Month: March 2018

February sizzles in South Florida at a host of Miami outdoor festivals. One of the best, considered a signature event on the calendar, is the annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival held in the captivating village that bears its name within the city of Miami. Coconut Grove is just south of the hustle and bustle of downtown Miami, overlooking the breathtaking and expansive Biscayne Bay. Visitors and residents alike can meet and greet renowned artists while they sample culinary creations and listen to live bands play the night away in the beauty of the outdoors. The annual outdoor festival has grown over the years into one of the premier events in the country.

The 48th annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival will be held February 19, 20, & 21, 2011, and is expected to attract over 150,000 attendees. Over 360 of the best and brightest artisans and craftspeople from around the nation and Canada will be featured at the Miami event. A rigorous selection process ensues in order for an artists work to be featured at the festival. Last year, 1,230 applicants from 35 states and our neighbor to the north submitted a sampling of their artwork in genres such as mixed media, digital art, watercolor, claywork, sculpture and wood.

In addition to the stunning artwork pervading the grounds, the exciting Culinary Pavilion maintains its place at the center of the Festival. Top chefs prepare their top dishes and are on hand to explain and describe their cooking techniques. Popular restaurants throughout South Florida send their world-renowned chefs to Coconut Grove each year. In 2009, we saw the likes of Executive Chef Philippe Pinon from the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove, Wok Star Inc.s Eleanor Hoh and Chef Hugh Sinclair from Irie Spice.

The Coconut Grove Art and Historical Association, Inc produces this outdoors festival in Miami each year. The non-profit community organization contributes the proceeds from the successful event to help fun arts programs in and around South Florida each year. An astounding four million dollars of artwork was sold during the three days of last years event!

By a stroke of luck I ended up in Emilia-Romagna, an Eden of fine cooking and savory ingredients. Id been living in France for nearly a decade and, while the food captivated me, each trip to Italy begged another. Growing up in the U.S, I had an idea of Italy as a European state, but now I was discovering its infinite provincial diversity. The nation has millennia of history, but its only been a unified country since 1861. Twenty individual regions weave a multicolored patchwork of provinces, cities, and villages: bygone kingdoms and feudal states.

In 2000 I landed a job as a tour guide with a company based in Forl. No idea where that was. I hefted my world atlas onto the kitchen table and thumbed through the index: F … For … Forl. Italy sculpts more of a leg than a boot on the map. Forl lies in Emilia-Romagna: a broad expanse spreading across her thigh like a garter. The region takes its name from the Via Aemilia the 160-mile ancient Roman road stretching east, straight as a tightrope from Piacenza to the Adriatic Sea.

The Apennines, Italys mountainous spine, arch east then south from the Mediterranean Sea to form the territorys lower border. Slanting vineyards and soft grassy slopes smooth north into orderly orchards. Parcels of kiwi populate the flat Po River plain. Renaissance towers, medieval ruins, and cypress spires cap rolling hills. And wavy grids of silvery olive trees garnish the slopes.

Emilia-Romagnas cultural heritage embraces Parmas powerfully arched cathedral, Bolognas leaning brick towers, and sixth-century mosaics in Ravenna; once the Western Roman Empires capital. Pellegrino Artusi, the father of Italian cooking, grew up in Forlimpopoli.

But Emilia and Romagna are one only on paper. In the eighth century, the Frankish King Pippin III pawned off the troublesome southeastern regions on the papacy. Like twins separated at birth, they matured into individual personas. Romagnoli are “chicken-farming country bumpkins,” say the “snooty, know-it-all” Emiliani.

NOBLE EMILIA

Emilia prospered under centuries of wealthy, highborn families who maintained their prestige through lavish banquets. Parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar, prosciutto di Parma, and bollito an opulent dish of boiled meats all hail from the region. Mortadella sausage too, even if I only knew its poor American cousin: baloney. In 1088, Europes oldest university opened in Bologna la Grassa (Fat Bologna) also Italys culinary capital.

Lucky for me, its the cradle of handmade pasta too: the centerpiece of weekly family get-togethers. Sunday mornings, Emiliana grandmothers pour mounds of flour on their table-sized cutting boards. Mixing in only eggs, they knead it into sticky yellow balls. With yard-long rolling pins, they flatten this sfoglia thin enough to see the boards wood grain. From the far edge, they curl the immense sheet into a tube, take a wide flat-bladed knife and slice off quarter-inch rounds. As the spirals unfold, classic tagliatelle emerge. The noodles rough texture will soak up a rich ragu of slowly simmered ground meats, tomato sauce, red wine, and minced aromatic vegetables.

Building a career is very important for any individual. There are a variety of careers to choose from based on your academic qualifications. Healthcare field is absolutely ideal as an option when it comes to choosing careers for life. Nowadays, this filed is creating quite a stir all over the world because of the various benefits the healthcare professionals enjoy. If you wish to pursue a career in healthcare, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Based on the below mentioned benefits you will get a clear view on how Healthcare careers can build a solid foundation to your success. Some of the benefits of choosing careers for life in healthcare are as follows:

Better Job Opportunities: A lot of job opportunities are available for an individual who is looking for a career in the healthcare field. The major reason is that a large number of elderly people need more healthcare facilities due to their old age and sickness problems. A career in healthcare helps you to treat their problems and grievances and you also contribute a helping hand to the society. Whereas in a culinary career, although the job opportunities are good, youll not be contributing in any special way to the society apart from satisfying the customers taste buds. Usually the job opportunities start from an entry level position with a low salary package. So if you want to compare on better prospects with choosing careers for life, healthcare is most definitely the preferred field.

A Great Salary Package: Careers in healthcare field are offered with an excellent pay package. As the demand for practitioners is attaining newer heights, many hospitals and other healthcare facilities are willing to pay competitive wages and other benefits like insurance, retirement benefits and much more. Being a culinary graduate, it all depends upon your potentiality and hard work. Though some jobs offers come with a pay scale ranging from $8.50 to $15.00 per hour, it again depends on how you perform in the industry. The hard workers or the efficient ones can earn up to $36000 annually depending on your level of education or if you land up with a job in one of the best restaurants. While choosing careers for life, if your vital factor is a better pay scale, the best option for you is to join a healthcare course and reap the benefits of a healthy pay package and a better position in a professional field.

Suitable Work Hours: The best perk an individual can avail in the healthcare field is choosing the working hours that fit into his schedule. If you are a nocturnal, then you can work the night shifts since many hospitals provide round the clock services to their patients. On the other hand, culinary careers do not usually provide round the clock services to their customers, unless you are working in top rated restaurants. There is no option provided for working in shifts if you are employed in a small restaurant or a hotel.

Choosing careers for life in the healthcare field is a better option since they provide you the perfect platform to begin your desired professional life. The above benefits will take you on the right path when it comes to choosing careers for life. Making the right decision at the early stages and you can shape up your future more beautifully.

Thousands of students each year go to culinary school to earn a degree in the culinary arts so they can pursue a cooking career. However, this is not the case for all of those individuals who receive culinary training. Some see cooking as an art in which they would like to earn a living, and others see it as a hobby that they can use to bond with their family. So whether individuals are looking for a career at a five star restaurant, want to impress guests at a dinner party or simply want to liven up the kitchen at home, classes in culinary arts can help anyone pursue their dreams.

For years fathers and sons have bonded over going to a football or baseball game and mothers and daughters have bonded by shopping or having a day of beauty. Now everyone in the family can bond over learning how to cook. The culinary arts is no longer just for aspiring chefs. It is for families that are looking for something they can share with one another and bring them closer together. Culinary training can be simple enough for children of all ages to take joy in. Children can have fun learning to make the foods that they love to eat.

A big dilemma for most parents is getting their children to eat healthy foods without putting up a fight. One way to get children to eat healthy foods and enjoy them is by getting them involved in the process of preparing and cooking the food. With culinary training even the least experienced cook can bond with their children by learning to create kid friendly dishes. Children will learn that healthy food can be fun to eat and appetizing as well.

Another great aspect of learning how to cook with the family is the different themes that can be incorporated into the kitchen. Whatever the time of year or whatever the holiday, there is a theme and food menu to match it. With culinary training, families can learn creative ways to incorporate themes into your meals that everyone can enjoy. Around the Mexican holiday of Cinco De Mayo, try your hand at quesadillas, nachos muchachos and tacos. Others might enjoy a summertime meal of pizza poppers, sandwiches and frozen pops. Children will love making Shamrock cookies on St. Patrick’s Day, along with other Irish treats.

Along with learning how to cook different treats and making healthy food appetizing, children can also learn the importance of safety and sanitation. Culinary training is not complete without learning the safety precautions that are necessary to make the cooking experience fun and enjoyable. Safety measures such as wearing the appropriate clothing and using caution around hot surfaces will play an important role in the culinary training process. Parents can find comfort in that fact that their children are learning kitchen safety while having fun cooking.

While children are learning how to cook their favorite treats, parents can try their hand at culinary training. Parents can spend time together by taking cooking classes as a couple, while their children are learning as well. Courses at culinary arts schools are offered on the weekend to accommodate working individuals. Parents can learn to make their own themed meals, such French and Italian influences, incorporating wine or holiday favorites. For those ambitious individuals, wedding cake decorating certificate programs are also available. So not only can children and parents learn how to cook, a skill that will be useful to them throughout life, but they can bond during the process.

A culinary art is an art of preparing foods and a study of cooking on some special menus in an occasion. They also intend to learn baking or pastry making. People who have a passion for food and cooking are good candidates for working in the culinary arts field.

There are many options for people who choose to go into culinary arts. Jobs are available in many places, such as restaurants, catering and banquet halls, schools, hospitals, hotels and more. Positions in the culinary arts all revolve around preparing food, in one aspect or another.

In addition to obvious positions, such as cooks, souse chefs and chefs; other positions in culinary arts are also available. For instance, someone interested in the culinary arts could work in research and development for a large food company, such as Kraft. Another possibility is working as a production chef for a specialty food producer.

However, you need to have good skills in order to be successful in this cooking field. That is why people who are expert on this have undergo rigid training from the cooking equipments, garnishing, cake decorating and until the proper measurements of ingredients. English, math, problem solving, and human relations skills are essential in the program. Ability to read and follow recipes, leadership and team working skills are beneficial also.

You must learn also the fundamentals of the culinary arts, including knife skills, basic cooking methods, making sauces and emulsions, and the essentials of food safety. Here are some important tips and ideas in cooking:

Cooking Methods: Cooking methods in the culinary arts include dry heat methods like sauteing and roasting, and moist heat methods such as steaming and braising.

Season Boldly When we speak of “seasoning,” we’re usually talking about salt. It’s the main seasoning agent in the culinary arts and something many beginning cooks don’t use enough of.

Don’t be afraid to salt aggressively. And by the way, that means Kosher salt, not ordinary table salt. Before grilling meats and roasting poultry, sprinkle on the Kosher salt and see what a difference it makes.

But don’t stop there. When cooking pasta, be sure to salt the pasta water before heating it. Use about a handful of Kosher salt for each six quarts of water – depending on the size of your hands. The same goes for the water you use to boil potatoes for mashed potatoes. The water should taste salty – almost like seawater.

Use Flavorful Cooking Liquids Water doesn’t taste like anything. So using water for steaming vegetables, braising, poaching, or for making soups, means you’re not adding any flavor to the food. Consider using stock, broth or wine instead of water. For instance, substitute vegetable stock for plain water when making rice.

Make It Tangy The palate likes to get a little jolt of acid now and then. Lemon juice, vinegar and wine all contribute acid to a dish, which livens up flavors and helps balance and complement sweet flavors.

When a dish seems to be lacking something and you’ve already seasoned it with salt, sometimes what’s missing is acid. Often just a squeeze of lemon juice is all you’ll need. Alternately, for people who have to follow reduced sodium diets, lemon juice can make up for some of the flavor that’s lost through limiting salt.

Butter It Up Besides salt, butter is probably the single most irreplaceable ingredient in all the culinary arts. Nothing compares to the sublime, creamy flavor and mouth feel of pure butter. And if you think improving your cooking has to mean compromising your health, think again.

First of all, butter substitutes like margarine contain just as much fat as butter. But in addition, as a quick scan of the ingredients listed on that butter substitute product reveals, they also contain an alphabet soup of artificial flavors, emulsifiers, preservatives and other mystery ingredients. If health is my main concern, I’ll take my chances with real butter.

Use Contrasting Textures Imagine biting into a piece of perfectly roasted chicken. The outer skin is deliciously crispy while the meat itself is tender and juicy. The contrast of crispy skin and tender meat are a big part of what makes eating roasted chicken so much fun.

Think about some other ways you can achieve this same effect in a dish like mashed potatoes. Suppose you sauteed some chopped celery and mixed it into the mashed potatoes. That crunch would definitely make those potatoes more exciting (and aromatic, too). Or, if you’re making baked macaroni and cheese, try topping it with some seasoned breadcrumbs before baking. That will add some nice crispiness to contrast with the soft cheese and pasta.

Some Knife Skills: Knife skills are one of the most important parts of the culinary arts. These illustrated examples and tutorials will help you practice your knife skills.

Now that your knife hand knows what to do, we need to make sure your other hand does, too. Your non-knife hand is called your “guiding hand,” and its job is to hold the food to keep it from sliding around on the cutting board. This puts it in a uniquely dangerous position. With the knife blade flying up and down, you need to keep those fingertips tucked safely away, while still being able to firmly hold the food.

The claw grip is keeping the fingers curled inward and gripping the food with the fingernails, the fingers stay out of harm’s way. The side of the knife blade actually rests against the first knuckle of the guiding hand, which helps keep the blade perpendicular to the cutting board. Index finger is wrapped fully around the blade. The index finger and thumb should be opposite each other on either side of the blade while the remaining three fingers are sort of loosely curled around the handle.