Cuisine Across Cultures - Day 1

Today was the first day of class for Cuisine across Cultures.  This course follows common global ingedients that are used in many regional dishes.  We explore other cultures through the understanding of global culinary heritages.  The attitudes and tastes of the more global and knowledgeable customer sets a greater expectation of balance in a professional culinarian's repertoire.  We examine food in the context of culture, geography and history.

There are about 22 students in the class and we have divided up into two teams.  Team 1 is on one side of the kitchen and team two on the other.  Each night we have several recipes to make and divide them up within our team for team presentation to the chef about an hour before the class is finished.   After tasting and critiquing the dishes, we are then allowed to taste them, talk about the way they were prepared, what could be done to improve them, etc. then we clean up.

Today we made jambalaya and paella.  I have never made either before.  I have always wanted to make jambalaya but never was really crazy about it.  Both dishes turned out very very good.  The jambalaya was a little spicy, but delish, and I wasn't too crazy about the paella.  The paella had a great flavor, but contained squid, clams and oysters which I'm not very fond of.  It also had lobster, shrimp, chicken, sausage and pork in it.  It also included onions, bell peppers, spices, and of course, rice.