Month: November 2018

The Chef’s Culinary Garden at Beechwood Inn, Clayton, GA

The Northeast Georgia Mountains are home to some of Georgia’s leading fresh food producers. Vegetables, fruit, flowers, cheese, wine, nuts, grain, poultry, eggs, fish, pork and cattle are all seasonally available throughout the area. An abundance of fresh water, combined with soil rich in nutrients and a temperate climate offer a recipe for great fresh seasonal foods. Rabun County is particularly known for its cabbage crop. Maybe it’s the soil, but the cabbage grown here just tastes better. As spring moves towards summer we can hardly wait for our first ears of Osage Silver Queen Corn.

With all this local abundance we fret each spring as to what things we should plant in our culinary garden next to the Inn. We’ve been to restaurants where just moments before you are seated for dinner you observe the chef clad in her white coat tip toe into the gardens to snip fresh herbs and edible flowers. You just know you are in for a treat. We want to offer the type of experience where the diner sees and tastes things on their plate they know came out of the garden minutes before. The chef’s culinary garden should provide wonderful products but also needs to be close to the kitchen’s back door so it is as handy as walking into the pantry. And we want the garden to enhance and add to the variety, color and unique flavors for our guests’ dining experience.

Through the years we have honed our culinary garden to our style of cooking. Here is what we have planned for this year. We will plant a hedge of Genovese basil, as well as about 8 other varieties and colors. Other necessities include bay, dill, English thyme, tarragon, mints, lavender, oregano, rosemary, sage, parsley, savory and fennel; a rainbow of toy box tomatoes, lemon verbena, bee balm, heirloom tomatoes, edible flowers to bloom in succession. We also have an established asparagus patch, raspberries, blueberries, two varieties of crabapples, wild cherries (for drying), peaches, plums and a forest of Chanterelles. We can also count on Leckie Stack supplying us with some seasonal fruits from the Stack farm including Asian pears, persimmons and grapes. And Jenny Sanders will share with us wild ingredients in season such as ramps, elderflowers and berries, fiddleheads and a variety of mushrooms.

We would plant an acre of basil if we could. To many gardeners, basil is the king of herbs. Basil can play many roles while basking in the sun. Basil is essential in our kitchen, but it is also highly ornamental in our gardens and on our tables. We add branches to bouquets of flowers. Hot summer days become bearable if I can pluck fresh basil and use it in pestos, herbal vinegars, vegetable dishes and, most heavenly of all, nestle the leaves between slices of fresh bread along with a large slice of a ripe heirloom tomato and some creamy homemade mayo. Members of the mint family, basils are native to India, Africa and Asia but have a long, rich history of legend and use worldwide. Basil is best used fresh. Small leafed varieties can be grown in a pot on a sunny windowsill during the winter. To preserve summer’s flavor for winter make plenty of pesto and freeze it. We make sure that each year our garden has several Thai Basil plants. It is characterized by a strong licorice fragrance and flavor. Thai basil has many applications in the Beechwood kitchen due to its flavor appeal. It is the highlight of many Asian cuisines, including Thai, Vietnamese and Indian fare. The inn’s specialty is Thai Basil Rolls with Satay Peanut Sauce.

Another staple that we plant each spring is lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla). It is native to South America and grows well in North Georgia, but it does not survive our winters outdoors. The Spanish brought it to Europe where it was used in perfume. It has been a favorite for garden rooms in North America since its introduction in the 1800’s. It has a clean, sharp lemon scent that makes it the Queen of lemon-scented herbs. In Gone with the Wind, lemon verbena is mentioned as Scarlet O’Hara’s mother’s favorite plant. One whiff of the smell, and I predict you will not want to live without this luscious smelling herb.

The inn’s specialty is lemon verbena ice cream but we use the leaves in a number of recipes. It makes an excellent tea, especially when blended with mint. It can also be used to brighten the taste of fish, poultry, veggie marinades, stuffing, salad dressing, sorbets, pana cotta, jellies, and vinegar. As the leaves are tough, remove them before serving. Finely crumbled dried leaves can be added to the batters of carrot, banana, or zucchini bread. Try adding some to cooked rice just before serving.

A rainbow of toy box tomatoes is essential to our culinary garden each year. They are cherry and grape tomatoes in a variety of wonderful colors and flavors, some heirloom some hybrid. The most important thing to the chef is the palette of colors and unique flavors they offer. Some are sugary and sweet some are puckeringly tart. But oh are they beautiful in tarts, salads, bruschettas and as garnish. Last year we planted about a dozen varieties and I had to resist eating them while I picked them fresh off the vine. We plant them in giant containers and they surround the Beechwood gardens. We will often see guests plucking a sample as they walk by.

Our heirloom tomatoes are good in almost anything but one of our favorite recipes is Black Krim Tomato Marmalade. Our wild cherries and crabapples are very tart, so they are best used in coulis, jams and remoulades. The blueberries and raspberries will find their way fresh to our breakfast table and also baked into muffins, breads and sinfully wonderful desserts.

The gardens also yield a succession of seasonal edible flowers. Today, many restaurant chefs and innovative home cooks garnish their plates with flower blossoms for a touch of elegance. They can be sprinkled on salads or added to your recipe. The secret to success when using edible flowers is to keep the dish simple. Most edible flowers have a very delicate taste, so when using them as a flavor component do not add them to something that already has strong flavors. Today this nearly lost art is enjoying a revival.

Not all flowers are edible, and the edible varieties should be grown without the use of pesticides or other chemicals. Edible flowers should be carefully identified and in some cases there are only parts of the flower that are edible (in some flowers the anthers should be removed). The Beechwood Chefs will often use a flower as the central part of an appetizer or entre. For instance, we use colorful organic daylilies and fill them with a light stuffing of local goat cheese and fresh herbs.

Writing about our culinary garden and thinking of these recipes makes us long for tomato season once again. Planting our culinary garden each spring renews our spirit and brings us joy. We appreciate the efforts brought to bear by local farmers and ranchers, but most of all we thank God for the variety and abundance of fresh products we bring to our table.

by Chef David Darugh http://www.beechwoodinn.ws

Beechwood Inn is Georgia’s Premier Wine Country Inn

Interested vacationers may choose for direct reservations through Online or phone. There are a big quantity of guides and critiques that offer a standard overview of New York cooking universities. This will allow folks to compare the existing trip plans, price involved and attributes. Tourists might enquire with the tour operators, to understand their family vacation alternatives. New York cooking universities, apart from housing visitors, permit them to take part in cooking the nearby cuisine and specialties. New York cooking universities may be integrated is the itinerary, where the visitors make stopovers and discover about New York cooking variations.

Folks may perhaps enquire with head chefs concerning the unique cuisine they want to find out. The lessons are generally offered as group sessions. This will allow vacationers to interact with every single other and proves to be a great learning practical experience. Locals, who are interested in a selected cuisine, may possibly come across out from the eating places and hotels, if they operate as cooking universities or not. A search by way of the Yellow Pages, asking all around and browsing the internet can help to discover a amount of New York cooking universities. Visitors can make reservations for weekend, afternoon or holiday tours, that enable them to be in the firm of reputed chefs, connoisseurs and critics. The colleges give them the possibility to cook and serve.ve.

The culinary arts are a pretty multifaceted discipline, and culinary schools in New York demonstrate how varied it genuinely is. A college student, for illustration, can specialize on restaurant management as an alternative of taking a generalized system. A seem at the culinary universities with niche specialization proves this.

The Italian Culinary Academy and the French Culinary Institute are two very good examples of culinary school specialization. Obviously, the French Culinary Institute is an institution that presents programs on French cuisine-easily a single of the most favorite and most complicated cuisines in the world. College students the following can consider up entire courses or small plans, all of which are concentrated on the great are of French cooking. Just after all, a French culinary college is the most effective place to understand about deboning and filleting, artisan bread baking, fundamentals of wine, breakfast breads, and fondant-earning?

Meanwhile, the Italian Culinary Academy features the most comprehensive Italian cuisine curriculum this side of the globe. The school has two courses: Essentials of Italian Cooking (for people who want to master about the intricacies of Italian cooking) and Italian Culinary Experience (for these who want to understand the principles of Italian cuisine). The Necessities of Italian Cooking is an 8 unit program that teaches pupils the fundamentals of a variety of essential Italian food, these types of as dried pasta (unit a single), soups and grains (unit 7), cheese, pizza, and calzone (unit two), and desserts (unit eight). Despite the fact that it does not present bachelor programs, the academy offers very intensive lessons on this specialization that no other cooking universities in New York can match.

New York is primarily the middle of culinary arts training in the nation. This is not definitely surprising the state, immediately after all, is household to several best arts training institutes (like Julliard and Parsons, to name a handful of) in the entire world. Culinary arts employees all over the planet flock to the state to get a slot in the illustrious systems of culinary universities in New York.

Emil is passionate about connoisseur food and wine. He is specifically passionate about culinary colleges, which train the up coming era of connoisseur chefs.

Culinary School in New York, The Best Culinary Schools in New York, Culinary School in New York

The number of cooking schools is growing, and many high school students and interested professionals want to know which of these schools offer competitive culinary education. But these people should be concerned more of the fundamental factors that would affect their lives the moment they set foot in the world of culinary arts.

You may think of culinary schools with grandeur and you may have high praises for people who finish the course, putting them in some kind of pedestal, as if they have accomplished something grand. The real thing for most of these people is far from your imagination.

Cooking schools are expensive.

That is just one thing you have to keep in mind. It is so expensive that many aspirants are discouraged at the first sight of the cost. They may opt for student loans to come by funds necessary for schooling. Many finish the course worried about how they are going to pay the debt.

There are many chefs who obtained their expertise without having to go through expensive education. In fact, some had to learn it for free working in the kitchens of restaurants or hotels. Not all can be that lucky though. Some had to start from somewhere like their very own kitchens. The lure of culinary school is the presence of nice equipment, state-of-the-art facilities, and seasoned chefs to provide instruction.

Many chefs think that all types of cooking education are essentially the same. Methods of cooking do not change wherever you take the course. Hence, expensive culinary education will not necessarily prepare you for the real thing. At the end of the day, it is your skill and passion that will make you do the job and not the name of the school or the cost of the education.

A culinary career is not just about cooking.

This is something all students in culinary schools should know and understand. Some are too excited to learn how to bake pastry or cook beef stewand they immediately think a culinary school can get them there. If you think of learning the art of cooking because you want to be the house cook, you probably should learn cooking another way, because it is impractical. But if you have money to burn, go ahead.

Some people imagine grand careers as chefs, but this is far from the reality. Only a few people land high paying jobs when they graduate. Many will have to deal with average paying jobs in restaurants or hotels if they ever find jobs. But if you have a passion for culinary arts, you should have no problem being in the tough industry. You may even enjoy it.

Culinary jobs involve working with other people. Collaboration is just one thing. If you are a chef working at restaurants, you have to take orders from the owner. Sometimes, your food will be criticized even if it looks nice and tastes good. This is what interested culinary students should understand. Do not enroll in a culinary school with the expectation that you will be a grand, rich chef in the future. Do so because it is what you want and you clearly know the possibilities.

There are many factors to consider when choosing which school to go to when it’s time to further your education and get your degree in culinary arts. Location; how far would you have to travel? Is there reasonable housing close to campus? Finances; is financial aid an option? The school itself; is it the best of the best? What kind of reputation does it have? What are the Harvard’s and Oxfords of culinary arts schools?

The Culinary Institute of America is reported to be right at the top of the list of great culinary arts schools. It offers campuses in three locations; their main campus finds its home in Hyde Park, NY. They have a west coast campus in St. Helena, CA, which offers many food and wine related programs. Last but not least is their San Antonio, TX campus which hosts Latin American cuisine course. The Culinary Institute of America prides itself on its reputation as the world’s premier culinary college and offering the best opportunity to career success. Their alumni alone should be enough to impress anyone trying to choose a school. There is Christopher Martone, executive chef of Subway restaurants; Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle Grill, and Dan Coudreaut, director of culinary innovation for McDonald’s amongst many others.

The Arts Institute is also among of the top rated culinary arts schools with campuses in over 20 states. They offer associate degree programs in baking and pastry arts, culinary arts and restaurant ownership, restaurant and catering management, and wine, spirits and beverage management just to name a few. They also offer bachelor degrees in culinary arts skills, culinary restaurant management, food and beverage management, and hotel and restaurant management as well. You can become certifications through them for the art of cooking, baking and pastry arts and culinary arts skills. Program options vary by school so you’ll want to request further information from the campus you’re interested in.

Another top school is The French Culinary Institute in New York City. At this particular school training is done at a very fast pace and in depth through a hands-on curriculum referred to as Total Immersion. The French Culinary Institute also has a sister school in Italy which their students are also invited to train at in order to get the full experience of the Italian culinary experience. What this school offers through their Total Immersion approach is having their students trained in six to nine months what takes other schools years to teach. Depending on what kind of a learner you are, that may hinder or help you. The French Culinary Institute also offers their students the opportunity to be taught by legends in the field of culinary arts such as Jacques Torres, Alain Sailhac, and even Andre Soltner.

Choosing a school is very personal and should be carefully thought out. Regardless of which school you decide on, ultimately your future is in your hands. Hard work, perseverance and dedication are just as important as which school you decide on. Follow your dreams and have fun!

For the the italian company PreGel, 2011 starts under the sign of two big parnterships. This year the company will sponsor Alma and CASTAlimenti, two prestigious schools of italian cuisine, both born from the will of two great masters of taste: the top chef Gualtiero Marchesi and famous pastry chef Iginio Massari.

The collaboration between PreGel and Alma keeps on positively. Alma is the International School of Italian Cuisine, directed by world-renowned chef Gualtiero Marchesi, who annually trains future professionals for restaurant and wine fields.

Last year, more than 2000 students have got to know to PreGel products – from gelato bases to pastry and desserts products. The students followed courses to learn how to use ingredients and PreGel products, to get good results in preparing desserts, with the help offered by the company.

The plans for 2011 seem to be good as well: Alma keeps on growing, as witnessed by the recent investments that allowed to build a new Gelato / Pastry corner and a specific training classroom for the basic techniques. Very soon the students will be able to create delicious gelato, desserts and pastries with PreGel products, in a totally dedicated school area.

Besides the strong and long lasting relationship with Alma, 2011 opens with a new partnership between PreGel and CASTAlimenti – Arts Centre, Food Science and Technology – an important cookery school in Brescia, which has become a point of reference for professional training in the areas of pastry making, gastronomy, ice cream making and cooking. Commissioned by the President and Director Vittorio Santoro, along with Iginio Massari – “Italy’s most famous pastry chef” – and other leading figures of Italian restaurants, the school is visited by over 5,000 professionals per year, who can attend courses, take part of events, meetings with companies, Italian and international competitions. As the main sponsor of this Institute for this year, PreGel is supplying its products and actively participating in the members training, supporting the institute teachers with their Technical emplyoees, during the courses.

For more information about PreGel and its products for pastry, desserts and gelato, please visit www.pregel.com or come find PreGel on Facebook: facebook.com/pregelspa

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