In the Kitchen

What's New at Paulding & Company

August 2008

Changes are afoot at Paulding & Company! It is the end of a long era, as I have decided to retire my quarterly Basic Cooking Supper Club series of classes after 20 years and over 500 classes. In their stead, I am working with various great kitchen talents to bring new and different classes to the kitchen, many of which I’ll co-teach. You’ll find the first below--a September series of 3 classes that go way beyond what we’ve offered before.

The basic cooking schedule has always been very demanding, and it has kept me too busy to take advantage of all the great ideas I keep having for other classes. I am excited to contemplate this change after so many years. I have been rethinking and inventing, exploring and talking. Look for great guest chefs, theme classes (including some couples and singles nights later on), and lots of energy at the kitchen.

A big part of my business is working with corporate teams, and I’ve also been working on a new (and timely) scenario, which will bring excitement to some of our larger team events.

In the Market

There’s so much in the market right now, I’ve done a long sidebar list for you to consult, and probably still left some things out. This is an exciting time of year for those of us who love to eat and cook, with so many goodies that it just begs for group meals and parties so we can justify buying some of everything and make sure to put it all to good use. Right now is the apex for summer fruits and vegetables. Last night I cooked gorgeous broccoli and sweet corn from today’s market, and tomorrow, I’ve planned a great salad for my class, made from a variety of peppery greens, with caramelized pecans and blue cheese and kumquats; we’re also making jambalaya and a strawberry souffle. Which reminds me: if you want to be “part of history” there’s plenty of room in next Wednesday’s class--the final one in the long-running Basic series. I’d love to have some of you “old timers” come back, and celebrate with me. Just sign up online, and I’ll see you at the kitchen.

New Classes

Knife Sharpening, with Eric E. Weiss, is scheduled for Monday September 8th. Not only is this a great class, but you can bring your boning knife, and learn how to get it, and keep it, razor sharp for our NEW class the next night...introducing the Chicken Series!

The Chicken Series!

With David Samiljan, owner of Baron’s Meats and Poultry in Alameda, along with Terry Paulding and Tracy Paulding of Paulding & Company

A comprehensive (and progressive) series designed to give you an in depth education on all things chicken. -- you’ll never look at a chicken the same way again!

All classes will culminate in a sit-down meal with side dishes & dessert provided by Paulding and Company, and begin with some seasonal snacks. Feel free to bring wine to share during the meal.

Tuesdays 6:30 – 10:00pm

• 101 September 9th
• 201 September 23rd
• 301 September 30th

Sold as a series or individual classes

101.
Taste and discuss the different types of chicken on the market, and the merits (or demerits) of each: commodity (confined), natural (free range), organic, pasture raised, plus air chilled vs. water chilled.

Learn knife skills (including how to keep one sharp) and techniques for “breaking” a chicken into its component parts, butterfly cuts, and carving (each participant will have their own chicken to work on).

Cooking skills will include roasting, sautéing, broiling, grilling, as well as braising. The group will prepare a stock (to be used in Chicken 201), Chicken and Rice, Cacciatore and Whole Roast Chicken.

201.
Building on the skills developed in Chicken 101, participants will learn how to debone a chicken, make an “airline” breast cut, bone the leg-thigh for stuffing and make cutlets.

Cooking techniques will include poaching, sautéing, roasting, reducing and shallow frying. The group will prepare Poached Chicken with a Reduction Sauce, Chicken with Fines Herbes, Chicken Parmesan, Cream of Mushroom Soup (using our “double” chicken stock from Chicken 101), and Glace de Poulet.

301.
Advanced Chicken Preparation (101 and 201 strongly recommended) will build upon the participants’ butchery and cooking skills. We will employ techniques used by top chefs to create showpiece dishes. Debone intact, make forcemeat and use dry heat cooking methods to make a Galantine (stuffed whole boneless chicken); Clarify stock for chicken Consommé, and make Confit Chicken Legs.

$200 for the series, $75 each for single classes.

Southern Italian classes with Rosetta Costantino, who has spent July in Italy, are about to resume, and her September-December classes are not yet sold out, so register quickly to get a spot. She’ll feature lots of great produce from her garden in the late summer and fall classes--her garden produces some of the very best veggies in town; a few years ago the Chronicle’s food section cover story on her amazing garden started to fill her classes, and they’ve all sold out ever since.

New Team Building Scenario!

Just in time for the Olympics, I’ve developed a great new program for medium-to-large teams (we’ll be inaugurating it with a 50 person group shortly). I call it the Quick Fire Culinary Olympiad, and it’s a simple concept--we borrow (appropriately, since the first season was shot in the Kitchen) a page from Top Chef’s Quick Fire Challenge to start, with a timed relay that coincidentally creates the mis en place for the big challenge--followed by our Olympiad, where the competing groups start with a tray of ingredients, and, working with a chef assistant and lots of back-up materials, create a number of small plate dishes using all their ingredients, within a timed event structure. Not only do our chefs judge the winners, but the whole team gets to eat the meal as a small plates buffet, and vote for their favorites as well. Prizes are awarded, of course...for the most creative use of ingredients, best flavor, and best presentation. We add a catered dessert, and some opening hors d’oeuvres, just to make the day complete.

Sound like fun? We think so...if you’re interested contact Tracy Paulding.

Recipe of the month

What to do? So many good things in the market, so much that can be done easily with them all. Looking over the archive, I’ve noticed that there are not too many dessert recipes in the list, so before the blueberries are all finished for the year, I will publish my favorite tart. It’s not exactly mine, although I’ve made it my own by combining two recipes and tweaking them a bit--but I’ve credited their authors, of course. I’ve made this recipe so many times, to such rave reviews, I figure you need to be able to do it too. It’s not really hard, but needs to be made the same day you’re serving it for best flavor. Serve the tart with the buttermilk sorbet, which is easy to make if you have an ice cream maker (good investment, $50 for all that joy; just remember it needs to be running, not still, when the cold mixture is added to the frozen insert!) or some store-bought ice cream or even whipped cream if you like.