Blogging has taken the worldwide web by storm, leaving the publishing industry to question, "What is the future of print media?" 

I was honored to have been invited to sit in on the first of six "Food Blogging with Steven Shaw" classes at the International Culinary Center.  Virtual food writing has come a long way since Mr. Shaw began his website, www.egullet.org, in the late 1990's; and even further since I conceptualized The Lunch Belle in the summer of 2007.  Having taught myself how to create/design my blog, I wasn't really aware of the vast array of food-centric resources and how-to courses available.  How naive of me!   

Steven Shaw uses The Lunch Belle (website) as an example in "Food Blogging with Steven Shaw"

The six week course, which lasts for about two hours on Thursday evenings, is perfect for those who wish to start/expand a food blog, but haven't done so or proceeded due to lack of time, confidence, skill, etc.  Mr. Shaw teaches students from step "one" to step "done," using www.wordpress.com as his platform of choice.  In this first class, we learned:

• Tidbits of the history of print media and how it's rapidly morphing in to web-based media
• Just how easy it is to procure your own blog on a free platform, such as www.wordpress.com
• The most successful blogs are updated daily in order to maintain/pique readers' interest

Prior to our first meeting, Mr. Shaw asked that the class bring their cameras.  L'Ecole's manager (who also happens to be a sommelier) prepared a sherry tasting for us, where we were encouraged to take pictures.  As you can see, photography goes hand-in-hand with food blogging.

Sherry tastingOver the course of the six week sessions, Mr. Shaw has lined up visits from some of food industry's "who's who," including: photographer Melissa Hom, Alan Richman, and Adam Roberts.  Additionally, students receive one-on-one email diaglogue and critique with Mr. Shaw between classes.  While the course is pricey (think $795), those who are very serious about getting in to food blogging should look at this fee as an investment towards their future.  Can a price-tag be put on receiving first-hand instruction and insight from some of the culinary industry's greatest leaders? 

In conclusion, I was very impressed with Mr. Shaw's enthusiasm, instruction, knowledge, and engagement.  I cannot wait to virtually follow his students on their journey towards food blogging fame and achievement!

Click *here* for all pictures from this event   

• For the best-tasting vegetables, make sure to purchase them whole (we’re talkin’ stems-on and roots in tact)…not pre-cut, chopped, etc.
• Store artichokes and herbs (not together) in a vase of water, just as you would do for fresh flowers.
• For Alex, buying “organic” isn’t as important as knowing both the farm and farmer that raised the fruit/vegetable.  A personal favorite worth mentioning?  Chef swears by Stokes Farm in Old Tappan, New Jersey.
• Alex’s favorite days to shop farmer’s markets in NYC are Wednesday’s and Saturday’s.  To keep abreast of schedules/happenings at markets across the city, follow this link: www.cenyc.org.
• Never toast nuts in a saucepan, rather, utilize the oven’s 360-degrees’ worth of heat.
• Unlike pasta, vegetables should not be cooked al-dente.
• Always taste the seasoned water you plan to use before boiling your vegetables.  Add salt!
• Chef Alex swears by “Le Blanc” nut oils.  Click *here* for more info about the brand.

• Grilled shrimp with walnut pesto and pan-roasted fennel bulbs
• Chicken liver crostini (no picture)
  
• Leeks vinaigrette
• Swiss chard & leek gratin (no picture)
  

While I didn’t lay a finger on the chicken liver (not a fan) and wasn’t able to taste the gratin (it wasn’t ready when I had to scoot out for lunch), I was lucky enough to sample the shrimp and the leeks vinaigrette.  As you can see in the pictures below, this was truly a feast for all of the senses.  My biggest, and most delightful, surprise came from the roasted fennel bulbs!  I was expecting to be overwhelmed by a perfumey, licorice aftertaste; but to my delight, the bulbs were mild, buttery and soft with a similar consistency to a sautéed onion.

Gillian Duffy’s interview with Dan Barber (a.k.a. the East Coast’s male version of Alice Waters) was brilliant.  As a child, Barber fell in love with the land and the lifestyle at his grandmother’s cattle farm in the Berkshires (Massachusetts), which was quite a world apart from his home in Manhattan's Upper Eastside.  

“You can’t co-op local (food)…the best way to educate people is to have them taste delicious food…a (food) revolution can come through good flavor…my definition of sustainability is buying or participating in a food chain that betters ecology,” explained Barber.  

Despite my undying love for Q'doba cheese dip, I greatly respect and appreciate the farm-to-table/local food systems’ movement.  Others, including Barack and Michelle Obama, who dined at Barber's Blue Hill restaurant on a recent visit to Manhattan, would agree.  This year alone, Dan Barber was named one of Time Magazine’s “100 of the world’s most influential people,” and James Beard’s “Outstanding Chef.”    

"Classic American Desserts" with Melissa Murphy 

What's a more "Classic American Dessert" than apple pie?

The recipe was divided in to three parts: pie dough, peanut butter crumb topping, and apple filling made with homemade caramel.

 

Boiling sugar and water to make homemade caramel.  The finished product was later be folded in to the sliced apples, serving as the pie's filling.

My work-station neighbor, Dara, carefully boiling caramel.

All-butter pie crust eagerly waiting to be drowned with caramel-laden apple slices.

The gorgeous finished product, baked by Chef Melissa Murphy.  *Note the crumbly topping, which was a mix of: chopped peanuts, peanut butter, brown sugar and butter.

While each of the class participants created individual pies, we were told that they (the pies) needed 1.5 hours to bake.  "You all can pick up your pies at 6:30pm," Chef said.  "In the meantime, please feel free to take any leftover ingredients home with you."

Dara and I looked at each other with wide eyes.  "No way in hell am I waiting around for my pie until 6:30pm!  Shoot, it's just 4:45pm right now," I chuckled before filling up containers with my leftover ingredients.

Isn't Chef adorable?  Watch out though, she's no joke in the kitchen!  Our group of three got reprimanded one too many times.

Since I was too impatient to wait 1.5 hours for the pie I made in class to bake, I decide to make an apple tart at home using my remaining pie dough and apple filling.

  

 

Click *here* for all pictures from this event

“Seriously Mom, I felt like a Midwestern tween who just met Miley Cyrus,” I gushed while describing my weekend at the second-annual New York Culinary Experience.  Of course, Mom had no clue that “Achy Breaky” Billy-Ray had a daughter.  “Remember the rush you felt when you saw Michael Jackson in concert for the first time?  Well, that’s probably the best way to sum up my weekend.  It was so surreal to be cooking side-by-side some of the world’s most renowned chefs, many of whom I grew up idolizing.  We’re talking about folks who have their own Food Network television shows, cookbooks and columns in famous culinary magazines!  I had to keep pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, like, ‘Is this really happening to me right now?’”

• At the early age of 24, Marcus became the executive chef of Aquavit restaurant in NYC.
• The youngest chef to have ever received two highly coveted “three star” ratings by the New York Times (at Aquavit).
• In 2003, the James Beard Foundation named him “Best Chef in NYC.”
• Though he didn’t receive the title, Marcus competed on the Food Network’s infamous program, “Iron Chef.”
• He has authored four cookbooks, including “The New American Table,” which hits shelves on 10/26/09.

When I was a kid, my dreams never contained visions of white-picket fences or playing the roll of “Betty-Homemaker”/ soccer-mom-extraordinaire. After seeing the movie “Annie” at the age of four, I had my mind made up: Someday, I too would live in NYC. While other little girls were fantasizing about whimsical wedding dresses and what to name their first daughter, I was busy day-dreaming about red brick buildings with fire escapes and yellow taxis as far as the eye could see. Fast forward twenty-five years: I’m exactly where I want to be. NYC has been awfully good to me over the past five-plus years, and I have no plans to leave. Ever. “Awe, that’s cute that you love New York, but would you ever raise a family in the city? I hope not.” People ask me this all the time and my answer is always the same: “Yes, absolutely! I can’t imagine a better place for children to be exposed to culture, education, diversity and opportunity.”

While I'm on the topic of bragging and praising all-things-NYC, I have to tell you about the phenomenal cooking class that I took on Saturday: The French Culinary Institute’s “Handmade Pasta for Future Chefs.” Though geared more towards teens and their parents, I simply could not resist learning how to make pasta from scratch...Even if it meant attending the class sans a teenage partner! And by the way, I would have killed to have taken cooking classes as a young gal (thus reiterating the fact that the city is kid-friendly)!

I arrived at the FCI about twenty-minutes prior to our 10am class. As the elevator doors opened on to the fourth-floor lobby, I was greeted by a friendly receptionist who checked my name against the roster and presented me with a royal-blue chef’s apron and skull cap.

Before long, my fellow classmates and I (there were 8 of us: one dad with his son, one mom and her daughter, one super-cool aunt and her niece, and a fellow partner-less woman who would be my co-chef) were lead back to a large industrial kitchen that would be our home for the next four hours. “Wow,” I gushed, “the facilities here are so much bigger than they are at the ICE (Institute of Culinary Education)!”

Chef Instructor Jessica Botta introduced herself and her two colleagues: Fabio, a recent FCI graduate, and Angela, the FCI’s director of the recreational division (classes taken by non-students). I was familiar with Chef Jessica’s resume, as she had previously held the title of “Pasta Chef de Partie” at Michelin-starred restaurant, Fiamma (now closed) in NYC.

After demonstrating to the class how to make three types of pasta dough (basic egg, basic egg with spinach, and potato gnocchi), Chef turned us loose! The eight of us (students) broke up in to our respective pairs and scattered to one of four fully-stocked kitchen stations. We were instructed to make all three pastas by hand, plus a cheese-based ravioli filling, seasoned to our liking. Chef Jessica, Angela and Fabio would take care of preparing the following sauces: Basic tomato, pesto, and Quattro Formaggi (4-cheese sauce). My partner and I agreed to split pasta-making duties as evenly as possible; so we’d each have a hand in making everything that we were assigned.

Of all three pastas, I enjoyed making the potato gnocchi most. I never realized how much precision, time and effort goes in to creating the perfect pasta! The most tedious of tasks was running the dough (with the exception of the gnocchi) through the pasta machine multiple times, until each “sheet” became long and thin. My arms got quite a workout, as well!

As a reward for our hard work, we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor with a fabulous carb-rich feast: Homemade potato gnocchi, basic egg and spinach noodles and raviolis. With three scratch-made sauces (Quattro Formaggi, pesto, or basic tomato/marinara) at our disposal, our plates became a pseudo "mix and match" ingredients game. And paired with freshly-baked bread (from FCI's own kitchens) to sop up any remaining sauce? Fuggedaboutit!

While classes at the FCI aren't exactly cheap (think $195/person), they certainly are worth every penny...Especially if that means getting to spend four hours with your teen. I honestly can't think of a better way to enjoy a Saturday morning/afternoon. I look forward to the day when I get to share my love of cooking with my future children.

Here's a recap of what I learned/took away:

• It felt so good to be back in the kitchen! For me, cooking is familiar and therapeutic.
  
• I forgot how hot it is to wear pants, close-toed non-slip black shoes and a long sleeved shirt in the summertime!
  
• For something that tastes so simple and delicate, making the perfect pasta is a true art.
  
• Patience is incredibly admirable.
• For a greener pesto sauce, work with cold ingredients and add basil at the very end.
• Nothing tastes better than a made-from-scratch meal...That you cooked!

Last Thursday, July 12th, a good friend and I took a Spanish cheese and wine course at Murray's Cheese on Bleeker Street. For $65/person, you get to sample approximately nine cheeses, and the best part is...each cheese was paired with a different Spanish wine!The course started at 6:30 p.m. and lasted until 8:00 p.m. There were two instructors; Murray's Wholesale Manager and a representative from a Spanish wine distributor. Both women were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The cheese and wine pairings went beautifully together. I was amazed at how lovely blue cheese tastes with sherry! I highly recommend any one of Murray's Cheese education courses!