When I found out that the chef at one of my favorite restaurants in the world, Solvang’s Bacon and Brine, was offering cooking classes, I was ecstatic. Here was my chance to sharpen my kitchen skills and maybe pick up some creative recipe tips to impress friends with the next time they were over for dinner. There was only one small problem.
I was too old.
Starting on Feb. 28, Bacon and Brine owners Chef Pink DeLongpré and her wife, Courtney Rae DeLongpré, began offering classes for children ages 8 to 12 for $40 per class. The class features a chance to learn some of the very same classic French techniques Chef Pink herself learned 17 years ago as a culinary student, only modified for smaller hands.
I spoke to Chef Pink (and restrained from crying, “Why can’t I take a class!”) about what prompted her to launch the four-week course and what aspiring chefs could expect from her tutelage.
Pink said that she and her wife always wanted to offer something education-based for the community, long before they decided to open their own restaurant. A trip to the Midland School’s organic garden in Los Olivos for a presentation to middle schoolers ignited the idea.
“That was so inspiring,” Chef Pink said of the visit. “They were so excited to learn. That was really a big eye-opener for me.”
She said their own daughter, 8-year-old Hazel, was a major inspiration to start the class.
“She really has a healthy connection to what food is,” Chef Pink said. “I said, ‘Let’s start teaching kids something they can take home to their parents.’”
But where to begin with youngsters who are just beginning to learn basic life skills?
“We’re starting from where I started from, with French basics,” Chef Pink said. “These are things they can utilize and take home and expand upon.”
She said the goal is to teach simple recipes for dishes like chocolate mousse, roast chicken, or vinaigrette that kids can replicate with readily available ingredients in their own homes.
In the class I participated in, students had the opportunity to learn how to make a simple quiche, with romanesco (a tasty alternative to broccoli, Chef Pink explained to the kids) and cheese.
“The first rule is there is no ‘I can’t,’” Chef Pink declared to the class.
She then taught them basic kitchen safety rules, such as being careful with sharp instruments and proper hand washing methods.
From there, the students began with two eggs, some cheese, and a large bowl.
“Eggs is a fun word,” Chef Pink told the group huddled around her prep table. “They’re called ‘oeufs’ in French.”
As I watched one of the best chefs in California teach a 10-year-old a French technique to break an egg (cracking it on a flat surface rather than the edge of a bowl or glass helps prevent shells in the mix), I wondered how many of these smiling kids truly grasped the magnitude of what they were a part of. It’s like having Meryl Streep pop by your junior high school production of Grease to give you a quick lesson in diction. I’ll admit I watched with eagle eyes, trying to pick up any trick that might give my own mediocre quiches a boost in flavor or technique.
Chef Pink taught them how to properly read a measuring cup and how to beat eggs for a quiche, with “little circles, in and out of the egg.” She gave them basic lessons that every chef starts with, like when it comes to salt, “You can always add more but you can never take away.”
Next, she presented them with pre-made balls of cold dough, cautioning them to not overwork them because of the butter in the mixture.
“Butter melts from the temperature of your hand,” she said. “So you want to be careful touching your dough too much.”
“It looks like I’m doing a little CPR on it,” Maddeline Cruikshank, 10, said when pressing her dough into the quiche mold.
Kaiden Kurowski, 11, was fired up about the opportunity to do some hands-on cooking in a working restaurant.
“I think food is everything,” he said. “The aroma, the flavors, all of it. I love it.”
Looking across the faces of these attentive youngsters, all of them eagerly smiling and laughing, turning simple kitchen tasks into fun games, I was struck by how effortless it all seemed. Food, once cooked on crude fires built in the ground, has lately become elevated to towering levels of esoteric absurdity, complicated by an overabundance of intellectualism and pedantic scrutiny. In the effort to educate the general public about the intricate art and detail behind the work of many talented chefs, it’s easy to forget the childlike joy of feeling cold dough pressed between your fingers, or the sheer delight of hearing the sound of an egg crack.
I could let go of my envy for these children getting the chance to learn firsthand from an expert, but I probably won’t stop longing to return to a time when the word “oeufs” was giggle-worthy.
Rebecca Rose has eaten her body weight in Bacon and Brine sandwiches. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
If you’re like and most of the people I know, you were probably deathly ill the last week or so with what I can only describe as Ebola on steroids. If it has worked its way out of your system, this is the weekend to get out and enjoy what you missed when you were cooped up in your sick bed. If not, then enjoy that extra helping of chicken soup.
• The Orthodox Church of the Annunciation is hosting an Ethnic Food Fair March 11. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., attendees can sample Mediterranean and Eastern European food; learn about handcrafts; and watch a demonstration of Ukranian Pysanky, an egg decorating technique. The church is located at 877 Francine Lane in Santa Maria.
• Think you’re smarter than me? Prove it at Trivia Night every Friday night at Sevtap Winery from 7:30 to 9 p.m. OK, I’m not there every Friday night, but if I am and I beat you, you have to buy me a glass of wine. If you beat me, you get to buy me a glass of wine. I call it a win-win night out. Bring your thinking cap to 1622 Copenhagen Drive in Solvang.
• My fiancé and I go to Yanagi Sushi in Santa Maria all the time but we just discovered the venue’s Nabeyaki U-Don bowl. A generous portion of vegetables and fish (including fresh mussels) are served in broth with noodles and a fresh cracked egg. The broth is really the star here, a subtle balance of seafood and earthiness you don’t want to miss. Yanagi is located at 2431 S. Broadway in Santa Maria.
This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2017.