A “gratin” is a fancy name for a “casserole” and most gratins are layers of vegetables covered in cream. The sweet-and-spicy taste of this gratin, Sweet Potato-Chipotle, is irresistible. Originally created by Dawn Meyer for a cooking class featuring our favorite Emile Henry gratin bakeware, this easy recipe with five ingredients is always a crowd winner.

Sweet Potato-Chipotle Gratin is Number 11 on our list of the Top Thirty Recipes celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of Kitchen Conservatory. The recipe is available here.

To experience this recipe in person, register for “Date Night for Couples: The Great Steak-Out” on Friday, September 5.

The long wait is over; our famous locally-grown garlic is now available at Kitchen Conservatory. Planted last October, garlic is a nine-month crop and fresh garlic is worth the wait. Plus, our homegrown yellow shallots, which have the same nine-month growing cycle as garlic, are also available.

The best way to eat fresh garlic is to peel the cloves, place in a ramekin, submerge in olive oil, and bake at 275 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until the cloves are soft. Spread the creamy garlic on bread or potatoes and use the garlic oil for salad dressing!

Sign up for our celebration of homegrown garlic, “Dracula, Beware!” on Thursday, July 31 at 6:30 pm. Every class-taker gets a free sack of fresh garlic to take home!

Our most popular class is “Tuscany for Two” and most people sign up because the menu includes Garlic-Rosemary Rib-Eye Steak and the Shrimp-Scallop Scampi (#17 Recipe). But by the end of class, everyone is in love with the Baked Polenta with Gorgonzola, Spinach, and Mushrooms. This creamy Northern Italian delicacy features four cheeses and lots of vegetables. This polenta is so good, carnivores turn into vegetarians! Get the recipe here.

Baked Polenta is Number 12 on the Top Thirty Recipes celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of Kitchen Conservatory.

To experience our single most popular class ever, register for “Tuscany for Two” on one of these upcoming dates:

• Sunday, June 15 at 5 pm
• Sunday, August 31 at 5 pm

Most chowders are thick, rich, hearty soups seasoned with bacon and potatoes. This exceptional chowder is elegant and sophisticated for serving at a special dinner party. The texture is voluptuous. This corn soup is even delicious cold on a hot summer night. The recipe includes many variations on garnishing the soup from seafood to fresh vegetables and herbs.

Corn Chowder is Number 13 on the Top Thirty Recipes celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of Kitchen Conservatory. The recipe is available here for $1 with unlimited downloads.

To see how to make corn chowder, join us for one of these cooking classes:

• “Southern Charm” on August 6
• “The Secret Financial Life of Food” on August 17

Making creamy fresh corn off the cob requires an old-fashioned tool that both Irma Rombauer and Julia Child used: a Lee’s corn creamer.

First we discovered the lemon cream sauce, which is good, but seemed to call out for seafood. So we put seared sea scallops on top of the sauce. But such a beautiful sauce needs better treatment. So we used fresh lobster and shrimp, mixed with a little mascarpone cheese and seasonings, and stuffed into fresh pasta, which we shaped into agnolotti or ravioli. Boiled, drained, and sauced with lemon cream sauce and a Top Thirty Recipe was created.

Lobster Agnolotti in Lemon Cream Sauce is Number 14 on our list of Top Thirty Recipes celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of Kitchen Conservatory.

The recipe for the pasta, filling, and sauce is available here.

To learn how to make this sumptuous and memorable dish, join us for “A Day in the Kitchen: Pasta” on Sunday, July 13 at 11 am. Register here.

Yes, you can bake yeast rolls at home that are so much better than any commercially-produced bread. Hundreds and hundreds of people have learned how to bake bread from Margi Kahn, an accomplished baker who has taught bread classes at Kitchen Conservatory for twenty years. Her irresistible Cinnamon Rolls are a crowd favorite.

To see and taste these cinnamon buns, register for “Cinnamon Roll Models” on Wednesday, June 4 at 6 pm or Thursday, June 5 at 10 am and learn the secrets of Margi Kahn’s magic touch with yeasted breads.

Cinnamon Buns is Number 15 on our list of Top Thirty Recipes Celebrating Thirty Year Anniversary at Kitchen Conservatory. To access this recipe (only $1!), click here.

The Summer Newsletter features so many delicious cooking classes; which one to take? Here are some recommendations:

“Light Up the Night” with Frank McGinty grilling on June 12, who wowed us in his last class with his cauliflower “couscous”.

“Girls’ Night Out: Bring Your Dad to Class” on June 13 celebrates Father’s Day by letting Dads come to class. What fun!

“The Dim Sum Cart” features wonderful and authentic Chinese food with Kirk Warner on June 16.

“Greek Culture: Homemade Yogurt” with Maria Sakellariou on June 27 will forever change your view of yogurt.

“Contemporary Urban Grill” on July 2 with Mickey Kitterman will be one of our most delicious summer grilling classes.

“Queue Up for Barbecue” on July 5 features another of our favorite chefs, Bernard Pilon, out of the kitchen and at the grill.

“Blurred Lines” introduces new teachers, Karmen Rayburn and Jordan Knight, and their new restaurant, The Blue Duck, cooking creative new foods on July 9.

“The Good Taste of Culture and Fermentation” on July 17 with photographer and amateur cook Greg Rannells will be an extraordinary class on how to develop more flavorful foods by fermentation.

“Shells and Whistles” with Michael Craig of The Crossing on July 21 has a dazzling dinner of scallops and fish.

“Sea You at Dinner” on July 28 introduces chef Brandon Benack from New Orleans and now at Truffles with a creole menu.

“Dracula, Beware!” on July 31 features our homegrown hardneck garlic — we expect a bumper crop!

“Hello, Dal-I” on August 9 — if only because the title is so funny. Aruna Menon cooks an Indian menu with dal (lentils).

“Modernist Cuisine” on August 14, because our kitchen keeps on the cutting edge of food trends.

“Taste of The Tavern” on August 18 showcases a favorite restaurant and their first visit to our kitchen.

“If I’m Not in a Jam, I’m in a Pickle” with canning expert and blue-ribbon winner Josh Galliano of The Libertine on August 23.

Don’t miss a bite of our sensational cooking classes! View the full schedule here. There is a cooking class for every tastebud.

For 42 years, chef Jean-Pierre Augé has taught French cooking classes in St. Louis. Kitchen Conservatory is so fortunate that he has shared his expertise once a month, every month at Kitchen Conservatory for the last 30 years. Celebrate our anniversary by making one of our favorite recipes: Jean-Pierre’s upside-down Tomato Tarte Tatin, a scrumptious, buttery tart crust filled with caramel, roasted tomatoes, cheese, tomato fondue, and fresh herbs.

Jean-Pierre Augé is demonstrating this delicious tart on Saturday, May 10. Sign up to hear his stories and eat his tart, plus sautéed lamb on French lentils and strawberry gateau.

The recipe for Tomato Tarte Tatin is available here for $1. This tomato tart is Number 16 on our countdown of the Top Thirty Recipes at Kitchen Conservatory, celebrating our 30th anniversary.

Join us on Sunday, May 4 at 1 pm for a cooking class on mushrooms and a discussion of the excellent and very readable new book, “The Mushroom Hunters” by Langdon Cook. The author will be joining the class by telephone! Langdon Cook is an accomplished mushroom hunter and cook who investigated the murky, off-the-grid world of commercial wild mushroom foragers. “The Mushroom Hunters” is a fascinating window into a secretive world.

Since the local, wild morel mushrooms have just popped in the woods, the menu for this cooking class will include my favorite homemade pasta with morel-shallot cream sauce, plus other exotic mushroom dishes.

This Thursday, April 24 from 11 am to noon, join Anne Cori at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the Shoenberg Theater for “Spot the Imposter: Choosing the Correct Herb in Cooking.” The lecture is free, but reservations are required.

Many herbs have similar common names, but different tastes and usage. Learn all about which herb is best for which cuisine. This event is in conjunction with the annual Herb Sale at the Garden sponsored by the St. Louis Herb Society.