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Seasonal School of Culinary Arts
 
A Question of Taste
Volume 1, Number 7 December, 2010

Dear Culinary Friends,
 
With Christmas fresh in your heads and New Year's resolutions on the table, what triggers your most powerful memories as the season wraps its cloak around us? Is it the gifts you found under the tree? Is it the joyful bedlam of children and puppies always underfoot? Is it the scents that waft out of the kitchen and linger in the folds of your winter clothing? Is it that long anticipated crunch into a perfectly-baked ham or the savory sage in the chestnut stuffing or the fresh zing to the oysters, just opened and shimmering in salty brine?
 
I would hazard a guess that for most of us, our sense of taste is among the most poignant this season, and we're ever looking for new, wondrous ideas to grace our family's plates, that they may remember this moment in time above all others.

A Gift for All Ages~A Seasonal Smorgasbord

In case you are still in search of the perfect gift for someone, or in case you want to say thank you for gifts received...or in case someone dropped an unexpected check in your lap and you've not yet decided what to do with it, the SSCA is offering a $100 discount on any week booked before the turn of the year. Scroll down to find out when and where you might join us!

Paris Magic

Paris at any time of year is magic. In June, the poppies are in full splendor, silhouetted against fields of golden wheat from which the baguettes whose fragrance reels you in at every street corner are fashioned.
 
Come join us for 4 days of discovery, with market strolls, wine tastings, hands-on culinary sessions, bistro jaunts, and exploration of one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, with a token expedition into the countryside as well. To find out more, visit our website.

Asheville~Cooking a Rainbow

Our two stellar weeks in Asheville this year will involve, as always, the top chefs of Western North Carolina with a few guest chefs from abroad, renowned wine and beer experts, and a surrounding that is pastoral, flanked by blue mountains, and reeling with music and dance as a backdrop.
 
During our first week we will work with the spectrum of the rainbow as we grace our plates with the colors of nature's palette. We will explore how this palette affects the palate, as we consider whether peas would taste the same if they were pink or if tomatoes would satisfy us equally if they were black. We will play with various juxtapositions, always with the emphasis on deliciousness.
 
The music in the background will be the drone of bagpipes and the lilt of flute and fiddle, as the Swannanoa Gathering's Celtic Week enhances the colors on our plates. Culinary students are welcome to join in evening festivities which last often until dawn breaks over the hills.

Asheville~Cooking with Wine

Our second week will revolve around wine, particularly the wines of North Carolina, as we pay homage to the 100-plus wineries which now grace this ever-evolving state. Each recipe will be constructed around a different wine, or created to complement a specific wine. You don't have to have a wine background or necessarily be a wine-drinker to appreciate the nuances which enhance the dishes at hand, but if you are an aficionado, you will certainly be in your element!

Ithaca Bounty

The Finger Lakes region of New York is swiftly becoming one of THE places to be if food and wine and farming is your passion. With more than 90 wineries flanking the shores of glacially-carved lakes, and the delightfully quaint college town of Ithaca which has more restaurants per capita than New York City, if you haven't yet discovered this pocket of the country, it's time you joined us. And if you have, and just want more of a good thing in the company of other enthusiasts during the height of fall coloring, you're on the right track as well!
 
Visit our website for an idea of places we will explore.

Sonoma Serenades

Ah, Sonoma! The rolling hills which range from reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands to redolent of the South of France...only footsteps away from San Francisco, through a corridor of redwoods, there are wines, cheeses, oysters, and olives a-plenty, all cultivated in the space of one of the most diverse counties on the globe.
 
Wine lovers who have already discovered Napa or who seek a more personal introduction to California's wines must visit the richness of Sonoma's terroirs before their time is up. We'll explore vineyards, creameries, markets, and oyster farms, and we'll enter wine-makers' domains, indulge in hands-on sessions with local chefs, savor pinot until we can tell the difference between grapes grown on the coast and those grown further inland, and marvel at all this country has to offer if only we are ready to taste!

Make us one of your New Year's Resolutions!

Vow to celebrate in the new year, and join us at one (or all!) or our four locations. If you sign up today, you'll receive $100 off on any week's tuition (think of the extra bottles of wine you can buy!), and if you sign up for multiple weeks you'll receive a $100 discount per week.
 
Looking forward to meeting you along the culinary path or on the wine trail...
 
Cheers,
 
Susi
 
Susi Gott Séguret, CCP, Director
Seasonal School of Culinary Arts
828-301-2792

 
Seasonal School of Culinary Arts • PO Box 18462 • Asheville, NC 28814
http://www.schoolofculinaryarts.org
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