Task 42 - Take a cooking class. (Sur La Table)

Cooking with All-Clad

Location: Sur La Table (Natick Collection)
                 1245 Worcester Street
                 Natick, MA 01760
                 (800) 243-0852

Website:  www.surlatable.com

Rating:    5-Stars

I signed up for this class with Dan and my friend Chris. I have wanted to take a cooking class for a while and it even made my 101 things in 1001 days list. Sur La Table’s cooking classes are varied and offer a wide range of classes to appeal to any aspiring home chef. We settled on Cooking with All-Clad since it wasn’t too far in the future, the menu sounded delicious, and we get a free All-Clad French Skillet for attending. 

We arrived early and met our instructor Tim Doherty who went over the basics of what we would be cooking. Our menu was a Wild Mushroom Risotto, Seared Hanger Steak with Red Wine Pan Sauce and Honey-Butter Glazed Young Carrots with Fall Spices. For dessert we would make Bananas Foster.

Our class was 9 people which created a very intimate atmosphere. All of the students were as friendly and engaging as the Sur La Table staff. We started the evening by prepping some of the ingredients we would be cooking with. While we prepped the ingredients by cutting up the mushrooms, shallots, juicing the oranges etc Tim provided some insight into why he selected the ingredients he did such as the morel mushrooms for the risotto.

Once all the ingredients were prepped we moved on to the center island stove where we began putting together all the ingredients for the risotto. Like before he explained how to know by feel when the dish was ready instead of following the precise times on the recipe. With every stove and pan those vary and he wanted to teach us how to tell something was ready by feel. He also along the way shared some of his cooking secrets that he felt would help us perfect our menu’s when we got home.

Once the risotto was done we moved onto the carrots. Here he explained all the details of what makes the baby young carrots and how they are really nothing more than large carrots that have been routed down to give the illusion of young carrots. Like Julia Child, Tim was fond of butter and every course included a healthy dose of butter. Once the carrots were seasoned and sautéed we put them in the oven to finish while we began our red wine pan sauce. While we reduced the burgundy wine with our mushrooms he explained that the alcohol is almost immediately cooked off when creating sauces with alcohol. He also suggested we deviate from the instructions and not discard the solids. He believes that you should rarely remove the solids from sauces you make. As our red wine pan sauce reduced by about ½ we took a small break.

While on break we got the opportunity to enjoy the store and search for many of the cool tools we have been using in the cooking class while they cleaned the stations and prepped for the next course. They do a great job here of selling the products but not making you feel like it’s a sales pitch. After all you are here to learn and they focused on that goal.

When we returned to class Tim explained what Hanger Steak is and why it is a great steak to use when combining with a nice sauce. It is a cheaper cut of meat and when coated in the rich red wine sauce it helps pull the flavors out. Once the steak was properly cooked and he taught us how to feel the steak to determine proper cooking temp. If you push down on a steak with your finger and it doesn’t bounce back it is raw. You want it to bounce back quickly to indicate it is properly cooked. Once done we allowed our steak to rest. He would later teach us the proper way to cut a steak by going against the grain and diagonally this will make the less expensive steak taste more tender and easier to eat.

While our steak rested we began our final course. Bananas Foster. More butter of course along with a healthy dose of brown sugar and cinnamon with some Myers Rum and instead of banana liquire he deviated again and used lemoncello. Again the alcohol was quickly cooked off and one group even got a flame going. Once the sauce was reduced we added the sliced banana and it was time to eat.

We took our carrots out of the oven, sliced our steak and drizzled the red wine pan sauce over it, Added the parmesan to our risotto and plated everything. The entire group now got an opportunity to enjoy the fruits of all our labor buffet style.

Once we were done Tim had already plated up individual portions of Banana Foster for each of use paired with a nice Hagen Daz Vanilla ice cream. Before we left we took a few pictures with Tim and received our gift for attending this class a nice 9” All Clad Stainless Steel French Skillet. The pan alone has a retail of $134.00 although it was currently on sale for $69.99. Either way for 30 extra bucks we had a fabulous meal and learned how to make it from a professional chef. I would strongly recommend the Sur La Table cooking classes and instructor Tim Doherty to anyone who enjoys cooking and wants to learn more.