“I made your recipe, but I changed it and now it’s better,” said a customer. How so? “Well, I didn’t read the recipe, but just put all of the ingredients together in a pot and cooked it. So I didn’t realize until later that I was supposed to roll the nuts in sugar.” Ah, the challenge […]

French foods are back in style, finally! Our historically-French city now has several French restaurants: Brasserie and Chez Leon (their chefs teach cooking classes at Kitchen Conservatory), plus Atlas, Cafe Provencal, Franco, and Pomme. Julia Child would be so happy that we are rediscovering her favorite foods (only two spots are available for our Julia class […]

Say what? Banh xeo! These irresistable Vietnamese crepes, pronounced bunn SAY-oh, are a crispy thin pancake filled with flavor. Although no one in the cooking class had ever heard of them, banh xeo was the favorite recipe in our recent crepe class. This crepe is made without the traditional ingredients of eggs, milk, or flour, but tastes […]

“I was pleased to sample the bouillabaisse last night when I was at a cake decorating class– I would love the recipe if at all possible. It was simply delicious!!!!” Chef-instructor Katy Colson taught an international soup class that included Vietnamese bouillabaisse. Traditionally, bouillabaisse is a French fish soup flavored with saffron, tomato, parsley, and garnished with a spicy mayonaisse […]

Crepes are sunshine: round, yellow, and hot. On a dreary February day, think of the sun and eat crepes! My first taste of a crepe au Grand Marnier was taught to me by an eight-year-old French boy, who declared them to be his favorite! Crepes are street food in Paris and the kiosks always have a bottle of […]

Mardi Gras is a great excuse to indulge in favorite New Orleans dishes. Load up on fresh oysters and prepare a sumptuous dish, Oysters Rockefeller, which was named after the richest man because the dish is so rich. The fresh oysters in the shell are twice sauced: spinach-pernod and creamy cheese sauces. The best knives […]

The “Let’s Eat” section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured an article by Shirley Corriher about pound cake, which drew a lot of attention. She calls for baking the cake in a pullman bread pan, because the right-angle sides (most bread pans have slanted sides) produce a pretty dessert when the slices are cut on […]

Simple, hearty foods can be turned into gourmet treats with one simple addition: lobster. Fold in some lobster meat to such comfort-food favorites as macaroni-and-cheese or mashed potatoes or risotto or pot pie and everyone wants to eat! An elderly customer told me yesterday, “I bought a live lobster and while I was driving home, it broke out of the […]

Cooking from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a joy. We just finished a four-week class, “The Best of Julia Child” (next session starts on May 6 and only a few spaces are still available) and the hands-down-most-favorite-recipe was soubise. None of the classtakers had ever heard of this fabulous side dish, […]

Hot air is dramatic, especially when caught in a web of custard. This beautiful, thrilling sweet souffle is the easiest and fastest dessert to get a “wow” response. First, make a sabayon sauce (egg yolks, sugar, and alcohol cooked in a double boiler). You could stop there and just eat the delicious sauce on berries. […]