August 2006

The Best Tool Of All

One day recently I had a client come in to tour the kitchen. She observed a friend of mine, who was preparing food, squeezing a lemon so the juice ran through his fingers to catch the seeds. Her comment that she wouldn’t eat at a restaurant where she saw such a thing took me aback—I realized that many people assume that cooks don’t use their hands when preparing food.

We who cook for a living have many tools at our disposal, but our own clean hands are often the tool of choice. We use them separating eggs, tossing a salad, incorporating beaten egg white into a batter, shredding chicken and so on—there is often no tool that will work as deftly and sensitively.

As a culture, we are taught to be wary of germs, but we often take the wrong precautions to avoid them. In classes and group events at the kitchen, I always emphasize sanitation; you don’t touch food with hands that are not clean, you don’t “double dip” when tasting, and you avoid cross-contamination by thoroughly washing your cutting board and knife, storing your food properly so the chicken (as an example) is not dripping into the lettuce. These are all common-sense rules but I emphasize them because they are important to our health.

I had a nasty case of food poisoning on a trip a year ago. I was waiting for a tire repair, and went into the only place around—a new-looking little restaurant that served grilled, skewered foods on salad on (oddly) a cold flour tortilla. I ordered, got my food, and ate some of it—it was not very good, but I was very hungry. Another customer came as I was eating, and ordered to go. There was only one staff person, wearing nice “sterile” plastic gloves, I observed that this customer paid for his food and received change from the staff person, who then, without changing her gloves or washing up, prepared his meal. Needless to say, no matter what she did from then on, the food was going to have all the accumulation of germs contaminating that money all over it. The gloves were no protection for the diner, but rather, gave the cook a false sense of working sanitarily. I immediately regretted having eaten anything there—and resigned myself to the inevitable.

Personally I never wear gloves, unless I have a cut finger and can’t avoid it. If my hands need washing, I wash them. Repeatedly, throughout the day. My kitchen always has soap in the dispenser, paper towels well stocked. And I use those hands, my best tools, for whatever task they will perform well. Including straining lemon seeds from the juice.

“Terry, Eric and I want to thank you and your entire staff for providing a wonderful meal and a high degree of professionalism and courtesy during our wedding.”

Best Regards, Jody

Classes

Our wonderful Calabrian cooking teacher, Rosetta Costantino, is back with new and exciting classes, starting with A Taste of Sicily August 4th—a class with an intriguing menu that includes a dessert of watermelon pudding with pistachio nuts and chocolate shavings. And, her fabulous eggplant class is coming up August 11th—Eggplant from Appetizer to Dessert.

Rosetta also has some great classes scheduled in September, including her ever-popular preserving class. Learn how to prepare summer’s bounty so that you can eat it all the way through the winter. The intriguing selections in her Fiestival del Peperoncino class include chocolate ice cream with chilies. And, her tomato dinner from the garden (HER garden to be precise) will be, as Rosetta often says, “to die for.” Follow the link from the classes or calendar sections of my website, which will take you to Rosetta’s site for sign-up.

Our popular classes for the 10-14 year old set continue with a Summer Picnic class the 13th. It includes luscious fried chicken, strawberry shortcake and more. The second August class on the 27th, an Asian-style back yard party, includes a potsticker making lesson. These afternoon classes fall at a time of day and week that most people have free—from 3-5:30 PM on Sunday—and the kids have been loving them! Charlene got a great write-up in the Piedmont Post last week, too, with a picture of some very happy kids, enjoying the fruits of their labor. So, if you’re tired of cooking, send your kid(s) to learn how to make you dinner for a change!

On August 29, Ayako Iino, our intrepid Japanese cooking teacher, will share a late summer menu that includes salt-cured and grilled fresh salmon, a fish that has just (finally) come back in season. Ayako’s recipes will soon be featured in a San Francisco Chronicle food section article, set to run in September. So, you can learn from a great chef before she becomes so famous you can’t get into her classes, if you hurry!

Other News

Paulding & Company is involved with a great many projects this summer and fall. On August 26th, we will take part in the East Bay Vintners Association open house at Rosenblum Winery. On September 23rd, the Piedmont Harvest Festival, in the Piedmont Main Park will feature food and drink, kids carnival and scare-crow walk, and music from local groups. From the beginning, I have been involved with the preparation of food for this great family fun event, and this year, Paulding & Company will again participate. There are many volunteer opportunities available, both doing prep and serving food at the festival. If you are interested in helping, send me an email.

We will proudly participate in Women of Taste, the annual fundraiser for Girls, Inc. that takes place at the Oakland Museum on September 30th. Last year’s event raised over $165,000 for this dynamic charity, and the event has become one of the East Bay’s foremost wine and food tasting events. Along with a great many other chefs, we will present a tasting of food for 1000 people, all of it as a donation to the benefit of Girls, Inc. And, of course, there is lots of room for help—email me if you are interested. For a list of participants, and more information about this event, please go to the Women of Taste web page.

Finally, Paulding & Company is pleased to announce its completion of the Bay Area Green Business Alliance Certification program. This one was easy—we already operate in an environmentally conscious manner, but of course, the recognition is special. I am proud to be a member of this group.