Nate Berkus Gets An Insiders View Of The Darby With Alex Guarnaschelli

July 11, 2011 By 3 Comments
The Darby - Nate and Chef Alex in the Kitchen

Darby NateChefAlex Kitchen 150x150 Nate Berkus Gets An Insiders View Of The Darby With Alex Guarnaschelli Dur­ing the New York City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val, I was thrilled to have the oppor­tu­nity to attend a mas­ter cook­ing class with Food Network’s Chef Alex Guar­naschelli which was held at New York City’s hottest sup­per club, The Darby. As you may know, Chef Guar­naschelli is not only the exec­u­tive chef at But­ter, but also is at the helm of The Darby. In my opin­ion, this mas­ter cook­ing class was one of the high­lights of fes­ti­val and I can’t even begin to tell you how it affected my cook­ing. Hav­ing the oppor­tu­nity to learn from Chef Guar­naschelli is one of those expe­ri­ences that will stay with you for a life­time. Not only is she kind and gra­cious, she’s a phe­nom­e­nal chef and teacher.

The Darby was a show­stop­per as well. I have to tell you – when you see the inte­rior of the restau­rant, be pre­pared to pick your jaw up off of the floor – the chan­de­liers alone are breath­tak­ing! No detail was over­looked.  From the deep red inte­rior, the ceil­ing detail­ing, the plates and seltzer bot­tles and, espe­cially, the menu.  The Darby has a vibe that brings you back in time to days where socialites and styl­ishly suited men social­ized while enjoy­ing a cock­tail (or three!)

Nate Berkus recently vis­ited The Darby to get an insider’s view from Chef Guar­naschelli and even vis­ited the kitchen to whip up her Wal­dorf Salad (ahhh – now that is a retro recipe!) and took some amaz­ing pics!   Nate always knows how to pick a styl­ish spot!

[Pic­ture and video cour­tesy of The Nate Berkus Show]

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Fab Friday Returns to Cooking In Stilettos

April 8, 2011 By 2 Comments

Ahh – we’re FINALLY back on sched­ule and the Fab Fri­day has returned… This is going to be quite the week­end as I have some really inter­est­ing culi­nary projects ahead, a friend’s 40th b’day cel­e­bra­tion that is sure to bring back LOTS of 80s mem­o­ries, great food, convo and cock­tails, and some work to do on Cook­ing In Stilet­tos. What do they say – when you love what you do, then it’s not work at all icon smile Fab Friday Returns to Cooking In Stilettos

Here are a few things that have cap­ti­vated me this week.

1. Speak­ing of the 80s, I swear, I should have whapped Kelly Ripa over the head YEARS ago because when she has a killer shoe, I’m like a wench on a mis­sion. Way back when, she was one of the gals on the set of a cer­tain show who always wore 3″ heels and of course, like typ­i­cal teen gals, many fol­lowed suit, myself included. When peo­ple ask how I can wear heels so high, I par­tially blame Kelly since I’ve been wear­ing tee-tottering heights since I was 15. Now that I think about it – she wasn’t the only gal on the set who had some killer shoes – so did Princess aka Heather. Heather was wear­ing fab over the knee boots WELL before Kim Kar­dashian rocked that trend. Any­how – let me stop flash­ing back to mem­ory lane and deal with the shoes at hand. A cou­ple weeks ago, Kel was rockin’ this seri­ously gor­geous Char­lotte Olympia espadrille pump and, while it was cute, I don’t think I could EVER jus­tify pay­ing over $800 for a cot­ton shoe. How­ever, when I saw these DV by Dolce Vita Flo­rence San­dals in Nude, well – it was a win win. The nude ankle strap wouldn’t cut off the leg line and it was chic and per­fect for this spring/summer 2011. Sorry Kelly – you can keep your Char­lotte Olympias – I’ll stick with these lovelies – and I’ll even have some funds left over for per­haps a Le Creuset or three.

2. Ok – this Emile Henry can­is­ter set is gor­geous. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my glass and sil­ver topped set that I’ve had since I was in Orlando but this has such a stream­lined look that would be per­fect for my one day cop­per and teal kitchen.

3. I am really enjoy­ing this quinoa kick that I am on – and when I saw this Zur­sun Black Quinoa at Williams Sonoma, well, I’m intrigued. Has any­one ever tried Black Quinoa?

4. I have been flip­ping through Aaron McCargo Jr.’s book Sim­ply Done, Well Done Fab Friday Returns to Cooking In Stilettos for a hot minute now and have flagged some recipes to try here on Cook­ing In Stilet­tos. I can’t com­mend Aaron enough – not many peeps know this but back when he had a resto in Cam­den – I hap­pened to be in town for a meet­ing and our for­mer pro­ducer took us there for lunch and the food was slam­min’! When he won NFNS – I was thrilled because the man can cook and, quite hon­estly, he’s a really really nice guy! So, if you see this out and about, pick up a copy – it’s well worth it! Con­grats Chef!

5. Jen at One Curly Fry sent me a link to COOK by Audrey Claire and I almost fell out of my chair this morn­ing. It is open­ing this sum­mer at the cor­ner of Rit­ten­house and 20th St. and it’s going to offer classes, a bou­tique, a book­store and more. Plus – the kitchen is sup­posed to be state of the art. Ummm – where do I sigh up? Look­ing for­ward to great things com­ing from COOK!

 

[Flash­back Photo cour­tesy of Chris Kelly]

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Fab Friday — Cooking In Stilettos Edition

January 28, 2011 By 5 Comments

Wow – can you believe Jan­u­ary just flew by? Well it looks like the weath­er­man was off again as I’m look­ing out the win­dow and it appears to be WELL over an inch start­ing to fall this after­noon. Seri­ously, can’t they just get a fore­cast some­what right? *sigh* so let’s leave you with some nice lovelies to gawk at as we think happy thoughts of beaches, sun­shine and cock­tails that come in coconuts…

1. These Jimmy Choo Nexus Snake­skin and Lace San­dals are beyond gor­geous! Would love these for a spe­cial night out in the city but the pric­etag – notsomuch!

2. Aren’t these Parisian Ceramic Mea­sur­ing Cups from Sur La Table adorable?

3. I have been in dire need of a Gel­Pro mat for my kitchen for a while. I adore this azure blue ostrich print ver­sion to go with my blue, choco­late and cop­per kitchen. The price is some­what daunt­ing but I think it might be needed. I just hope the sous pug stays away from it and doesn’t mis­take it for some­thing else if you get my drift *sigh*

4. Jen @ One Curly Fry has been hav­ing a blast at her classes The Restau­rant School at Wal­nut Hill Col­lege.  I have pretty much made the deci­sion that I must check out a class or three when the weather gets bet­ter. From Culi­nary Arts to Pas­try Arts, you can rest assured that they will have a class just for you.

5. Avec Eric: A Culi­nary Jour­ney with Eric Ripert Fab Friday Cooking In Stilettos Edition had me doing a dance of joy when I received this on my doorstep cour­tesy of the fab peo­ple over at Wiley. The pho­tos take you on one heck of a culi­nary jour­ney with one of the world’s top chefs and you must watch his PBS Show, Avec Eric.  It’s breath­tak­ing.  The recipes are geared to all lev­els of cook­ing and this cook­book is a trea­sure. Love Love LOVE! Now, if you ask me to choose between my Louboutins and my Avec Eric – well, don’t make me split the baby, ‘k?

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Anthony Bourdain Might Be Onto Something

July 16, 2010 By 2 Comments
Like many, I’m cur­rently engrossed in Anthony Bourdain’s lat­est book Medium Raw: A Bloody Valen­tine to the World of Food and the Peo­ple Who Cook Anthony Bourdain Might Be Onto Something and he might have an idea that I believe cur­rent school dis­tricts might want to pay atten­tion to.
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Grow­ing up, I have to con­fess, I didn’t do much cook­ing, if any.  My first recipe I remem­ber mak­ing on my own was a home­made lasagna made from a recipe off of the side of the pasta box.  My par­ents gave praise but look­ing back and remem­ber­ing my con­coc­tion of spices that I “added to the recipe,” I think my par­ents were being WAY too kind (much like when my friends and I regaled the par­ents with Bar­bie Cabaret Shows that I think I charged admis­sion to and they sat through patiently).  I remem­ber some other kitchen exper­i­ments that were attempted over the years and I’m pos­i­tive now that per­haps my idiot fiancée was cor­rect in his assump­tion that my cook­ing skills were *ahem* a bit chal­lenged (well in his words I was the worst cook to ever come near a stove but then again, he wasn’t so great either!)  Over the years, it was eas­ier to call take out than rather try to put together some­thing more chal­leng­ing than a box of mac & cheese and I admit that it wasn’t until I really started to develop an inter­est in cook­ing that I learned that I do, indeed, have a skill set for cook­ing and even some­times bak­ing.  Does that mean I’m going to open a restau­rant or some­thing along that lines – not in the least.  I leave that for the more sea­soned and trained professionals.
 
One thing I DON’T remem­ber from grow­ing up is tak­ing a cook­ing class.  While I’m sure my high school had Home Eco­nom­ics at some point or another, per­haps it was one of those elec­tives where I chose to take Span­ish (or per the direc­tive of my father – Latin) and I just didn’t see the need for learn­ing how to cook, properly vac­uum or sew.  At the time of grad­u­a­tion, I wasn’t think­ing of any­thing out­side of pos­si­bly being an enter­tain­ment lawyer (trust me, I got smarter as I got older and learned – hell to the no!) and lawyers don’t cook – they don’t have time.  I also remem­ber think­ing high school didn’t pre­pare us for much of any­thing – sure we could read and write and pos­si­bly add 2 + 2 and get 4 but I didn’t real­ize that Alge­bra would be vital for bal­anc­ing a check­book or Chem­istry would be much like cook­ing.  Long story short, I prob­a­bly could burn water if I tried.
 
Anthony Bour­dain talks about the need for chil­dren to learn to cook and how cook­ing received a bad rap.  Many of the boys wouldn’t dare take home ec due to ridicule and the stigma, while girls were expected to thrive in their “house­wife train­ing” class so, there­fore, many girls decided to protest.  If the boys didn’t have to take it, why shouldn’t the girls and the school dis­tricts caved, many not requir­ing their stu­dents to take home eco­nom­ics.  He pro­poses a manda­tory cook­ing skill set for chil­dren to learn that way they can fend for them­selves when they get older rather than rely­ing on restau­rant din­ing and takeout. 
The pro­posed culi­nary skills that chil­dren should learn include: 
  • Proper knife skills
  • How to roast a chicken
  • How to make a vinaigrette
  • How to shop for and select produce
  • How to make soups and stocks (there­fore adding fru­gal skills to the table)
  • How to filet and cook a fish
  • How to cook veg­eta­bles properly
Of course there is way more than that but I think he might be onto some­thing.  These are all skills I’m learn­ing NOW and I’m well into my 30s.  Some­where, Julia Child is lis­ten­ing and nod­ding in agree­ment, I think.
 
What skills and tech­niques do you think today’s chil­dren should learn that you did not know grow­ing up?
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Free Culinary Demonstrations From Williams-Sonoma

July 4, 2008 By 1 Comment

The sched­ule for the Culi­nary Tech­nique Classes at Williams Sonoma has been pub­lished and I can say that I will be attend­ing each and every one of these. I’ve always wanted to make my own pizza, paella fas­ci­nates me and I’m a sucker for using sum­mer fruits and veggies.

Accord­ing to their web­site, Tech­nique Classes are free of charge but space is lim­ited. Check out your local Williams Sonoma and sign up.

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JULY CALENDAR

PIZZA – Sun­day, July 13

Not all pizza comes in a box. We’ll show you how to make a pie from scratch in the kitchen and on the grill and how to get fam­ily and friends in on the fun. You’ll learn how to make a pizza dough in min­utes, how to bake it to per­fec­tion and how to wow ‘em with toppings.

PAELLA – Sun­day, July 20

Orig­i­nat­ing in Spain’s Valen­cia region, paella is a dish of saffron-infused rice cooked with var­i­ous meats, seafood and veg­eta­bles. A clas­sic Span­ish one-pot meal, learn how to make this deli­cious dish to enjoy with friends and fam­ily this sum­mer. We’ll pro­vide sev­eral paella recipes to please all crowds!

SUMMER FRUITS & VEGETABLES – Sun­day, July 27

Make the most of summer’s bounty as we guide you through our fruit and veg­etable gar­den. Learn the basics of fruit and veg­etable han­dling and stor­age, and take away excit­ing recipes that show­case our sum­mer produce.

Plus, Williams-Sonoma always holds a Demon­stra­tion Class daily. Check out their cal­en­dar of demon­stra­tion events for July.

This con­tent is pub­lished at Cook­ing in Stilet­tos. Thank you!
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Technique Classes at Williams-Sonoma…

May 29, 2008 By 4 Comments

Boy do I wish I had a Sur La Table around these parts like the one I visit in NJ with their full teach­ing kitchen, but I have to be sated with tak­ing tech­nique classes/demonstrations at Williams Sonoma. They just sent out the sched­ule yes­ter­day and this is what is on their “Menu”*

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 All-American Back­yard Party


Every­thing tastes bet­ter when it’s cooked out back. We’ll help you get ready for the sea­son of out­door eat­ing. You’ll learn how to grill juicy burg­ers, clas­sic bar­be­cue chicken and other deli­cious foods that are sure to make your back­yard bar­be­cue the hit of the block.

SUNDAY, JUNE 8 Grilling: Favorite Sum­mer Sides

Burg­ers, franks and chicken may get top billing, but we’ll show you how to grill veg­gies that’ll steal the show. Learn sim­ple ways to get the most fla­vor out of sum­mer pro­duce as we demon­strate some of our favorite sum­mer sides from the grill and from the gar­den.

SUNDAY, JUNE 29 Extreme Ice Cream

Learn a few basics, and they’ll all be scream­ing for ice cream! We’ll show you how to make your own ice cream at home that you can enjoy all sum­mer long. You’ll learn how to take basic ice cream fla­vors and trans­form them into deli­cious, deca­dent, “extreme” ice cream fla­vors that are uniquely yours.

SUNDAY, JULY 13 Pizza

Not all pizza comes in a box. We’ll show you how to make a pie from scratch in the kitchen and on the grill and how to get fam­ily and friends in on the fun. You’ll learn how to make a pizza dough in min­utes, how to bake it to per­fec­tion and how to wow them with toppings.

SUNDAY, JULY 27 Sum­mer Fruits & Vegetables

Make the most of summer’s bounty as we guide you through our fruit and veg­etable gar­den. Learn the basics of fruit and veg­etable han­dling and stor­age, and take away excit­ing recipes that show­case our sum­mer produce.

Have any of you taken a class at Williams Sonoma? Tell us about it in the comments.

*Note: I’m not sure if this is only for the Cen­tral Florida area only. Check with your local WS for details. Thanks.

This con­tent is pub­lished at Cook­ing in Stilet­tos. Thank you!
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