Exploring Food with Your Five Senses

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Rebecca Scholl

Tasting Week is expanding its volunteer workshops on the 5 Senses to third and second grades in many Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos schools this year. At Juana Briones Elementary school in Palo Alto, two groups of volunteers (Lea Bowmer, Carolyn Cooper, Carla Matlin and Dena McLerran) constructed a multi-colored and multi-flavored salad in the classroom. After a brief meditation on food, the students explored how sound, smell, sight, texture and flavors all contribute to the tasting experience. They ended the workshop with a tasting of ingredients representing all five tastes: pickles (sour), arugula (bitter), apples (sweet), salt (salty), and mushrooms (umami). Once the salad was all dressed and mixed together, the students enjoyed their own plate and came back for more!

Pears that Taste like Apple Pie

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Rebecca Scholl

Tom Culbertson is a very unique Tasting Week chef. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena with a Baking and Pastry Certificate. He had many jobs in food: Cheese monger at Dean and Deluca, Pastry Cook, and even Pastry Chef. After following his passion for food – he developed a new passion for education, and is now a fourth grade teacher at Juana Briones Elementary school in Palo Alto! This made him the perfect choice for this week’s workshop at his own school. He changed his teacher clothes for an apron and prepared the most delicious pears dipped in a syrup composed of star anis, cinnamon and cloves. The multipurpose room smelled so good! The kids said they could not believe that pears could take so much like apple pie.

Remind Your Parents About Salad

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Rebecca Scholl

Chef Brendy Monsada from Left Bank Menlo Park and his pastry chef Carlos visited Walter Hays Elementary school in Palo Alto today. In front of the astonished eyes of two classes of second grade, chef Brendy made a salad dressing with Dijon mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and a touch of lemon zest – taking care to balance all the flavors. He composed a seasonal salad with endives, spinach, apples, and mixed berries – then added four different kinds of cheeses: parmesan, blue cheese, cheddar and emmenthal! Many students tasted endives and blue cheese for the first time! As a special treat, chef Carlos brought palmiers made with puff pastry and butter. There was not a crumb left. Chef Brendy has been a supporter of Tasting Week for the past five years and a wonderful member of our community. Thanks chef Brendy!

Secret Ingredients

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Rebecca Scholl

Kindergartners at Laurel Elementary school in Menlo Park received a special visit from Tasting Week volunteer Judith Vacchino. They discovered 5 special ingredients that add flavor to many dishes: cinnamon, lemon, verbena, basil and orange blossom water. The kids had to guess which one of the five special dishes prepared by Judith contained which secret ingredient – pesto pasta, apple sauce, cake, tea and persimmons. Our favorite quotes today were “it’s a stick!” (referring to the cinnamon) and “where do you put lemons? On lemon trees”. The smell of the orange blossom water was too strong for many kids, but they appreciated it a lot more when it was added to a persimmon. The hero of the day was definitely the lemon cake!

Shake, Shake, Shake… Shake it into Butter

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Carla Matlin

Google chefs Kimberly Tran and Tatiana Contreras led an engaging and interactive demo with the children at Castro Elementary School in Mountain View. Each child was given a small, closed container of whole milk. The kids got to jump up and down, and dance around the room; basically shaking their milk container into butter. There were lots of oohs and ahhs as the children observed their milk transform into cream, and then into butter.

But the best part came at the end of the workshop when the kids tasted the whipped cream with an apple crisp, and enjoyed the butter with fresh bread. Almost everyone asked for seconds. It was a great time for the kids, teachers, and the chefs.

As Chef Kimberly watched the children enjoy the fruits of their shakin’ she commented that it was this same experience, as a child, that led her to become a chef!

Learn more about the science behind making butter.

The Physical Properties of Food

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Rebecca Scholl

Chef David Bastide from Left Bank San Jose paid a visit to Mistral Elementary school in Mountain View today. He immediately engaged the kids in a science experiment with eggs. Place a hard-boiled egg on top of a bottle and heat the bottom of the bottle – guess what happens? What is the best way to tell if an egg is hard-boiled without peeling it? Hint: it involves spinning and momentum.

Since the fall season is upon us, chef Bastide also prepared two delicious dishes from scratch: butternut squash soup with pomegranate whipped cream and sautéed squash and pomegranates. Who would have imagined that the kids would line up for seconds?

The Balance of Flavors

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Husna H.

Christy Wolf, resident chef at Sur La Table visited Peter Lee’s fifth grade class at Hoover Elementary school today for Tasting Week. She focused on the elements of tasting with the students. Discussion started with the students recalling the sweet, salty, sour and bitter taste buds. She went on to mention one more which many students were unaware of, umami (Japanese origin) – a savory taste. She taught the students that the amino acid glutamate is responsible for this particular taste. Browning/searing the meat and aging the cheese breaks down the protein leading to this flavor.

Chef Wolf went on to make a healthy, colorful and balanced (taste) salad which the students enjoyed greatly. She mixed together Dijon mustard, Cranberry Pear Balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar and Tuscan herb olive oil as a dressing with salt, black pepper, chili, garlic powder and lime. For the salad, she tossed together the mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, beets, apples, persimmon, watermelon radish and parmesan cheese. She also used melon and apple mixing them with salt, chili and lime to make a quick and tasty fruit salad.

Christy Wolf’s visit was a huge hit with the fifth graders and helped the students realize that eating healthy can also be tasty!

Apples to Apples

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Rebecca Scholl

Chef Jannai Mapanao, who runs the Facebook café on the Menlo Park campus, visited Hoover Elementary school today. He showed the students how apples can be transformed in many different ways, from plain to salad, crisps, jello, apple sauce and juice. What is key to triggering pleasure in your palate and your brain? Contrast! Contrasts are important for eating, healthy eating, tasty eating. So mix and match flavors and textures in order to create surprise and enjoyment in all your dishes.

From Mexico to Italy

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Rebecca Scholl

Chef Pablo Estrada visited the Spanish Civilization and Culture class and the Foods class at Gunn High School today. He shared his experience growing up in his father’s bakery in Mexico, and his culinary training with chefs from France, Italy and Japan – which led him to start his own Italian restaurant in Burlingame, Fattoria et Mare. According to chef Pablo, being a chef is a work of love. Be prepared for long work days and several injuries! He showed the students how to make home-made gnocchi with potatoes, flour and parmesan. Dipped into chef Pablo’s own personal pesto sauce, the students licked the plate clean.

Mediterranean Gastro-Mania: Unrestricted!

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Carla Matlin

Today JLS welcomed Nathalie Huynh and Aurelie Teyssier, two 6th-grades moms, for a great start of the first Mediterranean cuisine workshop for 6th graders.

During this fun workshop, 6th graders learned about the origins of Gastronomia, the traditions of sharing (sometimes 3 hours long!) meals in Mediterranean ancient civilizations. They also learned the secret of the “Mediterranean diet”: Lots of fresh fruits & vegetables, dairy products, fish and… olive oil. With such a background, no wonder it is part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage list!

The kids got to taste vegetable-based recipes, some dairy dishes, and even did a taste comparison of extra virgin olive oil and regular olive oil. It was a great success! The kids not only rocked the guessing games, but they ate up all the food – even the anchovies!!

Thanks to Nathalie and Aurelie for putting on this workshop and other classes are looking forward to participating in the workshop later this week.