End of Session: Young Epicureans

I will admit that I was a little nervous about taking on the teenagers every Friday night, but they were honestly a joy to be around. They truly seemed to enjoy the social side of their cooking classes—playfully ribbing each other about things they'd done in school that day; trading stories about bus drivers or teachers; and even gleefully tormenting each other about mistakes they'd made in previous classes (that green tea ice cream kept coming up, much to Henry and Ove's chagrin—and to be fair, it wasn't entirely their fault). It was wonderful to watch them bond the way I bonded with my fellow culinary classmates all those years ago. There's a unique friendship that grows over the kitchen's work tables and behind the line in front of the fire, and that was evident even in my laid back classroom environment here at Highfield.

Last week was so busy in the kitchen that I didn't get a chance to blog the previous week's class. We made a variety of things with Phyllo dough, which is one of my favorite things to work with because the result is almost always beautiful. I gave them four recipes, but most only made it through two. Not surprisingly, everyone managed to make a batch of Banana Pecan Strudel.

Several also did the Spanakopita or the Apple Brie Walnut triangles.

Stephen literally had the focus of a ninja during that class and he broke with his classmates who all began the evening with the strudel by opting to start with the Apple Brie triangles.

At the end of class Stephen and Emily requested Apple Pie and Crème Brulee for their final class, so that's what we did.

Emily was the only one who really knew how Crème Brulee is made, so she did hers first. Everyone else started with apple pie. Consequently, about an hour into class Emily got to burn her Crème Brulee. As soon as the rest of them saw that torch come out they all ran over to see what was going on and immediately asked when they could do theirs. Suddenly there were 10 Crème Brulees in the oven! All in all a great job by everyone this session, and Stephen definitely wins the award for most interesting looking apple pie. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of it, but to me it looked like an igloo or the top half of a beehive. A very tall pie, indeed.

For all those who have asked, the next session begins right after April vacation and registrations are being taken now. Have a great break and I hope to see you in my next session!