Cooking in Style

Have you ever wished you had a Chef's kitchen -- complete with Bosch, Gaggenau or La Cornue ranges with 6-8 burners, three ovens, two sinks, and the highest end cookware to complement it?! Well, I know a couple of people with exceptionally stylish kitchens, but they're too far away for me to enjoy them very often. However, I have found a great location for cooking classes in a stylish environment and with every type of high-end appliance to whet your appetite.

The Purcell Murray Culinary Lifestyle Center is located in Huntington Beach, CA. They are distributor of premium kitchen and bath products in a gleaming and breathtaking 9,000 square-foot showroom, open by appointment only. http://www.purcellmurray.com/

Their approach to cooking combines learning delicious seasonal recipes while using the latest in applicance technology. The Center coordinates group or private culinary classes in the day or evening featuring a stable of professional chefs and industry professionals (from Williams-Sonoma or chefs with their own private cooking/catering companies). The Chefs prepare, cook, demonstrate and present wonderful meals for the audience of eager appetites.

The class we attended a couple of weeks ago was entitled "Upscale Surf & Turf," prepared by Chef Linda Steidel. The menu consisted of:

Spinach-Bacon Salad, Black Pepper Seared Filet Mignon, Caesar Dressing

Crab Cakes, Celery Root Remoulade

Sourdough Bread, Garlic Butter

Dried Apricot Bread Pudding, Powered Sugar

Linda had prepped a lot of the ingredients so we were not involved with the minutae of chopping, shredding, searing, etc. We did, however, benefit from her years of cooking experience and learned shopping and preparation shortcuts, ideas for substitutions in a menu, favorite food products and where to find them at the most reasonable price, plating presentation hints, etc. And all of the cooking was done in this high-tech and wonderfully modern setting, which was surprisingly informal and friendly. In the end we all were given the opportunity to sample each dish.

In the next issue, I will share the recipe for the bread pudding as it was too good not to share.

In the meantime, Happy Cooking