Saturday’s Class
Flavor Fundamentals. Two of the the three hours were classroom lecture. The instructor had been an instructor at Western Culinary Institute for 15 years before joining Oregon Culinary Institute soon after they started this past April.
The instuctor/chef knew his stuff and filled the two hour lecture with almost too much to absorb. Copious notes were taken, in case my brain overflowed.. 
The final hour was spent in one of their huge kitchen labs, tasting soups. The chef’s assistant had prepared two simple soups, a tomato and a mixed squash, without *any* salt or extra flavorings. Both soups were set up in small bowls for tasting, starting with no salt and then increasing amounts until oversalted in the chef’s opinion. It was amazing to me to see what folks considered properly salted. We even had one young lady who thought the oversalted bowl was the best. For me, it was the realization that even a bit of salt can do wonders for the soups. The difference between no salt and just a touch was amazing.
The assistant had also set out 20-25 bowls of various flavorings. Everything from basil and cilantro, to lemon and lime wedges, to chipotle paste, to bacon and andouille sausage pieces and just about everything in between that you could think of adding to a soup. We ladled up bowls of either soup from the big stock pots and had a ball flavoring and tasting.
The class ended in front of one of the big gas stoves, while the chef/instructor roasted and ground spices for a curry mixture and then final questions. Way too much information for just a short time and really too many questions, but the chef told us to go home and experiment and I think I will.
And we learned that the schools has a public restaurant open. The website only mentions the lunch sitting, but the assistant told us they now have a single afternoon sitting starting at 2pm. A four-course prix fixe menu for $9/person. An equivalent meal at one of Portland’s fancier restaurants would cost more than $30/person. The Winter Lunch Menu (pdf file) looks delicious.
Was the class worth the $45? Most certainly. Now I can hardly wait for March to roll around. Three saturdays in a row and all heavily kitchen focused. Maybe I’ll dig through their class listings again and see what sounds interesting for February… 
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MollyBee wrote:
Sounds like a great class with lots of information. My boss just lent me Alton Brown’s “I’m Just Here For The Food” book which explains the ’science’ of cooking. After cooking for years, I running across lots of surprising information. You might want to take a look. It’s pretty good. Have a great Sunday!
Posted on 28-Jan-07 at 10:20 am | Permalink
Charlotte wrote:
Glad the class turned out so well.
Posted on 28-Jan-07 at 2:32 pm | Permalink
MMario wrote:
sounds like a great class - and with the lab following; wow! also a prime lesson in how to make a basic sauce/stock into a variety of different dishes with the addition of minor elements that take it in different directions.
Posted on 30-Jan-07 at 5:56 am | Permalink
Suz wrote:
I’d been meaning to come over and see if you’d written about your cooking class. It sounds like you enjoyed yourself and learned a lot, how wonderful!
The sourdough bread in the more recent posts looks so yummy.
I’ve never asked, have you been watching Top Chef? I’m looking forward to the finale tonight.
~Suz~
Posted on 31-Jan-07 at 4:35 pm | Permalink
Bridget wrote:
I’ve been following your blog for a *long* time - great work. As for the cooking class, I did something similar here in CA- yes, salt does amazing things for taste - I believe that the Na in NaCl opens up receptors on our tongue and allows some of the other chemicals to interact - actually, I was amazed at how much salt one really did need to have a ‘properly seasoned’ dish.
As for tasting and smelling all the stuff, we did that too - we did it in order of quality - for example, butter by butter fat content, cocoa by cocoa content, balsamic vinegar by acidity percentage…..really makes a huge difference in the taste and small things with regards to quality can make a huge difference in your cooking.
Thanks for the updates - Bridget
Posted on 01-Feb-07 at 6:20 pm | Permalink