Upcoming Workshops

Each winter, I head South with my family to Mexico, a country that has held a special place in my heart since I was a child. My parents lived in Mexico City before I was born and their tales of delicious street tamales, long, fancy brunches and parties that lasted well past midnight peaked my interest. My father and I would spend the better part of a weekend making mole on our suburban stovetop as he would tell me tales of living in Mexico. As an adult and a cook, Mexico holds even greater intrigue. My husband and I (and now our daughter) have explored the Yucatan Peninsula, the state of Oaxaca and Chiapas and found a second home in Mexico City, where I now lead workshops in the winter months. True Mexican food is as good as eating gets, with sour, spicy and and earthy notes that make the palate yearn for more. In this three day workshop, you will be introduced to three different regional cuisines of Mexico and my hope is that you will fall in love with the culinary landscape of country that I hold so dear.

Influenced by its Northern neighbors, mountain ranges and cooler climates, these regions of Italy are known for egg-based pastas, dairy-rich dishes, polenta, hard cheeses, dried pork products such as prosciutto, beans and bread.  In this class we will make pasta from scratch, traditional pesto and a wonderful, once-baked biscotti.  Our meal will be comprised of bagna cauda with sliced raw vegetables from the garden, bitter greens salad with beets, pecorino and orange vinaigrette, Genovese linguine with green beans, new potatoes and pesto, a white bean in herbed tomato sauce with fresh sausages, and almond biscotti.

The Northern regions of France are heavily influenced by the bordering countries to the East (Belgium, Switzerland and Germany) and the Atlantic coastline.  Alsace Lorraine and Normandy are famous for their rich cuisine, with dishes that are cream laden, and often include cabbage, potatoes and other root vegetables, alliums such as onions and leeks, pork and a variety of hard, cow’s milk cheeses.  Eggs are also a culinary staple of the North, where quiche lorraine was born.  Bretagne is know for it’s variety of seafood, particularly shellfish, which live along the rocky shores of the region.