This weekend was busy, fun…and much too short. Saturday morning found me cranking out beignets in preparation for NYC (dessert is one of my responsibilities at the James Beard dinner). For Brian, I wont be making beignets exactly- the dessert Im set to produce is “Bambolini (an Italian donut) with Mascarpone & Citrus Confit”. Kind of the same thing? Well, slightly…they have their similarities. In any case, the plan is to make his recipe later in the week to practice for the big event. Oh and also, Ill post the beignet recipe/ pictures from this weekend as soon as I can get to it.

Besides cooking, there was hiking and photographing, interviews (Chef Fuller @ Spring Hill), writing, a dose of Bikram yoga, some homework…and admittedly, a bit too much drinking. Im blaming my excess of alcohol consumption on my lovely pal Vanessa. We re in school at LCB together, so going out means making merry in light of another weeks worth of culinary classroom chaos…and well, perhaps it also means overdoing it.

Monday, Monday….Chef Knaup demonstrated a couple different cooking techniques- saute & deep frying. I like a saute…dont care for a fry. He expertly cooked up a delicious dish consisting of sauteed chicken thighs with a mustard & porcini mushroom pan sauce (enjoyable- to eat & to watch done). Fried chicken was also made for folks to nosh on (not as enjoyable to eat but fun to watch).

Cutting boards in place, chef knives at the ready. The task was to cisseler (finely chop) and saute an onion before presenting it to the Chef for a grade. Simple enough.