One thing I really liked was that the Christmas in Chocolate Hell was an in-depth topic while Nouveau Noel contrasted by being an encompassing culinary breadth event.  Those of us that attended each event were able to get a taste of both directions without having to cram it all into a single night.  I’d like to try to continue this, where we have two cooking events in a month- one for breadth and another for depth in a narrower subject.

As a quick recap for those of you who were unable to attend either of the cooking events, I'll summarize what we did. Christmas in Chocolate Hell was a twelve-hour session in which I taught the attendees the joys and horrors of working with chocolate couverture and molding chocolates. I'm not fucking around here, ladies, this ain't the melt-and-mold crap that scrap-bookers get at Michael's. Every single mold was a success and everyone went home exhausted and filthy, but laden with chocolates. Awesome job, guys. Our Nouveau Noel was our official neoclassic Christmas dinner. We had turkey brined in a complex solution with over twenty different ingredients. Other highlights include braised celery, truffled mashed potatoes, flavorful wild rice, classic oyster stuffing, pecan pie, citrus & spice cranberry compote, and mulled wine. This was not one to miss, and I know the attendees agree!

Enough dwelling in the past, though, I would like to announce the topic for January and February’s meetings.  We’ve tossed around doing an Asian fusion month, and I think that would be a great idea.  I have been to so-called “Asian fusion” restaurants and have seen it done well, and not-so-well.  There’s a difference between a delightful melding of styles (a la Wolfgang Puck) and a clumsy clusterfuck of mish mashed ingredients (Ah Sin in Vegas).   I believe it would be more logical to de-fuse some of those cuisines before we fuse anything so that we have a better foundation palette from which to work in a fusion month.

Drum roll, please!  For January, we will be running with an Asian theme.   For our no-cleanup gathering, we will be going to my favorite Thai restaurant, Bangkok Pavilion on Sunday, January 14th at 6:00.  Contact me for directions.  Our breadth meeting on January 20th will be a pan-Asian free-for-all.  Post your dish suggestions in the forum, and be prepared to know whether they are Cantonese, Thai, Szechuan, Japanese, etc. and what characteristics make them so.  That might require an extra ten minutes of research, but hey, at least it’s not a book report, guys.  For our in-depth meeting on January 27th, Warren will be the Iron Chef and teach us something specific from the realm of Japanese cooking.

Next month, take out your berets and snotty attitudes because February will be our introduction to French cuisine!  On February 10th, we will have our Francais Classique night, so start thinking about your favorite, or even cliché, French foods.  On February 17th, our focused cooking meeting will be on French sauces.  I will be teaching that one unless we can find a more experienced sauce expert in the meantime.  This could be you!  For our no-cleanup gathering, we’ll head to Cassis or Café Provence on February 24th.  Both are Patrick Quillec’s restaurants and will be a great window into classic French faire with a contemporary flair.

I look forward to seeing all of you in the coming weeks!  Thank you for a great December!

--Josh