Bread, Anyone?
I’m on a new adventure: how to experience my home territory in fresh, fun and inspiring ways. As a part of that, I happened onto an e-mail announcing cooking classes at our very own, newly renovated Sur La Table store in Carmel. Quite a few classes caught my eye: Coastal Italian Flavors, Risotto: Classic Autumn Flavors, Global Doughnuts. I ultimately chose Rustic European Breads. I was impressed.
The teaching kitchen was spacious, open and light. Everything had been prepped and set up beautifully. All 10 students received black aprons for use during the potentially flour-flying class.
With only two hours to bake three kinds of breads–Italian Rosemary and Roasted Garlic Focaccia, Rustic Dutch Oven French Bread and Crispy Italian Breadsticks (plus making our own butter!), the teacher–Chef Bill–had to be very prepared and organized. He was. For certain breads, he had prepared one batch of dough the night before. During class, we were all a part of creating other batches of dough from scratch.
The most fun part was the making of the breadsticks. Easy, fast, good. And then to eat them hot and fresh out of the oven–ah, yes. The focaccia brought back memories of all the focaccias I had had at family gatherings–not homemade, though, but from a special San Francisco North Beach Ligurian bakery. But now I can do my own!
When there were only ten minutes left in the two-hour class, all of the breads were ready to come out of the oven. Voilà! And we were all ready to taste our creations. We were not disappointed. That Dutch Oven French Bread had a crisp crust and was the perfect base for our class-made butter. The breadsticks were good and cheesy and the focaccia was rosemary-and-olive oil rich.
I left class with a box of baked bread, a set of workable recipes, and a desire to take more classes and bake more bread. Are you tempted? Who knows? There might be a Sur La Table store, or another cooking school, near you, offering classes for your culinary inspiration.
Ah Lynn! You always inspire me. Your descriptions of the bread making class make me want to jump right in to that experience. I will look at their website and maybe sign up for one of the classes. Such fun to have an edible take home project!
I think you’d enjoy it! And I’m just about to make the Dutch Oven bread on my own. That should be “interesting.”
All I have to say is…..YUM!!!!!!!!!!
Indeed!
What time is dinner? Hahahaha!
How fun this is! I have done this before and it is so rewarding!
Bon Appetit!
Ha ha! I can see you taking and enjoying cooking classes! Such fun to learn something with new folks. A win-win, I’d say.
Ooh, this inspires me to see what our Sur le Table has to offer. I loved when Doug and I participated in an Italian meal prep at Savory Spoon in Door County a few years ago. We then duplicated the meal with old friends, each bringing one part of the menu. We ate on the condo roof top garden. It was a success and so much fun. Tonight we’re expanding a Green Chef meal from 2-4. A few more Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, ground beef and feta. Easy and ever so yummy. Green Chef’s sauces are delicious! Isn’t food fun? Love your blog, Lynn. Miss you two.
I love your Savory Spoon adventure and then the creative rendition you and friends did at home. Way to go! And your Green Chef sounds good, too. Ah, yes…food. What a gift!
I’m sold! Fortunately, I can take a class at the same Sur Le Tab. I’m going to check the website right now. Thanks for the inspiration!
My pleasure! And it could be fun to take one together, too🤗