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 […]

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 […]

Dear Chef,  I had the pleasure of taking your seafood and fish class last Saturday (October 17), and I wanted to thank Kitchen Conservatory for a great learning experience. I was amazed how much information was packed into one day of cooking. I learned skills and information that I will carry with me from now on, […]

Planked fish is a very old style of cooking food (Lewis and Clark ate fish cooked on planks by Indians on their 1804 tour), but is still a fashionable cooking method. Aromatic cedar wood is wonderful for imparting a wonderful flavor to food. Tonight we ate cedar-planked salmon (caught by me in Lake Michigan!) topped […]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlights today a cooking class held at Kitchen Conservatory for chefs at St. Louis Thai restaurants, presented by the Thai government. The chefs from Bangkok showed the proper way to make pad Thai: palm sugar and tamarind juice — not vinegar or ketchup. The most unusual technique demonstrated was shredding and […]

After the Day in the Kitchen: Fish cooking class, the participants said their most favorite dish was fish tacos. After the four-part Culinary Skills class, the participants said that their most favorite dish was fish tacos. At a recent Iron Chef competition, the chef who made fish tacos was the winner. Fish tacos are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, […]

I have never sought the attention of clams, but never minded them when they appeared. I have scoffed at bottled clam juice, but understand that it has a purpose. When three dozen fresh clams presented themselves, my response was, maybe I should try out spaghetti with clam sauce. Wow. This dish seems to come out of […]

What’s for dinner tonight? Do you want beef, pork, or chicken? It’s easy to get in a food rut. Recently I had an extra pound of tuna that needed to be eaten. The response was, let’s put tuna in the regular rotation! Nasi goreng is an Indonesian dish that compliments any meat, chicken, or fish. […]