Cooking class

So, most everyone knows how important food is to me... sharing a meal with friends and family, pouring over cookbooks, scouring new cities for decadent cuisine I've never tasted before, spending time in the kitchen creating and discovering... I love it all. So when an opportunity came to take a cooking class at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, Cut, here in Bahrain, I jumped at the chance! 

We were greeted and welcomed into the kitchen with a glass of champagne and introductions to the kitchen staff. We worked with the executive chef, Chef Brian , the head Pastry chef, Chef Pierre, and the head soux chef, Felipe. We donned aprons and started out on the pastry side of things. 

Chef Pierre walked us through a simple Chinese donut dough. We mixed and kneaded, and kneaded and mixed our dough and set it aside to rise and moved on to the savory side of the house. 

We moved on to our next station and prepped our beef for the beef tataki. We seasoned our filets and let them rest while we mixed together a ponzu dipping sauce. 

Next we moved over to the giant stove and seared our beef. And oh, how I've missed cooking on gas! 

 

We seared our filets and let them rest while we moved on to pot stickers. The chef mixed the pot sticker mixture up for us, demonstrating what to do when we got home to recreate what we learned. It was a mix of wagyu beef, garlic, ginger, scallion, and a few other things. Once the mixture was prepped, through the miracle of a professional kitchen, we were handed some pre-made balls of mixture that they'd prepped for us beforehand. They'd also made the wrappers (rice and tapioca flour) and had cut them into rounds for us. The chef showed us how to fold them and create our dumplings and we got to work. It was harder than it looked, but mine turned out okay, I think! 

After we finished our potstickers we headed back over to pastry and finished our donuts. Chef Pierre shows us how to roll out our dough and taught us that, traditionally, in China, instead of spreading flour out on the board to keep dough from sticking, they use oil. So that's what we did and damn if it didn't work! I've made pie crusts from scratch for over a decade now and I can't imagine dough not sticking without using flour (obviously this was an entirely different dough, but still) so that was a really cool thing to learn hands on. He taught us how to cut the donuts in traditional star shapes and we got to work. (I forgot to take a picture of my dough all cut out, but it wasn't amazing so that's okay... haha!) once we were finished cutting them out and shaping them we got to go to the deep fryer and fry up a couple to test them out!  After frying they got tossed in cinnamon sugar and yes, they were AMAZING!!! They labeled each of our trays and fried the rest while we ate later. 

Once we finished with our donuts they sat us in the restaurant and served us fresh made bread and pretzels while they finished our dishes for us. The beef tataki was brought out first and it was delicious! Just seared and rare in the middle, dressed with cucumber, scallions, and chile and served with ponzu... it was light and melt in your mouth delicious! 

Next up were our dumplings and seriously? The best dumplings I've ever had. They were perfectly seasoned and full of flavor! I don't know how many I ate, but each and every morsel was just divine! 

After stuffing our faces with all the delicious savory food, they cleared the table and then presented our Chinese donuts! Fried to golden brown and coated in cinnamon sugar, these bites of heaven were amazing. Chef Pierre brought out a decadent chocolate sauce to serve on the side, but, and I can't believe I'm saying this, it wasn't necessary. They were decadent and incredible all on their own! 

It was such an awesome day and I'm definitely on the hunt for more cooking classes on the island. It felt good to be in a kitchen, learning from professionals and creating something amazing. 

A couple of behind the scenes shots for all my culinary geeks