A.C.F. Greater KC Chefs Association

We’re selling these tickets here at the CCKC, people!  Spread the word!!!

35th Annual A.C.F. Greater KC Chefs Association

Dinner & Annual Chef’s Event

(This chapter is the 2010 Winner of “Chapter of the Year”!)

The Chef Event of the Year!

Join over 24 of KC’s best Chefs as they show off their skills and pull out the stops to show you

what’s hot and trendy this year in the world of food.

Imagine a bunch of competitive chefs trying to out-do each other.

That’s what I said…it’s a competition!

You’ll also find out Kansas City’s Chef Of The Year, Chef Apprentice of the Year and Culinarian of the Year!

Sunday evening Oct 10th – Doors Open at 6:00 p.m. (Don’t worry, the Chief’s game ends at 3:30)

Radisson Muelbach’s Grand Ballroom (Across the street from the Downtown Marriott)

Truly an incredible value at $50 per person. (cash, check or credit card*  (*credit card sales will carry a $2 service charge).

Purchase your tickets through The Culinary Center of Kansas City by emailing (shop@kcculinary.com), calling (913-341-4455) or just stop by.

(Tickets are limited so purchase early!)

Farmer’s Market Recipe

Bruschetta With Tomato Basil Salsa

16 Roma tomatoes, diced
2 red onions, diced
3 tablespoons garlic, chopped
1  cup fresh basil, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 French baguettes
¼ cup olive oil

Toss together tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, juice,  and season to taste.Slice the baguettes on a diagonal about ¼ inch thick. Lay slices of baguette on a sheet pan and brush with olive oil.Toast in the oven until browned and crisp. Arrange slices of bruschetta on serving plate and top with tomato relish.

“Manager of Merriment”

Our Manager of Merriment, Maria has designed an amazing teambuilding, “All Hands for Hunger”. Please read about it and think about joining us for one of these classes.

We have a big day ahead here at the CCKC w/ a kids’ class and two teambuilding events! One of the teambuildings will be our new and very popular “All Hands for Hunger” model. This event has been so well received by our guests and of course the recipients of the yummy food donations. Tomorrow’s donation will be created by various teams from a local corporation, and then donated to Rose Brooks Women’s and Children’s Shelter here in KCMO. We recently learned that the demand for the services at shelters like Rose Brooks has tripled since June of ’09…….So we’re doing our best to help them in such a desperate time of need! We’re glad to be able to offer such an opportunity to our guests, both privately and to the public through our newsletter. Talk about “comfort food” at its finest!

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Key Ingredient

Meet Michelle Keller

One of my fondest memories as a kid was getting the Sears catalog and circling all the toys I wanted Santa to bring to me. As the years went by, I came to have an impressive collection of kiddie culinary gadgets, including an EZ-Bake Oven, a fondue maker, a Snoopy Sno-Cone stand and a kiddie cake decorating set just like my mom’s!
As I got older, my love of kitchen gadgets only grew. It didn’t matter that I hardly ever cooked. It was still fun to collect them. All of that changed when I started taking classes at The Culinary Center of Kansas City. I suddenly had the confidence–and the recipes–I needed to master my kitchen and all those kitchen gadgets. I learned that the more you cook, the easier it gets. And if you make mistakes and recipes don’t turn out, it’s not the end of the world as long as you have the phone number to your favorite take-out joint handy.

While the Sears catalog is no longer published, I still get out my pen and circle my culinary wants whenever I receive the newsletter from the Culinary Center. I’ve loved all the classes I’ve taken but am particularly fond of Italian, Greek and Mediterranean cooking. The three-day boot camp was also a lot of fun.

Getting to work here is truly “the icing on the cake!” When I’m not here, I enjoy traveling, running marathons and spoiling my nephews, Drew (age 9) and Drey (age 6) who is also a budding chef. Check out his picture on the website.

Tomato Confiture

14 oz   Tomatoes fresh, peeled and seeded or Whole Canned tomatoes
½ cup Granulated Sugar
2 tbsp Water
1   Cinnamon Stick
¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/8 tsp Ground Allspice
¼ tsp  Salt
1 tbsp Hot Pepper Sauce (optional)

Blanche and peel the fresh tomatoes; squeeze out the seeds. Add all ingredients to a small sauce pot; bring to a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes on low, stirring occasionally. Remove cinnamon stick from the mixture. You may use the sauce as is, or puree for a smoother consistency.

This is a gourmet sauce or spread for stuffed strawberries(omit the hot sauce), white cheeses, or toast. Also delicious  drizzled on pork. Think of it like a fruit jam, not tomato sauce.

You will have your guests talking!

White Sangria Recipe

1/2 pound seedless green grapes, stems removed
1 – 2 Red Delicious apples, cored and thinly sliced
3 cups white wine (pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, white rioja, alborino, etc.)
1 cup apple juice
1 cup pineapple juice
2 cups ice cubes

In a pitcher combine grapes, apples, and white wine. Let sit for 1 to 2 hours. Pour in the apple and pineapple juices. Add the ice cubes and serve with any combination of additional fruit garnish.  Enjoy!    

Risotto with Lemon and Zucchini

So… next Sunday August 8th is National “Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day” So… to celebrate and give people something to do with all the Zucchini that will supposedly magically show up on their doorstep this weekend, I’m making Risotto with Lemon and Zucchini at the market on Saturday!

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 Tb butter
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
½ tsp red pepper flakes
1 large zucchini, grated
1 small lemon, zested and juiced
1 C short grain rice (usually you see Arborio or Carnaroli types)
1/2 C white wine
1 quart of chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 c Parmigiano cheese grated
1Tb fresh parsley, minced (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt 1T of butter in a heavy pot over medium low heat. Add garlic, pepper flakes  and onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini, lemon zest, a few grinds of fresh pepper and 1/2t salt. This will draw the water out of the zucchini. Turn the heat up to medium and cook until the water comes out of the zucchini and evaporates again, stirring regularly.

Move zucchini to the sides of pan and add another tablespoon of butter, allow it to melt and start sizzling. Add the rice and stir it all together allowing the rice to absorb the moisture of the butter and vegetables. Cook, stirring constantly for about a minute. Add the wine and continue stirring until absorbed, about 2 minutes. Add just enough stock to cover the rice until it is absorbed stirring constantly. After your first addition of stock has been absorbed add more stock also just to cover the rice stirring constantly until it is absorbed. Continue adding stock gradually in this way until you’ve added the entire quart.

When the rice is almost done take the heat off the bottom of the pot and stir in the lemon juice, cheese, and parsley. Taste for seasoning and serve!

Key Ingredient

Diana Miller Cooper has been an instructor at The Culinary Center since 2005. She had previously owned and operated a cake and candy shop in Mission, Kansas where she taught classes and baked and decorated hundreds and hundreds of cakes!

Although her area of expertise lies in cakes, cookies and chocolates, she loves to teach savory classes as well as many of our kids classes. One of her very favorite classes (which she developed the concept for) is our “So You Want to Be the Next Foodie TV Star” class for our Junior Chef Academy program. Kids ages 9 to 14 not only get to experience a hands-on cooking class, but also work in teams to write, produce and star in a short “food-television-inspired” cooking show!

Another favorite class of Diana’s is her Cinnamon Roll Critters class in which an adult/child team work together to make cinnamon rolls in the shape of, you guessed it … a critter! Great fun!

In addition to teaching, Diana wears other hats at The CCKC – she is a facilitator for our successful teambuilding program, develops new class concepts and assists in writing our newsletter. She also has the pleasure of meeting with potential new instructors and working with them to develop new classes … keeping our class schedule fresh and fun.

Diana is married to Patrick Cooper and they have two children, John and Sara.

Classroom Chatter

The Classroom Chatter has been all kid’s voices this week! I know I’ve talked about it before but this summer  with The Junior Chefs Academy has been a blast!!! We’ve had 4 Junior Chefs classes this week alone! Our 9-14 year old friends made Mexican food twice, decorated cakes and baked pies.  This summer they’ve been to the farmer’s market and haggled for their own fruits and veggies, learned about pizza, eggs, chicken, and some have even come in to cook with yours truly at the Overland Park farmer’s market!

These kids are so hungry (pardon the pun) for cooking knowledge! They ask questions about their food.  They wonder why things are made they way they are, and they’re eager to get in and try it themselves.  They’re also not afraid to fail.  They follow Julia Child’s sensibility of cooking with courage! So what if you break the egg yolk… make an omelet! So what if your pie looks funny, everyone will think you meant it to look that way.

Every time I see the light of realization in one of their eyes, or when one is excited to tell me what recipe they made at home last week it makes me glad I do what I do for a living.  That sense of wonder and reckless abandon is something we could all learn from…especially adults! Why not try that new recipe, that exotic ingredient, that weird vegetable, it will probably be great, if not, you’ll know at least one thing not to do again!

Rachel Ciordas

“Dean of Deliciousness”

Manager of Culinary Curriculum

Classroom Chatter

by Dean of Deliciousness Rachel

The Art Market is Here!

I must admit that we here at The Culinary Center of Kansas City are just looking for a reason to throw a party, so I was thrilled when all of the downtown  Overland Park small businesses decided to get together to throw one! We’re calling it the “Friday Night Art Market.” Every third friday of the month you get to come to Downtown Overland Park, the Kansas City area’s secret art and foodie mecca, and spend all evening checking out art galleries, seeing great cooking demonstrations, perusing unique shops and in general a lovely evening.

Tomorrow July 16th is an Art Market fiesta at The Culinary Center of Kansas City!!! Come down and see us, bring a date! The infamous Vicky (of Vicky’s famous tamales and enchilada casserole) will be hosting cooking demonstrations in our Santa Fe kitchen, we’ll have frosty margaritas for sale, some of our famous Dinners on Demand to taste and we’ll even let you buy some too!

We’ll crank up the A/C and have a cool refreshing drink ready for you!  6pm-9pm  Downtown Overland Park