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DTH/JESSICA NEWFIELD
Anne Everitt (left) demonstrates one of her soup-making techniques in front of her class in Panzanella's
kitchen. She is considering creating a series of classes to better fit college students' schedules.
Pleasing
For most college students, the extent of dorm room culinary capabilities is Ramen, Easy Mac and the
elusive (and forbidden) George Foreman grill. But you can’t live like this for long, and a meal for a
special someone can’t always consist of different microwaveable pastas and a hamburger patty off the
iMac-colored Foreman. But even if you do make that delectable meal, garnish can turn it from Chef
Boyardee to Chef Your-Name-Here. Here is a how-to for some simple garnishes and accent ideas.
Shaped Accents jj
> \ j All you need for this is anything that could be cut
C/' i with cookie cutters. They are a universal tool ' {
f * too often overlooked by the Food Network.
Ideas: \
A/ 1. Cut bell peppers, apple slices or anything large A S
e'nough to get a cookie cutter onto, then make them
. _ . into shapes and use as garnish. '%!
V.ltrtlS IWISt 2. Cookie-cut lunch meat, cheese and sliced bread into fun
A simple way to garnish just about little sandwiches for the kiddies,
anything is with a citrus twist. Whether 3. Slice potatoes, cut with cookie cutters and bake with some
it's an entree, dessert or fancy appetizer, spices for tasty, shaped fries,
a couple of twists add character and
color Smoked Salmon Rosebud
*®P*j .. .. . Don't get scared yet. This garnish is easy and can be used to
. Thinly slice an orange, lime or lemon. dress a variety of dishes , but it is u J d by caterer Matt
2. Make a cut from the rind Trexler from Salisbury to dress up salmon dip.
three-quarters of the way to the Steps-
? P ?°if n l ~ .. . , 1 • Grab a bacon-looking strip of smoked salmon, and after
3. Take the slice on either side of the cut "V | aying it f | at , begin roNing tight ,
and twist in opposite directions. 2. Pull lightly from middle of roll to shape into a more
4. Repeat as desired. H bud-like shape.
3. Grab non-poisonous leaves (if it's a rose leaf, even better) to
place rosebud onto.
Strawberry Fans 4 - p|ace leaves and rosebud around food or on top for a fancy
Easy way to make a fruit plate, fruity touck
alcoholic concoction, dinner plate or just .
about anything a little prettier. ' sMk
ste P s: Cucumber Canoe //
1. Find a decent sized strawberry not a c „„, u„l , ......
. . . . ’ Ever look at a veggie tray and think it just / ' '
huge misshapen one or a little runt. u \ '
i cu„, .i. , ... , . , looks boring? The cucumber canoe wi be f
2. Slice 3to 4 slits from the tapered end of u„ i. , . , . J \
.. . . r sure to be the focal point of party s \ A^S^^
the berry to close to the leaves. u•_ A, . ’ . . /I
... .. . discussion as it is edible and purposeful
3. Carefully pull and extend the folds, $ teDS . ggjSgjiWy
making them fan out. 1. Find'a huge cucumber.
u w erever you wan 2 slice off a section of the cucumber lengthways, making a
#flat surface for it to sit on.
3. Slice a long C-shaped cut into the other side of the cucumber, making a eye
shape, and remove the section. Be careful to not cut through the
bottom of the cucumber.
4. Set cucumber on flat side and fill the middle of the cucumber with ranch
dressing or whatever veggie dip you choose.
CONTENT BY KRISTEN WILLIAMS
DESIGN BY BETH GALLOWAY AND GARY BARRIER
Thursday, Apt it ii : 00.’ ■
Classes Weave Together Cooking, Art
Everybody eats. Whether you slave
over a hot stove and let your dinner
simmer to perfection or just swing
by the Top of Lenoir or the McDonald’s
drive-through, cooking plays a fundamen
tal role in your dining experiences.
It’s no surprise, then, that more people
are seeking out cooking lessons to make
their own dining more enjoyable, to
acquire an essential life skill
or even to flex a little of their
creative muscle.
Anne Everitt, a pastry baker at Weaver
Street Market, teaches a series of five two
hour cooking classes in the kitchen of
Panzanella, a new-wave Italian restaurant
in Carr Mill Mall. Everitt said that because
of the rising demand for her classes among
college students, she is considering teach
ing an additional series of classes to fit
their schedules.
The classes focus on basic cooking tech
niques, beginning with knife skills and
leading into creative root vegetable cook
ing and soup-making.
Geared toward beginners, the series
aims to leave them with skills they can
apply to new situations. “If you don’t know
anything about cooking, you can take the
class,” Everitt said. “I find a lot of people in
need of some basic cooking skills.”
She cited as an example the class on knife
skills, in which students leam fundamental
concepts like cutting vegetables into same
sized pieces so that they will cook evenly.
Everitt emphasized the importance of
her students leaving the class not only
understanding how to work through spe
cific recipes but also knowing how to use
basic skills like slicing and
dicing to tackle new things.
“I try to teach people how
to work without a recipe and
to not be afraid to find a
recipe and attack it,” she said.
According to Rebecca
Lawson, a local jazz dance
teacher who just finished the
series, Everitt was successful
in this aim.
“The class was helpful in
giving me more confidence
about how to cook without a
recipe and how to play with
food,” she said.
To make sure all her stu
dents achieve this goal, Everitt
said she lets them do a great
deal of cooking and leam skills
through experimentation. “I
do very little demonstration,”
the Palate
Restaurants lining Franklin
Street strike a balance of
maintaining taste standards
and taking creative liberties.
Many people tend to think that only
two ingredients - tasty food and
sanitary utensils - are required
for a restaurant to garner a well-known
reputation.
But behind all the shiny sil
verware and fanciful entrees,
a whole other world of culinary creativity
exists to make restaurants visually and aes-
DTH/KATE MELLNIK
Chris Adams, a chef at Aurora,
prepares the baked trout special.
Page 5
she said. “The class is very hands-on.”
Working in a group environment is an
added perk because it allows students to
leam from one another as they venture
into uncharted territory with new recipes.
“The students get to work with a lot of
people and see each others’ techniques,”
Everitt said.
While teaching a cooking class serves a
practical purpose, Everitt
said, she is conscious of the
importance of incorporating
By Caroline Lindsey
Staff Writer
aesthetics into her culinary endeavors.
“I consider myself more of a creative per
son than an artist, by any means,” she said.
“But it’s important to the taste buds to have
something that looks good and tastes good.”
Likewise looking at cooking from an
artistic angle, the Carrboro Arts Center is
offering cooking
classes in coopera
tion with local restau
rants. The classes,
covering Italian cui
sine, bread-baking
and vegetarian cook
ing, incorporate aes
thetic appeal into
skills and recipes.
“We consider cui-
sine to be a fine art,” said Mary Ruth, the
coordinator of the classes. “There’s a lot of
creativity that goes into putting ingredients
together to make food.”
Dilip Barman, who teaches the class on
vegetarian cooking, emphasized the impor
tance of making food pleasing to the eye.
“I think that food is far more than what
you put into your mouth,” he said.
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£34 f t i
DTH/JESSICA NEWFIELD
Anne Everitt browses through the day's fresh produce at
Weaver Street Market, where she works as a pastry chef.
thetically appealing to customers.
Carolina Crossroads’ chef Brian
Stapleton said chefs play the largest role in
restaurants’ day-to-day attempts to estab
lish consumer appeal. “Chefs are the focal
point of a restaurant from a marketing
point of view,” Stapleton said. “From most
guests’ perspective, the success of a restau
rant is equated with its chef.”
A graduate of the California Culinary
Academy in San Francisco, Stapleton’s
background, like many chefs,
includes professional training.
But John Tate, a pastry
By Jenise Hudson
Staff Writer
chef at II Palio, said it isn’t always neces
sary that chefs go to culinary school in
order for them to do their jobs well.
In fact, Tate said he landed his job at II
Palio by coincidence.
“I became friends with a guy that used
to be the sous chef, and one day he asked
me if I wanted a job,” Tate said. “Then one
day the old pastry chef asked if I’d be wil
ing to take over. It’s been a big learning
experience."
Tate said a large part of his learning has
come from watching other chefs in action.
He said one instance in particular taught
him what not to prepare for
the restaurant.
“One time this guy did this
bright green cream sauce for
Saint Patrick’s Day that looked
like it came from the
Caribbean,” Tate said.
While Stapleton and Tate
woo their guests with lavish entrees, chefs
Dave Allworth of Four Eleven West and
Patrick Cowden of Michael Jordan’s
Restaurant-23 said they prefer a more
relaxed approach.
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Dave Barry's wit to the big screen with an ail-star
cast featuring Tim Taylor, Rene Russo and king
"Jackass,” Johnny
i |
“There’s a philosophy to it.”
Centered around the philosophy of veg
etarian cuisine, Barman said, his class
gives students the opportunity to work
with a wide variety of foods. For artistic
flair, he teaches them how to use to color
to enhance the food’s aesthetic appeal.
“Using purple or blue potatoes will add
a whole new experience to what you eat,”
he said.
He also emphasized encouraging his
students to leam new things by violating
recipes and experimenting.
“If (the recipe) calls for an onion, try
using a shallot, for example,” he said.
Barman said that culinary art begins
with recognizing cooking as a necessity and
that his talent for working well with food
originated in its routine presence in his life
“We consider cuisine to be a fine
art. There’s a lot of creativity
that goes into putting ingredients
together to make food. ”
Mary Ruth
Carrboro Art Center's ArtSchool Director
the idea of cooking as a basic life skill.
Many of his students have minimal expe
rience but simply want to improve their
skills in order to eat out less.
Rebecca Sowder, a freshman environ
mental science major at UNC, is enrolled
in Barman’s class and said it has already
benefited her. “I’ve already tried cooking
for my family and friends and I think I’ve
learned a lot,” she said.
She added that she had
some cooking experience when
she signed up for the class but
that she has learned a lot of
new things about presentation.
“Dilip really emphasizes col
orful dishes, and at the end of
the meal we put everything on
the plate in a proper way to
make it aesthetically pleasing.”
For some people it’s a neces
sity; for others, it’s an art form.
But with so much room for
experimentation in such a prac
tical skill, learning to cook is
bound to add a little flavor to
life.
The Arts & Entertainment
Editor can be reached
at artsdesk@unc.edu.
“We’re a casual, fun place,” said
Allworth. “(Four Eleven West) is a friend
ly neighborhood restaurant, and we do
pretty good business."
Allworth said he makes an effort to use
local produce in his dishes to bring the
restaurant’s neighborly feel full circle. “I try
my best to get local produce because it adds
PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL
JORDAN'S RESTAURANT-23
Michael Jordan’s 23-Restaurant, Cowden,
who is the general manager, said he likes
to keep the presentation of his dishes rela
tively simple. “Sometimes people build
dishes a mile high, and while that kind of
looks cool, the reality is that people come
to eat the dish," Cowden said.
But Cowden said his knack for practi
cality in presentation doesn’t keep him
from creating dishes that are complex and
visually appealing. “1 would describe my
presentation style as artistic and somewhat
fj'
PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL
JORDAN'S RESTAURANT-23
sented in a beautiful way, then people are
going to be looking forward to enjoying it”
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be
reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
rather than a need
for a creative oudet.
“It’s a matter of
centering around
food,” he said. “It’s
the highest priority
in life.”
He said the
importance of food
in everyday life goes
hand in hand with
to the friendly
nature (of Four
Eleven West),”
he said.
In catering
to the elegant
yet subtle
atmosphere of
color-coordinated,” he said.
Aurora’s sous-chef Scott
Dunlap said it is simple atten
tion to presentation details
that help to make food visu
ally appealing. “I think pre
sentation is very important,"
Dunlap said. “If food is pre-