spent weeks in our kitchen perfecting their exciting recipes and preparing while their kitchen was being built--and I can say with absolute certainty that you will find some stellar and different food at this restaurant.

I’m catering a Top Chef event this month, as well--with guest chef-contestant Casey Thompson. We’ll make a family reunion party for the winner of the Clorox-sponsored sweepstakes that ran during this season of the show. Since the kitchen was the first Top Chef home kitchen, I’m delighted to be back involved with the show.

Culinary Olympics take off! We are having huge success with our new and fun team event. Our “quick fire” challenge got everyone at a recent birthday party laughing and fired up. Once the relay race was done, so was a whole lot of the prep work for their meal. Our small-plates market basket “Olympics” is a great, creative way to cook. We love the culinary creativity of our participants!

Fall Special: join us for a group event (either with your friends for a party or your workmates for a team event) and we’ll provide the welcome hors d’oeuvres for free! Just say “I found it IN THE KITCHEN” when you book your event.

In the Market

September is the most magical of months at our farmers markets. Summer fruit and vegetables abound, and the fall varieties are coming in. Peaches vie with crispy apples, summer squash with hard squashes, blueberries with grapes (I got great seedless Muscats from Grand Lake on Saturday). There’s okra and eggplant, Romano beans and shelling beans, sweet corn and cauliflower, pluots and sweet “prune” plums. The only problem is figuring out how to keep the shopping in bounds, so you aren’t wasting anything. I find it’s great to have at least a rough plan for whatever I buy, which also makes meal planning easier.

Recipe for September

I love fall colors, being a native New Yorker. This pasta looks and tastes wonderful, as pretty as the coloring leaves. It uses both summer squash and butternut, which is just coming into the market.

See the recipe >