Author Archives: armelle

Tasting Week Closing with a Grand Finale

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Omnivore tour

We closed our celebration of taste and flavor at the Observation Post of the Presidio on a bright sunny day, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks to Omnivore World Tour, we were able to open up the discovery of taste to families. Children from 3 to 14 years old participated in six workshops organized around the five senses and the discovery of street food.

Germain Biotteau from Macarons Chantal Guillon hosted the SEE workshop, also entitled Eat with Your Eyes. He organized a fun and tasty game with macarons to show the importance of sight and appearance in cooking. The kids had to guess what flavor of the macarons by looking at them and then tasting them.

Nathan Beriau from Ritz Carlton San Francisco hosted the HEAR workshop, also entitled Listen to Food. Kids got to hear what a fresh carrot and celery branch sounds like when it is snapped, and how to look for freshness with their ears when they shop for ingredients.

Cynthia Falatic from Ritz Carlton San Francisco hosted the SMELL workshop, also

Rosted marshmallows

entitled How Smell Triggers Memory. She let the kids smell different desserts and asked them what memories they associated with them. Many kids could smell the campfire when smelling roasted marshmallows.

Jonathan Silverman from Feel the Earth hosted the TOUCH workshop. The kids made soil with coconut fiber and rocks, and were proud to create their own necklace of life with a cotton and seed.

Mateo Boucher from Real Food company hosted the TASTE workshop and focused on pomegranates. The kids learned how to peel open, prepare and taste pomegranates.

Marianne Despres introduced us to Street Food. Marianne transformed an authentic French 1970 Citroen H-Van into a Food-Truck and now cooks fresh and Argentine style empanadas served directly from the oven!

To finish off the day, all the kids received a special Lunch Box prepared by the Students from the Cordon Bleu.

Thanks to all

Thanks to all the Chefs for a highly successful Tasting Week 2012! See you next year!

Tasting Week is Almost Over!

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Dennis Leary

Our last day of the official Tasting Week was Friday, October 19. In San Francisco, Jenny Huston and Lorraine Witte conducted workshops focused on a single ingredient: apples for Jenny and soy/bean curd for Lorraine. Jenny led a discussion on apple history, varieties, uses and attributes. She brought 20 apples (five varieties) and they were all eaten…Lorraine talked about the multiple uses of soy, in its raw sprouts form to marinated tofu.

For those with a sweet tooth, she made dessert won tons and the children sprinkled sugar over them. Also on the Asian theme, Elianna Friedmann from CUESA made vegetable spring rolls with a carrot, ginger, honey sauce with the students.

The A to Z salad bar came to Terman Middle School, on its way to Gunn High School on Monday. Kids and staff alike were very impressed with the A to Zdisplay.

Thinking Out of the Box

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Today the chefs went out of their way to engage the kids to think about food in a creative way. Chef Steve Catalano from Left Bank Menlo Park made vanilla ice cream. It’s a simple recipe but it demands lots of energy.

Steve Catalano

The Barron Park elementary kids got a good workout as they rolled the ice cream maker ball back and forth on the mats. The kids never imagined that cooking could be so physical. Meanwhile chef Jeremy Bringardner from LYFE Kitchen and his charming assistant tried to stump the fourth graders from Ohlone elementary by asking them to identify all sorts of vegetables and hers. The kids knew so much that the chef was very impressed. David Bastide from Left Bank on Santana Row visited the French American school in Sunnyvale and introduced many fruits and vegetables in all different textures and applications, for instance fresh pears, vanilla poached pears, tarragon compressed pears; beets in different forms and stages. One of the big highlights of the day was the hugely popular exhibition cooking at Nixon Elementary during hot lunch, which rallied 275 students compared to the usual 80 on a regular day. One child even tried to hire the chef to cater for his upcoming birthday party!

Open Up Your Minds to Healthy Food

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Tasting Week hosted ten workshops in parallel today at Juana Briones Elementary, Nixon Elementary, Walter Hays Elementary and Escondido Elementary in Palo Alto, as well as Brentwood Academy in East Palo Alto. This is our record for one day. The common thread of today was “keep an open mind” when trying new food. As chef John Bentley from Bentley’s put it when he passed around an artichoke salad “You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t like it, but I want you to keep an open mind and give it a try”.

Chef Marco Fossati

We received a similar message from Chef Marco Fossati from the Four Seasons as he showed a real parmesan wheel weighing 90 pounds “when you buy parmesan cheese, go for the real stuff. It is worth the extra effort today because it will make you stronger in the long run”. Pastry Chef Cynthia Falatic from the Ritz Carlton introduced healthy trail mix to a group of kindergartners, chefs Michel Suas and Miyuko from the San Francisco Baking Institute showed children how to grind wheat and make real bread, while chef Aaron Johnson organized a full tasting spread including lost of different fruits, vegetables and even anchovies.

Michel Suas Bread

The children kept a very open mind and tried lots of new things. Highlight of the day – tasting real parmesan dipped in honey and seeing the beautiful dress made out of bread from Miyuko for Jean-Paul Gaultier’s exhibit at the De Young Museum.

The Five Tastes

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Today Tasting Week hosted three chefs and an A to Z salad bar in three Bay Area schools: French American International School in San Francisco, Ohlone Elementary and Terman Middle School in Palo Alto.

Chef Alicia Petrakis from restaurant Astaria in San Mateo introduced two groups of students from Terman Middle School to the five tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. The kids sampled a wide variety of ingredients from, starting with bitter and sour, and ending with salty and sweet. Among the most exotic ingredients, they tried anchovies, capers (salty), raw and caramelized onions, and molasses. Chef Alicia orchestrated the ingredients like a real symphony conductor, engaging the kids in a constant dialogue so they would really notice the experience of each taste in their mouth.

In parallel at Ohlone Elementary, pastry chef Michelle Boldrini from Facebook conducted her workshop on the topic of sweeteners – from white sugar to cane sugar, maple syrup, honey, agave and molasses. She also showed the kids what not to use –artificial sweeteners, and explained that Agave syrup, long considered a healthy alternative, is now understood to be as unhealthy as high fructose corn syrup. After an educational introduction to the various sweeteners, she let the kids taste her own scones, ginger snaps, pineapple glaze and chocolate custard (this last one was entirely vegan but she did not tell the kids until they had eaten it and loved it).

We heard that the workshop in San Francisco with chef Dennis Leary from Canteen was a big success but are waiting to hear the juicy details.

Back to the Fundamentals

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10-17-12

Today’s workshops were incredibly diverse, but had one thing in common. Every chef shared their favorite fundamental ingredient for good cooking. Chef Nathan Beriau focused his workshop on salt and pepper, introducing the kids form Palo Verde Elementary school in Palo Alto to various forms of salt and pepper from around the world. At the same time in another classroom at Palo Verde, chefs Kimberly Tran and Jordan Keao were teaching children how to make butter, another fundamental of good cooking.

Chef Peter Rudolph from Madera restaurant agrees that butter is a fundamental, but he adds that good olive oil is key to great cooking, and he makes his point by gulping down a whole glass of olive oil in front of an audience in awe at Ohlone Elementary school. Chef Rudolph used both butter and olive oil to make his delicious pumpkin soup with croutons sauteed with garlic and sage. In San Francisco, artisan chocolate maker Shawn Williams from Feve Chocolates showed children how to use all forms of chocolate, yet another fundamental ingredient in great cooking.

Juana Briones Elementary is getting ready for the visits of chef Marco Fossati tomorrow by hosting an exhibition cooking at lunchtime, courtesy of Sodexo, the provider to PAUSD Food Services. One hundred and sixty kids got to enjoy a special meal of chicken teriyaki, tofu brown rice and sauteed vegetables.

A to Z Salad Bar Kicks Off in Palo Alto, La Soiree Kicks Off in San Francisco

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PAUSD Salad Bar

Palo Alto Food Services is celebrating Tasting Week with us again this year. Nine Palo Alto schools will host special lunch programs over the next few days. On Friday October 12, Barron Park Elementary inaugurated the first A to Z salad bar. Kids in the hot lunch program were able to sample 26 different types of fruits and vegetables, one for each letter of the alphabet. S for strawberry, J for Jicama and W for watermelon were some of the most popular items, but the kids also rushed to letter X – for eXtra fancy pluot. Some adventurous children even tried the V – very smelly green onion. Balloons, crayons, and worksheets on healthy eating were there to complement the salad bar.

On Friday evening, adults only gathered at the San Francisco Metreon to celebrate the now traditional French Soiree of the American Chamber of Commerce. The evening buzzed with cooking and wine tasting competitions, ice carving, pulled sugar and chocolate demonstrations. Take a look at the beautiful wolf head carved in 40 pounds of chocolate! At Tasting Week we also celebrated our first donation through the live auction kindly donated by the Ritz Carlton. By the way, if you want to donate to Tasting Week online, feel free to jump in by contributing to http://www.gofundme.com/17ucx0

Making Crepes

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Making Crepes

Today chef Emmanuel Robert from the Sofitel San Francisco Bay visited two classrooms at the International School of the Peninsula. First he displayed several pots of herbs and asked the children to name them. To our surprise, the kids were able to identify all of them: rosemary, thyme, mint and basil. They smelled each one of the plants and suggested a few dishes that would be appropriate for each herb, such as pasta and basil, yum.

Rosemary at ISTP

Then Chef Robert asked for volunteers to help him make crepes – everyone was a volunteer. Chef Robert explained that crepes were invented back in Roman times, they were actually the first form of bread. The children helped the Chef crack the eggs and mix the batter.

Cooking tip: Chef Robert sifts the batter to ensure all egg shells and lumps come out. Then, to ensure all egg shells and lumps come out. Then, while the crepes were cooking, the children tasted Chef Robert’s special mushrooms, mixed with oliv oil, thyme and salt. Everyone gave the mushrooms a try, even children who had never eaten a mushroom before. The crepes were definitely the highlight of the workshop – whether with fresh strawberries, jam, or cheese and ham. Thank you Chef Robert!

Pre-Tasting Week Workshop Kicks Off at International School of the Peninsula

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Today Bernard Moutal, Chef at the Golden Gate Grill in San Francisco, visited the International School of the Peninsula in Palo Alto. He led a group of 2nd and 3rd graders in making palm tree pastries. Palm trees, also known as elephant ears, are made from puff pastry, which is rolled out, coated with sugar, and then the two sides are rolled up together so that they meet in the middle, making a roll that is then cut into about ¼” slides and baked.

"palmier" at ISTP

ISTP’s “Palmier”

The kids really enjoyed putting plastic gloves onto their hands before starting the workshop. They were quick to name the key ingredients used to stick the palm tree together (water and egg), but they had very creative ideas when asked what went into the puff pastry (cinnamon and eggs for instance), but in fact there is nothing more than butter, flour, salt and water. This just goes to show you that you can make something wonderful out of very simple ingredients. The key factor of success is using the best butter you can find, time and patience. Today Bernard needed even more patience than usual since our oven was very slow…but it was worth the wait!

Below you can find the recipe for the palm tree pastries. Try them with your kids and let us know if they like it!

Sneak Preview of Tasting Week 2012

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Juana Briones Elementary

Yesterday local Palo Alto chef and cookbook author Laura Stec came to Juana Briones Elementary to give a cooking class to 4th graders. First Laura worked with the students on classifying seasonal fruits and vegetables and talked about how microorganisms in the soil help food grow. Then she did a demonstration of caramelized peas.

When the children expressed surprise at how sweet the peas tasted, Laura reminded them that caramelization happens at 330 degrees while water boils at 100 degrees – so if a vegetable does not taste good to us when it is boiled perhaps we should try sautéing it instead to bring out the sweetness in it!

May, 17th, 2012, Chefs move to school

Then Laura made a multi-fruit smoothie. There was not a drop left after the class. The kids were overwhelming positive and they asked Laura if she could come back every day!

This is just a sneak preview of the great events coming up during Tasting Week 2012 from October 12 to October 2012. Save the dates!