A planning meeting for the the Culinary Arts group will be on Thursday, March 12, 10:00 AM at Carolyn Stieber’s home. To be included in the plans for the six meetings,
and if you are interested in participating in this group, you are urged to attend.
The recent shift in the focus of the EPWC Culinary Arts group has allowed us to examine the work of notable chefs/cookbook authors. As a group, we can sample a great variety of dishes made from the recipes of the selected authors and discuss the methods used in the recipe. We can use this information to improve the meals we serve.
In the past, we have learned from cookbook authors such as Thomas Keller, Julia Child, James Beard, Michael Chiarello, Ina Garten, Jacques Pepin, Alice Waters, Dorie Greenspan and Diana Kennedy.
There are several reason to use the cookbooks of accomplished chefs: to learn about the great variety of foods that we can use to expand our ‘food pallet‘, to broaden our awareness of the many ways food can be prepared, and have the opportunity to sample a variety of dishes. We meet six times a year, on the second Thursday of the month, in February, April, June, August, October and December.
At the March planning meeting, members will select the month they wish to host. We plan a year in advance. Two people can work together to plan an meeting.
How it works:
For example, at the February meeting the April hostesses (the month of the next meeting) will identify the cookbook author/cookbook to be used. The hostesses identify the recipes or the categories they have selected. Members draw from prepared slips to see which dish they will bring to the next (April) meeting. The space limitations of our homes means that we may have to limit the number of people who can attend.
Going forward, when it is your turn to host our group, please select one chef/cookbook that covers your topic. With internet resources the recipes and ideas of any chef/cookbook author can be found so purchasing a book is not required. This does require more effort and planning but the results and the experiences are much more satisfying.
From my experiences in this type of endeavor, there is a danger of falling into a ‘pot-luck’ type of group rather than maintaining a group that uses cookbooks as resources. To prevent that from happening, I suggest that we need to be specific about a cookbook/chef that deals with the topic we are interested in. By selecting and using a cookbook/chef that has the authority, experience and skills, we learn more about the selected topic. It also gives us a common ground to use when discussing recipes and food preparation techniques. One reason our recent ‘meeting’ was successful ( in addition to the great company) is that we were all using the same author/cookbook and we all prepared the dishes assigned to us. We were able to discuss and evaluate our dish and the recipe we used because we had a common ‘ground’.