Summer Breakage

I was off for summer break from school from my last post till Monday the 7th. I'll recap briefly.

Friday the 27th my friend Dee and her grandson Brennon (13) came to my school to take a tour since Brennon is VERY interested in becoming a chef. He's worked in several high end restaurants in Austin, TX, Newport Beach, CA and Santa Monica already! He's helped on events of 3,000 people too. He's amazing. Anyway, they came to tour and then inivited me to dinner that night. I had made reservations ONE MONTH ahead at this restaurant called Chez Panisse which is famous for their Chef Alice Waters and their farm fresh food delived daily. It was a real dining experience. Fresh figs on the salad with almonds and tomato toasts, ever so tender squid in a Romesco Sauce with grilled scallions, delictable rack and loin of lamb with wonderfully roasted potatoes, wild fennel and green beans and an apricot puff pastry tartin with a side of roasted cherries. A total Yum experience.

Tuesday July 1st I left for New York. I had two tickets to see the taping of the Iron Chef America!! Can you believe that?! I was pretty excited to say the least. My brother Randy lives there so I stayed with him and we had a good time getting around. We ate dinner in Little Italy on Mulberry Street (sooo Italian) Wednesday night and went to a well known place for drinks called The Modern. That was nice but lottsa walking.

Thursday was the taping so we headed back into Manhattan to the Food Network which is inside this huge building that houses a full on fresh fish market, an incredible vegetable market, lots of specialized markets where you can buy italian salamis, cheeses, sauces, etc. and just a jumble of other stores. I was blown away and could not leave unless I bought foods! I cooked dinner that night for Rand and a couple of his friends. It was fun. I made Chilean Sea Bass with a fresh fruit salsa and a nice salad with heirloom tomatoes, orange segments, avocados, jicicam and diced apple with an orange/lime dressing. It was so hot in NY that I wanted to keep it simple and not over taxing. I also made some brown rice. It was the perfect dinner.

Friday it rained so the Fireworks were a bust and Saturday I was headed back to San Fran. Our plane got diverted to Pittsburg PA when we had a medical emergency on board and had to make an unscheduled stop. That was interesting. Young guy too. Me thinks it was too much partying the night before. Ya know. I was just wondering if he would be geting a bill from United for the stop and extra gas. Whoo. I wouldn't want to see that tab! Plus, he'll get one from the ambulance in Pittsburg and maybe even the airport fire truck and ambulance. Gads. I hope his party was worth it.

So basically, I came home with a miserable head cold which still has me deep in kleenex. Its been a difficult one to get over. We started the Principals of Asian Cuisine Monday but I wasn't able to get near food for a few days and even still I can't taste anything. Bummer. Looks good though. I like the class. We have a Chinese Chef which makes decipering his words a bit challenging. I finally figured out that he says "presslice" which means priceless. Our syllabus is called syllabice. There's more, just to keep us paying attention. But that's for another blog posting.

For now, just wanted to catch you all up.