How to Make a Vinaigrette

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Marilyn Crystal

Today we had the pleasure to have Chef Virginie from Sur La Table for two wonderful workshops at Addison Primary School. Chef Virginie introduced the kids to the five tastes: Sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. It was amazing that some children in both workshops knew about umami!

Chef Virginie used her workshop to teach the students about vinaigrette. She explained how mixing an acid with an oil creates an unstable vinaigrette, since the vinegar (the acid) and the oil will separate. To make sure the vinaigrette is stable, an emulsifier like mustard, honey, or an egg yolk is added. Vinaigrette Separation

Chef Virginie introduced the kids to two different dressings: A red wine vinaigrette made with red wine, olive oil and Dijon mustard; and an Asian vinaigrette which used rice vinegar, oil, sesame oil and honey. The children were instructed to mix the acid with the emulsifier first, and then slowly add the oil … as the kids whisked the ingredients together, the dressing became thicker and thicker!

Towards the end of the workshop, some kids had a chance to chop lettuce and vegetables, and then everyone enjoyed two nice salads!

Thank you Chef Virginie!

Wait — Pretzels in a Salad??

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Carla Matlin

Briones Rebecca's Five Senses 1 Today Bay Area Tasting Week founder, and fearless leader, Rebecca Scholl led two workshops for 3rd graders at Juana Briones Elementary School. The “Five Senses” workshops taught the kids how sound, smell, sight, texture and flavors all contribute to the tasting experience.

After doing a “mindful eating” exercise using pretzels, Rebecca showed the students how to put together Briones Rebecca's Five Senses 2 a multi-colored and multi-flavored salad. She really got the creative juices flowing; before you knew it, they added pretzels to the salad. What???

Magical Spices and Food

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Carla Matlin

lavender-coucous-salad Chef Ellie Lavender wowed the students at Palo Verde Elementary School with her workshop on vegetarian Mediterranean foods. The children journeyed to Morocco with Chef Ellie, explored this land of magical spices and food, and then feasted on a Vegan Moroccan Couscous Salad with Lavender Tahini Dressing. To read more about the workshop, see more pictures, and get the recipe for yourself – visit Chef Ellie’s Blog.

Kicking Off Tasting Week 2016 With a Salad Dressing Competition

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Rebecca Scholl

chef-christy-salad-dressing-competition-1 To kick off Tasting Week 2016, we welcomed Chef Christy from Sur La Table to Juana Briones Elementary school. After introducing the kids to several new fruits and vegetables such as quince, rhubarb, radicchio, and jicama, she explained the process in creating the “umami” or “savory” taste. Umami is created when you break down amino acids into glutamate on your tongue – for instance when you brown meat, dry fish to make fish sauce, transform soy into soy sauce, or age parmesan cheese. The secret umami ingredient that chefs will never admit to using but that they use all the time? Garlic powder!

Then chef Christy set up two competing teams to make salad dressing. In any dressing you will need an oil, an acid, an emulsifier and flavoring. The first dressing was Asian, with grapeseed oil, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil and soy sauce. The second one was European with olive oil, chocolate balsamic vinegar, mustard, and…garlic powder. The kids loved them both!

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!

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!

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!

Can’t Get Enough of That Kale

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Melissa Racz

Tasting Week at Barron Park continued today with a visit from Calafia chef, Kimberly Beck. She helped kindergarteners and 1st graders make one of Calafia’s specialty salads: Kale, Feta cheese, cranberries, and quinoa. Kids ate it right up! Thank you to Rebecca Scholl and Bay Area Tasting Week for arranging such a wonderful experience for our students. Thank you also to all the parent volunteers for coming to help out (and getting to taste as well)!

Creative Cooking Takes Flight at Juana Briones Elementary School

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Carla Matlin

On Wednesday, students at Juana Briones learned just how creative salads can be. Chef Christy Wolf, and her 4th-grade daughter Danica, visited two third-grade classrooms and brought with them a wide assortment of greens, vegetables and fruits. Some foods were so unusual that most of the kids had never heard of them before, such as a watermelon radish or arugula. Other foods were very common — like apples and grapes — but the kids had never thought they could be used in a salad. In the end, a salad of red leaf lettuce, arugula, apples, grapes, watermelon radishes, celery, and red pepper had the kids lining up for seconds.

While Chef Christy introduced kids to new and unusual vegetables and fruits, Chef John Bentley met with 4th grade students at Juana Briones and focused on new and unusual ways to prepare artichokes. Steamed artichokes dipped in butter is so yesterday! Chef John showed the kids how easy it is to cut and prepare fresh artichokes. The kids then got to taste the different flavors and textures that are brought out depending upon how the artichokes are prepared — from an artichoke cream soup, to an artichoke and roasted corn salad, to artichoke chips. Those kids will never look at an artichoke in the same way, again.