Breakfast and Brunch

On Saturday, I was able to shelve my work angst and fully enjoy my class at The Culinary Institute of America. I took the Breakfasts and Brunches class!

The Culinary recently changed there Saturday class format. Now, they follow their cookbooks and then give you the book! I already have the "Baking at Home" and "Cooking at Home" books so I decided to take a class that involved a book that I do not already own. You see, normally, I am a baker. I don't want the "Baking at Home" book since I already have it.....see.....the economy has made me frugal.....more bang for the buck......

Anyway.....the class was sooooo cool! I loved it. There were 16 of us in the class and our menu for the day consisted of the following:
Mango Lassi
Seasonal Fruit Plate
Cranberry Orange Muffins
Buttermilk Biscuits with Sausage Gravy
Buttermilk Pancakes with Grand Marnier-infused strawberries
Crepes Suzette
Huevos Rancheros with Salsa Fresca
Eggs Benedict
Granola Parfait
Lyonnaise Potatoes
Breakfast Burrito
Brandied Chicken and Morel Omelet and
Steak and Eggs Sauce Choron

That is some list! We were given aprons, towels, and chefs hats. We split up into groups and each group got assigned dishes to do. My group was me (the defacto leader), Michael (a journalist writing an article about the class), and Christine (a college student). (Let me tell you.....I lucked out with my group. There was one douche bag in the class and thank God he was nowhere near me!)
We were assigned: Mango Lassi, Granola, Granola Parfait, Cranberry Orange Muffins, and the fruit plate. (I burned the granola the first time. What a rook.)

The Chef walked around to each group and gave instructions. He had 2 students helpers that were running around for us. It was sooooo exciting to work in a real kitchen and be in the presence of a real chef.

Normally, you make the food and all the classes sit together and eat. With our class, Chef said that some breakfast things need to be eaten right away to appreciate the dish. So we ate 2 things standing up in the kitchen AND we had 2 seatings in the dining room. I was STUFFED!!!

The food was phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. I tried several things that I have never had and I was shown that some things that sound really scary (like Eggs Benedict) are really not that scary. Maybe I could do that at home!

Class was over at 2:30. It took me about an hour to get home. I was surprised how exhausted I was.

I will absolutely take another class! Here is the link in case you want to check it out:
http://www.ciachef.edu/enthusiasts/programs/hp_saturday/