blogger – Page 19 – Culinary Michael Jordan

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05
Mar
2018

Culinary Schools In Italy

categories: Culinary

Why you should attend culinary schools in Italy? Maybe you are just curious to discover something new in your life, or maybe you are a cooking lover and you want to know secrets behind good tasting dishes you eat. One more reason, not less important than the previous ones, is about job. Today, if you want your career in cooking, you need a good cooking education. You need to attend lessons, learn recipes and make experience. Its important to learn basics of cooking, then specializing in some specific kind of cooking.

Cooking is absolutely one of the most known elements of Italian culture in the world. Not just spaghetti or pizza, but a very large variety of good tasting dishes, coming from a long and consolidated tradition. Italian people is really proud of Italian gusto: Italian restaurants are appreciated in every part of the world. Thats why many people choose culinary schools in Italy. Main Italian cooking elements to focus on are fresh pasta, artisan gelato and Italian desserts, Italian artisan breads and pizza and regional Italian cuisine. This last aspect in very important, considering that each Italian region has its traditional recipes and products. Some examples, worldwide famous, are Prosciutto di Parma, a particular and very sweet kind of ham, and the Chianti of Tuscany, that is both a specific geographic area but also a very good tasting red wine.

Torre di Babele, one of the best culinary schools in Italy, is located in Rome, the capital city. It offers a very interesting way to learn how to cook Italian recipes. In facts its courses of cooking can be associated with Italian languages lessons. In this way you can learn Italian language and cooking at the same time. Attending a culinary school you will improve your vocabulary and your cooking skills, going deeply into Italian culture and tradition too. Thats why its important to directly study in Italy, where you have the opportunity to stay in close contact with the costumes and the spirit of the nation. Torre di Babele was founded in 1984 and since its opening, the school has focussed also on the teaching of culinary art to foreigners. The school attracts people and students from around the world from countries all across Europe, as well as North and South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Classes are made up of participants of all ages, with a majority of university students and young from 18 to 30.

Torre di Babele offers four different kinds of courses. Italian cooking has just one week duration: this is a light version course, reserved to curios people who just want to learn basics. It is also possible to associate this course with Italian language lessons. Furthermore, there is the possibility to attend individual lessons or in group. Any course of Torre di Babele culinary school comes with wine tasting seminar, held in one of the best known enoteca in Rome.

02
Mar
2018

Chef’s Culinary Garden at Beechwood Inn

categories: Culinary

The Chef’s Culinary Garden at Beechwood Inn, Clayton, GA

The Northeast Georgia Mountains are home to some of Georgia’s leading fresh food producers. Vegetables, fruit, flowers, cheese, wine, nuts, grain, poultry, eggs, fish, pork and cattle are all seasonally available throughout the area. An abundance of fresh water, combined with soil rich in nutrients and a temperate climate offer a recipe for great fresh seasonal foods. Rabun County is particularly known for its cabbage crop. Maybe it’s the soil, but the cabbage grown here just tastes better. As spring moves towards summer we can hardly wait for our first ears of Osage Silver Queen Corn.

With all this local abundance we fret each spring as to what things we should plant in our culinary garden next to the Inn. We’ve been to restaurants where just moments before you are seated for dinner you observe the chef clad in her white coat tip toe into the gardens to snip fresh herbs and edible flowers. You just know you are in for a treat. We want to offer the type of experience where the diner sees and tastes things on their plate they know came out of the garden minutes before. The chef’s culinary garden should provide wonderful products but also needs to be close to the kitchen’s back door so it is as handy as walking into the pantry. And we want the garden to enhance and add to the variety, color and unique flavors for our guests’ dining experience.

Through the years we have honed our culinary garden to our style of cooking. Here is what we have planned for this year. We will plant a hedge of Genovese basil, as well as about 8 other varieties and colors. Other necessities include bay, dill, English thyme, tarragon, mints, lavender, oregano, rosemary, sage, parsley, savory and fennel; a rainbow of toy box tomatoes, lemon verbena, bee balm, heirloom tomatoes, edible flowers to bloom in succession. We also have an established asparagus patch, raspberries, blueberries, two varieties of crabapples, wild cherries (for drying), peaches, plums and a forest of Chanterelles. We can also count on Leckie Stack supplying us with some seasonal fruits from the Stack farm including Asian pears, persimmons and grapes. And Jenny Sanders will share with us wild ingredients in season such as ramps, elderflowers and berries, fiddleheads and a variety of mushrooms.

We would plant an acre of basil if we could. To many gardeners, basil is the king of herbs. Basil can play many roles while basking in the sun. Basil is essential in our kitchen, but it is also highly ornamental in our gardens and on our tables. We add branches to bouquets of flowers. Hot summer days become bearable if I can pluck fresh basil and use it in pestos, herbal vinegars, vegetable dishes and, most heavenly of all, nestle the leaves between slices of fresh bread along with a large slice of a ripe heirloom tomato and some creamy homemade mayo. Members of the mint family, basils are native to India, Africa and Asia but have a long, rich history of legend and use worldwide. Basil is best used fresh. Small leafed varieties can be grown in a pot on a sunny windowsill during the winter. To preserve summer’s flavor for winter make plenty of pesto and freeze it. We make sure that each year our garden has several Thai Basil plants. It is characterized by a strong licorice fragrance and flavor. Thai basil has many applications in the Beechwood kitchen due to its flavor appeal. It is the highlight of many Asian cuisines, including Thai, Vietnamese and Indian fare. The inn’s specialty is Thai Basil Rolls with Satay Peanut Sauce.

Another staple that we plant each spring is lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla). It is native to South America and grows well in North Georgia, but it does not survive our winters outdoors. The Spanish brought it to Europe where it was used in perfume. It has been a favorite for garden rooms in North America since its introduction in the 1800’s. It has a clean, sharp lemon scent that makes it the Queen of lemon-scented herbs. In Gone with the Wind, lemon verbena is mentioned as Scarlet O’Hara’s mother’s favorite plant. One whiff of the smell, and I predict you will not want to live without this luscious smelling herb.

The inn’s specialty is lemon verbena ice cream but we use the leaves in a number of recipes. It makes an excellent tea, especially when blended with mint. It can also be used to brighten the taste of fish, poultry, veggie marinades, stuffing, salad dressing, sorbets, pana cotta, jellies, and vinegar. As the leaves are tough, remove them before serving. Finely crumbled dried leaves can be added to the batters of carrot, banana, or zucchini bread. Try adding some to cooked rice just before serving.

A rainbow of toy box tomatoes is essential to our culinary garden each year. They are cherry and grape tomatoes in a variety of wonderful colors and flavors, some heirloom some hybrid. The most important thing to the chef is the palette of colors and unique flavors they offer. Some are sugary and sweet some are puckeringly tart. But oh are they beautiful in tarts, salads, bruschettas and as garnish. Last year we planted about a dozen varieties and I had to resist eating them while I picked them fresh off the vine. We plant them in giant containers and they surround the Beechwood gardens. We will often see guests plucking a sample as they walk by.

Our heirloom tomatoes are good in almost anything but one of our favorite recipes is Black Krim Tomato Marmalade. Our wild cherries and crabapples are very tart, so they are best used in coulis, jams and remoulades. The blueberries and raspberries will find their way fresh to our breakfast table and also baked into muffins, breads and sinfully wonderful desserts.

The gardens also yield a succession of seasonal edible flowers. Today, many restaurant chefs and innovative home cooks garnish their plates with flower blossoms for a touch of elegance. They can be sprinkled on salads or added to your recipe. The secret to success when using edible flowers is to keep the dish simple. Most edible flowers have a very delicate taste, so when using them as a flavor component do not add them to something that already has strong flavors. Today this nearly lost art is enjoying a revival.

Not all flowers are edible, and the edible varieties should be grown without the use of pesticides or other chemicals. Edible flowers should be carefully identified and in some cases there are only parts of the flower that are edible (in some flowers the anthers should be removed). The Beechwood Chefs will often use a flower as the central part of an appetizer or entre. For instance, we use colorful organic daylilies and fill them with a light stuffing of local goat cheese and fresh herbs.

Writing about our culinary garden and thinking of these recipes makes us long for tomato season once again. Planting our culinary garden each spring renews our spirit and brings us joy. We appreciate the efforts brought to bear by local farmers and ranchers, but most of all we thank God for the variety and abundance of fresh products we bring to our table.

by Chef David Darugh http://www.beechwoodinn.ws

Beechwood Inn is Georgia’s Premier Wine Country Inn

24
Feb
2018

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Cooking

categories: Culinary

Even the most experienced master chef is always willing to learn new things about the culinary arts. Knowing the right methods and techniques could turn ordinary or bland meals into spectacular feasts you will be remembered for. Gather as many tips and suggestions as you can as a means to improve your cooking.

In order to get the most out of your selection of spices, you should store them out of the light and heat. Exposing spices to heat, humidity, and light will shorten their lifespan. Store spices in a dark, cool location to keep them flavorful and fresher for longer. Your culinary preparations will taste better if your spices are fresh.

A great tip for using cooking oil is to ensure you pour it onto the sides of the pan, rather than directly in the pan’s center, so that it will be sufficiently heated upon reaching the food. Using this method can help you to boost the flavor of foods.

To make your French fries crispier, let the raw potatoes soak for about half an hour in cold water prior to frying. When your potatoes soak up cold fluids, their fibers are reinforced. This means that they will hold up better to the heat necessary for the frying process.

Nearly any recipe benefits from using fresh ingredients rather than the frozen or dried version. The more fresh ingredients you use in your cooking, the better your dishes will be. Fresh ingredients have more flavor, and are less costly than frozen and canned ingredients.

When you store flour, sugar or any type of baking mixes, always use airtight containers. Avoid exposure to moisture and insects by sealing food in airtight containers. Almost every store has some form of them, and they are usually inexpensive.

Lowering your oil amounts when cooking can help you have a healthier diet and lose weight. These products contain a lot of unnecessary fat. Nonstick cooking sprays are a great substitute which ends up giving you the same result except in a healthy way, as opposed to the oil which is unhealthy.

It is fairly easy to dry tomatoes yourself. Dry your own by slicing ripe tomatoes 1/2″ thick, or cut Romas in half, lengthwise. You should place them on cooling rack, and salt them lightly with the cut side up. Put a cookie sheet underneath the cooling rack and then set the pair in an oven heated to 190 degrees. Leave for as many as ten hours. The dried tomatoes can be put in plastic bags and frozen. Dried tomatoes could also be put in a jar with fresh herbs and topped up with olive oil. Dried tomatoes should be stored within the refrigerator and used within two weeks.

Make sure you thoroughly clean your utensils before starting to cook. Any residual food matter missed during washing can spoil the dish you intend to cook. This could lead to problems from bacteria being spread.

When cooking, it is always a good idea to get a little creative. Sometimes its okay to deviate from following a recipe step-by-step. Change up the recipe until you perfect your own variation. That type of cooking finesse make a genuine cook!

To give your pasta some added zip, save the water you use to boil the pasta. Use about a fourth of a cup for this tip. Put in some of the water when you mix the pasta and the sauce. The pasta water contains starch, which will give your sauce a thick creaminess.

When you are sauteing a food, make sure you do not add too much to the pan. The moisture that the extra food volume adds will cause the food to steam, which means it won’t be as crispy as intended. Also, make sure that this is done at a temperature that is low.

See to it that your herbs are stored in a dry, cool and dark area. Exposure to light, heat and humidity can cause them to lose a lot of their flavor very fast. In this location, the spices are exposed to heat that will cause their flavors to dissipate.

23
Feb
2018

Becoming a Gastronomic Perfectionist with a Culinary Management Course

categories: Culinary

Everyone around loves the food you cook. Your friends and relatives just look for an excuse to drop in and relish your food.

Don’t you want to transform your hobby into a rewarding career? Don’t you want to gain more skills and become a culinary expert? Do you fancy preparing international cuisine and working with hotels or cruise lines?

If yes, a career in culinary management may be the right choice for you. You will learn various culinary techniques that can help you bring international perspective to traditional cuisine.

If you think it to be a routine cookery course, let me tell you that it’s not. Culinary management is no longer limited to just preparing, cooking, garnishing and presenting food. It’s beyond that. It’s about understanding a unique relationship between cuisine, culture and religion.

It’s about understanding diverse cuisines around the world and their significance to the local crowd. It delves deeper into techniques and practices for food preparation, presentation and serving while ensuring absolute hygiene, safety and sanitation.

About a Culinary Management Program in Canada

A culinary management program in Toronto is a two-year post-secondary diploma program. It offers you a solid understanding of principles and practices of nutrition, basic and advanced culinary skills, techniques, procedures and practices, baking principles and practices and cuisine and culture.

You also get to learn about other aspects including sanitation, safety and hygiene, career planning and principles of food, beverage and labour cost controls. The program also helps you gain good understanding of diverse cuisines including European, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean, South Asian, Southeast Asian and American.

You not only learn to cook diverse foods but will also be well versed in management strategies, sanitation practices nutritional principles. You are also prepared to manage the diversity in the workplace by understanding the unique relationship between eating habits of people, region and religion.

What Does the Program Include?

A culinary management course covers all basic food preparation techniques and helps students gain an understanding about international cuisines. It includes theoretical sessions on food and related practices, techniques and its culture association. The program also combines supervised cooking and baking in state-of-the-art labs, discussions with industry experts, food events, practical training and field placement. Seminars on different cuisines are also hosted from time to time.

How to Enroll in a Culinary Program?

You must have achieved a mature student status and obtained a secondary school diploma to meet the minimum eligibility criteria to seek admission in a culinary program. You also need to produce English Grade 12 C or University or equivalent certificate or scores.

Students enrolling in this course gain the knowledge, skills and attitude to carry out their duties well in a professional setting. They can seek employment in restaurants, hotels, cruise lines, airlines, resorts, clubs, schools, hospitals and camps for entry level positions. The exact job responsibilities may vary depending upon the company you work with.

This program offers you a sound culinary foundation. You can also consider establishing your small food or restaurant business and serve people in your locality with hygienically prepared international cuisine. You can also opt for a degree course later on if ever you feel the need or want to hone your skills further.

17
Feb
2018

Up and down through Italy searching the Carnivals tastes!

categories: Culinary

The Italian culinary tradition is notoriously full of excellence confirmed by the enormous mass of registered products and imitations that in every corner of the world people tried to do. In addition to the products themselves there are also numerous recipes that can be found in the Italian tradition, a different proposal for every occasion, many kind of cakes that in every region are related to a particular years period. Just thinking to the “panettone” and “pandoro”, typical cakes of the Christmas period, specialties exported all over the world. But not only in especial occasion there are cakes but also all over the year, just think to nougat that is appreciated every time. Those cakes are also exported from Italy, by particukar firms, like precious thing, which they are.

Very popular, tasty and delicious desserts are also going to celebrate the carnival, those various names that change from northern to southern Italy, but in essence are very similar. The most famous are undoubtedly those that are produced in the province of Venice, due to their resonance in the world due to the influx of tourists who flock to see the beautiful Carnival of Venice. Historically, the period of Carnival is the one that precedes Lent, a time for penance and fasting, so the tradition provides great entertainment, such as masks and big binge, which then created the wide variety of desserts. But Carnival the sweets are very fat, usually fried and tasty.

There are two typical desserts of this period par excellence: the “frittelle” and the “galani” (in other parts of Italy called “chiacchere”). The “frittelle”, or “fritole” in local dialect, have been considered for centuries the national sweet of the Serenissima Republic of Venice, and still retains its dominance in the entire area around Venice and in Friuli Venezia Giulia. The “frittelle” is essentially a mixture consisting of eggs, flour, sugar, raisins and pine nuts fried in oil, pork fat or butter in frying suitably designed. Once the production was so sweet “frittelle” states that a special craft guild, that of “fritoeri”, was created in Venice.

The “galani” or “chiacchere”, “crostoli”, “lattughe”, whatever you want, from cakes are more ancient origins that trace their origin in Roman times that was prepared during the spring festival of fried dough similar to lasagna but in the fat. The mixture of current “galani” fact is very simple: flour, water, sugar, eggs and butter. The mixture is “pulled” until you reach a certain thickness that distinguishes “crostoli” of the mainland that are bigger and the “galani” lagoon who are more subtle and far more brittle. Both versions are tasty, but especially enjoy special moments of celebration and sharing!

Walking through Italy and then there are many proposals for this period is passed because we “cicerchiata” the Marche to “panzerotti alla marmellata” typical of the Val D’Aosta until you reach the “farra” from Puglia and “stracci” from Tuscany. In short, many proposals all to try and why not to experiment at home by digging a diet and enjoy the tradition and taste of italian products!