Traverse City Record-Eagle,  Feb. 7, 2003
A Valentine for Food Lovers

If you and your Valentine enjoy celebrating over candlelight and good food, here's an idea that can pay romantic dividends for years: Send your beloved to cooking school.

     A few years ago I gave Graydon a two-day class at Tapawingo, and it was the best gift I ever gave myself. It was as if I had a personal chef, and I could hardly get him out of the kitchen. We both still enjoy the benefits of that valentine: It enhances the romance at the table, and we dance more lightly (and expertly) in the kitchen.

     Ladies need not worry about sending their guys, either. The kitchen is very much a man's place, too. We recently took another class at Chef Nancy Allen's City Kitchen in Traverse City, and six of the ten pupils were men.

     There's a cooking class in Northern Michigan for nearly every valentine. At least half a dozen chefs, restaurants and experts offer hands-on classes (see list below) that range from three-hour afternoon sessions at Creative Expressions Café & Deli in Onekama for $45, to week-long, in-residence courses at Walloon Lake Inn for $440.

     Pupils at Allen's City Kitchen benefit not only from the experience of a professional chef, but also the expertise of a professional teacher who taught for years in New York at the Institute of Culinary Education and the Natural Gourmet School.

     Our five-hour evening class was on "Fine Cooking Techniques." After a brief and informative talk on basic methods and styles of cooking, we took up knives, peelers and whisks and plunged in. Under her guidance, we peeled and diced our potatoes and carrots, sectioned our oranges, stripped kale from stalks, peeled and cored pears, chopped celery and separated broccoli florets. We wearied from whisking as we emulsified our vinaigrettes. We learned to trim and steak a fresh, pink salmon, and we butterflied and flattened plump chicken breasts for the sauté pan.

     As class progressed, appetites grew, for, in the end, the pupils get to feast on the curriculum, and we knew what was coming. The carrots would be pureed as soup. The celery, onions and leeks would make a court bouillon for poaching the salmon. The butterflied breasts would end up dancing in clarified butter in our sauté pans, which we'd deglaze with wine to make a savory sauce. The potatoes would be sautéed and seasoned with persillade. And those plump pears would be poached in wine and maple syrup.

     It is much the same at other "schools," although approaches vary. Some, like Allen, emphasize basic principles; others dwell on the details of recipes. All, however, combine hands-on instruction and expert demonstration. Our neighbor Karen Boals tells us her recent "Pizza, Pasta and Risotto" class at Bay Harbor's Latitude began with a pasta-making demonstration by Chef Rich Travis followed by hands-on preparation of sauces by pupils. Chef Pete Peterson's one- and two-day Tapawingo courses cover it all, from bread and soup to salad, entrees and pastries. His students, too, enjoy the fruit of their labor, and the two-day school ends with a wine-and-hors d'oeuvres social hour and dinner for pupils and guests.

     Every class sends the pupils home with yummy recipes, but sometimes the little things pay the big dividends. Graydon still keeps us stocked with the savory, oven-dried tomatoes Peterson taught him to make at Tapawingo, and when we find fresh fennel at our local grocery, he delights in fixing it as Allen taught him in a class on Tuscan cookery: sliced, brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and then grilled.

     See what I mean? Give a valentine like this and you'll be giving yourself one, too.

DATA:
City Kitchen, Traverse City (231-932-2201): Year-round classes on a wide variety of topics, from basic principles and methods to Sushi, to meat. Classes generally run 5 hours, and are offered in the morning, afternoon and evening. Fees, $75-$90.
Creative Expressions, Onekama (231-889-4236 or www.culinaryplayground.com ) Three-hour afternoon classes February through April. Fee, $45. (Also, personal instruction in your home by arrangement).
Folgarelli's (941-7651): Classes at various times with no fixed schedule or fees.
Northwestern Michigan College (1-800-748-0566 or www.nmc.edu/glci ) Culinary Arts instructor Fred Laughlin offers classes solo and in conjunction with Oryana Food Co-op. In March, he'll teach "Meat Cookery 101" and in May he'll offer two sessions of "Food from the Grill."
Latitude, Bay Harbor (231-439-2750): One day, themed classes March 30 (Mardi Gras), May 4 (Lobster Fest), May 18 (Morels).  Fee, $159-$212
Tapawingo, Ellsworth (231-588-7971 or www.tapawingo.net): One-day classes (Fee, $200) on Feb. 23, April 27, and two-day classes (Fee, $375) beginning Feb. 9., Mar. 2, 16 and 30; April 6, 13, and 20, and May 4. Fees include two meals each day with wines & gratuities.
Walloon Lake Inn, Walloon Lake (1-800-956-4665 or www.walloonlakeinn.com): Four-day courses in culinary basics of stocks, sauces, methods, organization and menu planning. Fee, $275 ($440 with lodging & continental breakfast).