Koko and I went to a pasta class at Laguna Culinary Arts school in
Laguna Beach on Friday night. We have previously had a great
experience with a pastry class a few months ago, so we were really
looking forward to this class. What a disappointment! The great
Italian chef might have been great, but he spoke not one word of
English and relied upon his Austrian wife to translate and *her*
English wasn't up to the task frequently. Consequently, this was more
of a cooking demonstration than a cooking class, as we watched about
80% of the time and *did* the rest of the time. The biggest problem,
IMHO, was his assistant, Gina. Gina spent more time touting her
cooking classes at the Orange branch of LCA than she did being of use.
Chef had to run after his own implements - Koko and I found the damned
colander for him - and about all she did was drift around and
criticize everyone's efforts when we *did* actually get to do
something. She also often planted herself directly behind Chef, making
it impossible to see what he was doing from my angle.

Chef couldn't get the hang of the KA pasta roller attachment, so
abandoned the attempt and went into another room to use a hand roller.
Since the KA was one of the main reasons I wanted to take the class (I
have this attachment, but hadn't figured it out yet), I took my hunk
of dough and started monkeying with the KA attachment. Didn't take me
long to get the hang of it and after that almost everyone in the class
was lining up to use the KA while Chef labored away in the other room.

When it came to making the sauces, I had absolutely no idea which
sauce was which, as he threw in all the previously-measured
ingredients in and banged and flipped the skillets around like he was
playing 3 card Monte. Finally, they plated everything and took us to a
set table. What had been advertised as an extra $10 "wine pairing" was
actually 3 bottles of a $14 mediocre red set out to divide between the
10 students, the chef, his wife and Gina.

We were given questionaires as to how we liked the class, which I
slipped into the recipe sheets and took home with me. I plan on
writing a letter to LCA explaining my disappointment with the class.
The experience didn't wreck the weekend with Koko, but I'll be wary
about taking another class at LCA, especially if I don't get a
response to the letter I plan to write.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd

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