chilled zucchini bisque. A large baked zucchini blossom floated on the surface, stuffed with goat cheese and diced tomatoes.
For the main course, I selected a Swiss dish on the basis that it is hard to find outside of Switzerland. This was Egli, a variety of perch, delicate in flavor, white, and almost without bones. Brad Thompson had a grilled paillard of beef. It was served with red cabbage, a popular vegetable in Switzerland, and a red wine sauce fortified with port. A light fresh white wine from the Saar Valley went well with my fish. Brad chose a Cote Rotie to accompany his beef, and although I thought he might find it sufficiently full-bodied but too scented, I heard no complaints. He concluded with a peanut butter mascarpone, and I had a peach sorbet.
I slipped out as smoothly as I could. Caroline de Witt was only two tables away, and while I was determined to solve the mystery of the Seaweed Forest, I was not prepared to attempt it right now. The right mind-set would be critical, I told myself.
CHAPTER NINE
I WAS STILL CURIOUS about Leighton Vance. My schedule to date had been such that my presentations had coincided with his, so I had not had the opportunity to observe him in action. The next morning I was free, and I saw that he was giving a demonstration in conference room C. After a breakfast of fresh mango juice, some muesli made in the original style of Doctor Bircher-Brenner (who had lived near here), Nicaraguan coffee, and fresh-baked wheat rolls, I went to sit at the feet of the guru of Swiss cuisine.
My attitude was admittedly a little snide, considering how he had thrown me out of his kitchen—which was the way I persisted in thinking of it. So I sat in the second row—not the first, where I would be staring him in the face, and not in the back row, where I could toss in unexpected lobs of awkward questions. I wanted to keep it fair but still hold an advantage.
“More than a third of all new chefs are career changers,” he began. “That in itself is a clear indication of the attraction that cooking possesses. Learning to cook means cooking everyday dishes as well as those for special occasions.
“In recent years, chefs have been challenged by the addition of a new dimension. No longer is a meal expected only to look good and taste good: it must be healthy. Some dishes were immediately struck off the cooking list because they were too high in calories or fats. Pork was among the first to go.”
It was a good start, I conceded. A controversial topic was being introduced now.
“Containing less protein and more fat than other meats, pork requires cooking at a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit minimum to kill the trichinae, the bacteria that cause trichinosis. This rule was not always observed in the past and thus gave pork a bad name.
“Today, lean cuts of pork are similar in both fat content and dietary cholesterol to chicken breasts. They contain greater amounts of thiamin and other vitamins and by minimizing the amount of oil used for cooking, you can eat pork without guilt.”
Leighton indicated two pork tenderloins before him. “I am going to barbecue these in a Chinese style, with garlic sauce,” he said. “The oven is already preheated at three hundred and fifty degrees, and this baking pan is lined with foil.” He whisked together hoisin sauce, garlic, ketchup, sugar, and soy sauce. He put the tenderloins in the pan, coated them with this mixture, and put them in the oven.
“I am going to cook these for thirty-five minutes,” he said, “but before the class started I put two identical tenderloins in. These will be due out in five minutes, and in the meantime I am going to make the garlic sauce.” He stirred together soy sauce, minced garlic, vinegar, sugar, and a sprinkle of Tabasco sauce, then warmed the mixture in a small pan, took the precooked tenderloins out of the oven, and placed them on a cutting board. He cut them diagonally across the grain into thin slices and
For the main course, I selected a Swiss dish on the basis that it is hard to find outside of Switzerland. This was Egli, a variety of perch, delicate in flavor, white, and almost without bones. Brad Thompson had a grilled paillard of beef. It was served with red cabbage, a popular vegetable in Switzerland, and a red wine sauce fortified with port. A light fresh white wine from the Saar Valley went well with my fish. Brad chose a Cote Rotie to accompany his beef, and although I thought he might find it sufficiently full-bodied but too scented, I heard no complaints. He concluded with a peanut butter mascarpone, and I had a peach sorbet.
I slipped out as smoothly as I could. Caroline de Witt was only two tables away, and while I was determined to solve the mystery of the Seaweed Forest, I was not prepared to attempt it right now. The right mind-set would be critical, I told myself.
CHAPTER NINE
I WAS STILL CURIOUS about Leighton Vance. My schedule to date had been such that my presentations had coincided with his, so I had not had the opportunity to observe him in action. The next morning I was free, and I saw that he was giving a demonstration in conference room C. After a breakfast of fresh mango juice, some muesli made in the original style of Doctor Bircher-Brenner (who had lived near here), Nicaraguan coffee, and fresh-baked wheat rolls, I went to sit at the feet of the guru of Swiss cuisine.
My attitude was admittedly a little snide, considering how he had thrown me out of his kitchen—which was the way I persisted in thinking of it. So I sat in the second row—not the first, where I would be staring him in the face, and not in the back row, where I could toss in unexpected lobs of awkward questions. I wanted to keep it fair but still hold an advantage.
“More than a third of all new chefs are career changers,” he began. “That in itself is a clear indication of the attraction that cooking possesses. Learning to cook means cooking everyday dishes as well as those for special occasions.
“In recent years, chefs have been challenged by the addition of a new dimension. No longer is a meal expected only to look good and taste good: it must be healthy. Some dishes were immediately struck off the cooking list because they were too high in calories or fats. Pork was among the first to go.”
It was a good start, I conceded. A controversial topic was being introduced now.
“Containing less protein and more fat than other meats, pork requires cooking at a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit minimum to kill the trichinae, the bacteria that cause trichinosis. This rule was not always observed in the past and thus gave pork a bad name.
“Today, lean cuts of pork are similar in both fat content and dietary cholesterol to chicken breasts. They contain greater amounts of thiamin and other vitamins and by minimizing the amount of oil used for cooking, you can eat pork without guilt.”
Leighton indicated two pork tenderloins before him. “I am going to barbecue these in a Chinese style, with garlic sauce,” he said. “The oven is already preheated at three hundred and fifty degrees, and this baking pan is lined with foil.” He whisked together hoisin sauce, garlic, ketchup, sugar, and soy sauce. He put the tenderloins in the pan, coated them with this mixture, and put them in the oven.
“I am going to cook these for thirty-five minutes,” he said, “but before the class started I put two identical tenderloins in. These will be due out in five minutes, and in the meantime I am going to make the garlic sauce.” He stirred together soy sauce, minced garlic, vinegar, sugar, and a sprinkle of Tabasco sauce, then warmed the mixture in a small pan, took the precooked tenderloins out of the oven, and placed them on a cutting board. He cut them diagonally across the grain into thin slices and
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