On 26 Feb, 21:49, Terry Pulliam Burd > wrote:
> 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
>
> --
>
> To reply, remove "spambot" and replace it with "cox"


Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! it's really a tragi-comic
adventure!!!!! Come here in Italy next time! we will enjoy cooking and
smiling together with hectolitre of gratis
wine )))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))