Check
out the
quick reference index, organized by topics
such as hands-on, vegetarian, location, and kids/family, to help you find
the perfect class(es). Or view the events on a
monthly calendar to find the date that works best for your schedule.
July
Wednesday,
July 1
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$39
Detailed information
"Mini" Pickling Workshop (hands-on)
with farmer/chef Doug Nicosia
Friday,
July 3
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$34
Due to the unseasonably cool June we've had here in Sonoma County, the produce at Sensuous Farms is not ready to harvest in time for the On The Farm: Artisanal Pickling Workshop and Italian Picnic pickling class that was scheduled for July 3rd at Sensuous Farms. Because of this, we've rescheduled the workshop and picnic at Sensuous Farms to September 13.
Instead, we are offering this "Mini Pickling" activity here at the Relish Culinary Center. Guests will make a quick Jardiniere Pickle with a combination of farm-fresh veggies, including beans, carrots, spring onions and garlic, radishes and baby zucchini, in an easy vinegar brine. Each guest will learn about this quick pickling method and take home their handmade 16-ounce jar of pickled veggies. This is a wonderful class at a great price that still leaves your afternoon free to enjoy Healdsburg and start your holiday weekend.
Wednesday,
July 8
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$39
Detailed information
Kids in the Kitchen: Cupcakes (hands-on)
with chef Amy Schaeffers
Friday,
July 10
1:00 - 3:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$55 (for ages 5 - 8)
At this fun summer class, kids will make cupcakes from scratch, measuring, sifting and mixing up some scruptious mini-cakes. As the cupcakes bake, kids will decorate a number of pre-baked cupcakes. Chef Amy's custom baking business The Last Course is known for beautiful and whimsical cakes and cupcakes. Chef Amy will show participants how to use a piping bag to make flowers, leaves, decorative borders and lettering. We'll also play with gum paste and fondant to make Swiss Dots and other shapes. Kids will have lots of practice piping and drawing on parchment paper and their cupcakes. At the end of the class, we'll sample some cupcakes before sending each child home with a variety of decorated cupcakes to share.
Locals and visitors alike are smitten by the Healdsburg Farmers Market where farmers, fishermen, cheesemakers, olive oil producers and other artisans come togther to create a mutually sustaining gathering place for the community. Meet these purveyors, taste their exquisite products and explore new flavors at these monthly Chef's Market classes. Guests will stroll through the market with a local chef, meet the farmers and learn about seasonal products, saving time to purchase farm-fresh goodies as desired. The chef will then lead a brief cooking demonstration at the market before walking back to the Relish Culinary Center for a hands-on cooking workshop featuring the freshest of ingredients from the market. Each class will end with a delicious buffet lunch.
Chef's Market: Peaches, Sweet and Savory (hands-on)
with chef/farmer Gayle Sullivan
Saturday,
July 11
10:00 AM
Relish Culinary Center and Healdsburg Farmers Market, Healdsburg
$94
Pastry chef and peach orchard owner Gayle Sullivan leads this this monthly Chef's Market. As a farmers market purveyor herself, Gayle will introduce guests to other farmers and their seasonal products at the Healsdburg Farmers Market before coming back to the Relish Culinary Center for a delicious hands-on lunch class. Gayle always shares wonderfully simple and amazingly fresh recipes that feature organically-grown Dry Creek peaches from her beautiful orachard. We'll start the class with a Bellini (Sparkling Wine and White Peach Puree) and then make peach jam (each guest will take home a small jar of summer perfection!) Guests will cook lobsters and roll and make their own individual galette (rustic tart). A complete four-course lunch will be served.
Monthly Chef's Market classes will be held on the second Saturday of each month through November.
Cheesemaking Workshop: Fresh Cheeses and Wine (partial hands-on)
with chef Sheana Davis
Sunday,
July 12 Moved to Sunday, September 20
1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$89
At this interactive workshop, Sheana Davis, cheesemaker and producer of The Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference, will show you how to make a variety of fresh cheeses, including chevre (fresh goat cheese), crème fraiche and fromage blanc with assistance from guests. Starting with a brief discussion of artisan cheesemaking, chef Sheana will demonstrate cheesemaking techniques that are surprisingly easy to reproduce at home. Sheana will share creative recipes for each of the cheeses, including her newly launched Delice de la Vallee cheese. Each cheese dish will be served with a different local wine as Sheana talks about how to pair wine and cheese. The final course will be a cheese course featuring artisan cheeses and creative accompaniments. Each guest will take home instructions and a Crème Fraiche culture to encourage you to make cheese at home.
Thrive in the Kitchen (hands-on)
with chef Jennifer Lange
Monday - Thursday,
July 13 - 16
9:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$279 (for ages 13 and up)
Going away to college? Moving in to your own place? Want to cook meals for your family at home without assistance? This hands-on series is designed for teens and young adults who want to learn the skills to work independently in the kitchen, make good food choices, and cook GREAT food. Chef Jennifer Lange, like Relish, is a big believer in cooking with locally-grown, seasonal ingredients in a natural, healthy way for delicious results. In this four-day series, we'll cover a wide range of kitchen techniques, including knife skills, kitchen safety, understanding nutritional labels, reading recipes, seasonal and cost-effective grocery shopping, and more. Students will make a wide variety of foods from scratch, learning a wide variety of techniques for soups, salads, bread and dessert baking, grilling, roasting, sautéing, and much more. We'll cover a lot of culinary ground as we make a complete lunch meal to share at the end of each day.
If you are an adult who is interested in a "fundamentals" class like this but would prefer a series of classes on weeknights, please let us know. We are thinking about offering a similar series in the fall over four weeknights.
Mozzarella and Burrata Cheesemaking Dinner (hands-on)
with chef John Franchetti of Rosso Pizzeria
Friday,
July 17 SOLD OUT. Thank you.
6:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$89
See the recent Press Democrat article about Chef John and his mozzarella class at Relish
Chef John Franchetti leads this hands-on workshop where guests will make fresh Mozzarella and Burrata cheeses and incorporate them into a fantastic wood-fired dinner. Chef John makes fresh Mozzarella and his signature Burrata from fresh cheese curds every morning at his Rosso Pizzeria in Santa Rosa. Guests will be very surprised how easy it is to make fresh mozzarella from curds...and the results are delicious. (Lots of "yumming" at this class....Mmmmmm!) Chef John will share techniques for making different size mozzarella balls like bocconcini and divulge his top secret recipe for Burrata (mozzarella stuffed with a luscious ricotta cheese mixture). All guests will stretch Mozzarella, make Burrata filling and create mini Burratas. After all the cheesemaking, we'll create some of the most popular dishes from the Rosso menu, throwing pizza dough and baking pizzas and piadines in Relish's Mugnaini wood-fired oven. We'll enjoy our homemade feast with Seghesio Fiano and Barbera Italian varietal wines.
Less Meat, MORE Flavor (hands-on)
with chef Lia Huber
Saturday,
July 18
5:30 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$84
There are all kinds of reasons for eating less meat—for health, the environment, cost savings. But by taking cues from how cultures around the world coax flavors from a minimum of meat, we find perhaps the most compelling reason of all . . . Flavor! Local food writer Lia Huber leads this hands-on class that features recipes that combine meat with farm-fresh vegetables, herbs and international spices to make fantastic one dish meals. Lia's known for her fresh and simple cooking style as seen in her articles in Cooking Light and Fitness magazines. Guests will enjoy a buffet dinner of all the recipes served with local wine.
Kids Cooking Camp (hands-on)
with chef Jennifer Lange
Monday - Thursday,
July 20 - 23
9:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$259 (for ages 8-12)
This hands-on cooking camp will enable kids to find their inner chef. Chef Jennifer Lange is creating a wonderful collection of menus that the kids will cook themselves, using the freshest local ingredients and fun, interactive cooking techniques. At this cooking camp, kids will learn kitchen and food safety, proper kitchen behavior, basic measuring and prep skills and table etiquette. In addition, kids will participate in additional food-related activities such as visiting the nearby Safeway to read nutrition labels and hunt for healthy snacks, touring a local organic farm to see where our food comes from, learning how to decorate and set a table, growing sprouts, and more. Each day the kids will cook and eat lunch together. On Thursday, parents are invited for lunch cooked and served by the students.
Parents will sign a release form for field trips on the first day of camp. Camp price includes all ingredients and activities, plus lunch for one adult on Thursday. The cost for additional Thursday lunch guests are adults $8 and siblings $4.
At these
Thursday evening classes, you will learn how to taste wine like a wine
judge, exploring color, aroma and flavor. We'll start with a light dinner of salad and seasonal pizzas with a taste of a "whet your whistle" wine before pouring the first of two flights of wine. Throughout the evening you will enjoy twelve
superb wines hand-selected by Tom based on the evening's theme. There are no wrong answers as we
casually discuss what we see, smell and taste. Each
class provides a unique opportunity to taste side-by-side an inspired
compilation of wine—the price for one bottle often costs more than class
price. Tom is able to procure amazing wines for these events; check out
the wines from
previous classes to see what we mean. At the
end of the evening, you will participate in an informal "affirmation" vote to choose a
class favorite. The following week, you'll hear Tom talk about the
results of the vote on his daily radio "wine minute" on KSRO 1350.
Tasting & Talking Wine: Sonoma Coast
with Tom Simoneau
Thursday,
July 23
6:30 PM / 6:00 PM for dinner
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$50 or $60 with gourmet pizza and salad dinner
When people say, "Sonoma Coast", it conjures up the cool, damp and rugged coastline of Sonoma County. The officially recognized American Viticultural Area (AVA) called "Sonoma Coast" is the largest appellation in California, stretching west from San Pablo Bay (at the north end of the San Francisco Bay) to the coast and north to the Mendocino County line. In this half million acres, there are a number of micro-climates to taste and talk about. We'll certainly savor some cool climate pinot noir and chardonnay wines from scenic coastal wineries, but we'll also spend time talking about the other areas within this AVA that produce excellent wines such as the Petaluma Gap and the far eastern region near Carneros. We can expect some lively discussion about whether this diverse region should be divided into smaller sub-AVAs, reflecting the petition by the Fort Ross-Seaview winegrowers. Breadsticks will be
We're now offering dinner just before each Tasting & Talking Wine class to simplify your evening by ensuring you eat a wine-friendly meal at 6:00 PM just before the tasting begins at 6:30 PM. The dinner will include a 8" individual gourmet pizza with seasonal toppings (vegetarian available) and a fresh salad, plus a small glass of wine...all for $10. Please tell us if you will be joining us for dinner when you register.
Relish Culinary Adventures is partnering with Quivira Vineyards & Winery to launch a series of seasonal farm-to-table wine-estate dinners that let guests experience, in an intimate setting, estate-produced wines paired with food sourced exclusively from the same farm. The result is a truly unique expression of terroir--loosely translated as “a sense of place”.
At each of these dinners, guests will enjoy the unparalleled beauty of Quivira's Dry Creek Valley setting while learning the basics of Biodynamic farming. Winemaker/grower Steven Canter and farm manager Andrew Beedy will show-and-tell on the farming philosophy and techniques employed at Quivira. Guests will enjoy a tour of the vineyard before being seated at the linen-covered farm table to savor the luscious family-style dinner crafted by chef-farmer Doug Nicosia of Sensuous Farms paired with Quivira wines.
Farm-to-Table Wine Dinner at Quivira Vineyards
Summer: Biodiversity
with farmer/chef Doug Nicosia of Sensuous Farms
Saturday,
July 25
5:00 PM farm tour & 6:30 dinner
Quivira Vineyards and Winery, Healdsburg
$125 / $115 Slow Food members / $105 Quivira Queue members
Enjoy the flavors of summer fresh from the Quivira farm to the wine country table. Guests will be greeted with a glass of crisp, cold Quivira Sauvignon Blanc and appetizers as they meander through the farm, learning about the importance of biodiversity to a healthy, balanced farm. Guests will taste ingredients picked straight from the garden. Winemaker/grower Steven Canter, farm manager Andrew Beedy and Quivira staff will discuss their efforts to support a biodiverse farm through beekeeping and herbs used to make preparations that keep the farm healthy. Guests will then enjoy a tour of the vineyard as they walk to The Fig Tree under which we'll share the evening's feast at the beautiful, linen-covered farm table. Of course, the menu is paired with Quivira wines. Chef- farmer Doug Nicosia of Sensuous Farms has created a gorgeous, fresh menu that truly highlights the diverse bounty that comes from the Quivira soil, including several Slow Food Ark of Taste ingredients.
This dinner will be held outside on a working vineyard/farm so please dress casually, bring sunscreen and a sweater, and wear sturdy shoes. At this event, guests will walk about 300 yards through the vineyards from the winery to The Fig Tree before being seated for dinner.
A Quivira Farm-to-Table dinner will be held in each season. Save the dates:
Fall Dinner - October 10, 2009
Winter Dinner - February 13, 2010
Culinary Lunch & Learn
with chef Jennifer Lange
Wednesday,
July 29
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$39
Detailed information
Mozzarella and Burrata Cheesemaking Dinner (hands-on)
with chef John Franchetti of Rosso Pizzeria
Friday,
July 31 SOLD OUT. Thank you.
6:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$89
See the recent Press Democrat article about Chef John and his mozzarella class at Relish
Chef John Franchetti leads this hands-on workshop where guests will make fresh Mozzarella and Burrata cheeses and incorporate them into a fantastic wood-fired dinner. Chef John makes fresh Mozzarella and his signature Burrata from fresh cheese curds every morning at his Rosso Pizzeria in Santa Rosa. Guests will be very surprised how easy it is to make fresh mozzarella from curds...and the results are delicious. (Lots of "yumming" at this class....Mmmmmm!) Chef John will share techniques for making different size mozzarella balls like bocconcini and divulge his top secret recipe for Burrata (mozzarella stuffed with a luscious ricotta cheese mixture). All guests will stretch Mozzarella, make Burrata filling and create mini Burratas. After all the cheesemaking, we'll create some of the most popular dishes from the Rosso menu, throwing pizza dough and baking pizzas and piadines in Relish's Mugnaini wood-fired oven. We'll enjoy our homemade feast with Seghesio Fiano and Barbera Italian varietal wines.
- Mozzarella and Buratta (Mozzarella balls stuffed with a fresh Ricotta filling)
- Caprese Salad - Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Salad
- Burrata with Parma Prosciutto
- Wood-Fired Pizza Margherita (Pizza with Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella)
- Wood-Fired Caprese Piadine (Flatbread with Pesto, Mozzarella, Tomatoes and Arugula Salad)
August
On The Farm: Garden Creek Rancho Dinner
with chef Dan Lucia
Saturday,
August 1
4:30 - 8:00 PM
Garden Creek Ranch & Vineyards, Healdsburg
$110
If you're looking for an off-the-beaten-path adventure, this event is for you. Winemakers Karen Warnelius and Justin Miller are opening up their beautiful Garden Creek Ranch in Alexander Valley for this unique event. Guests will begin with a tour of the winery as they learn about family grapegrowing and the grape products—VerJus and Saba—produced by Karen & Justin's Terra Sonoma business. A refreshing VerJus Sparkling Wine Cocktail and appetizers will whet your appetite as guests participate in making a variety of fresh salsas. We'll then walk to the dinner area, a scenic overlook above Alexander Valley where the vineyard views are spectacular. Here chef Dan Lucia will lead a cooking demonstration of seasonal foods inspired by the rancho heritage of the area. Chef Dan will grill meat and veggies and we'll enjoy a family-style rancho dinner paired with Garden Creek wines.
Wednesday,
August 5
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$39
Detailed information
Kids in the Kitchen: Lunch Fun (hands-on)
with chef Amy Schaeffers
Friday,
August 7
10:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$60 (for ages 5 - 8 years)
This fun and interactive lunch class for 5-8 year olds will focus on favorite summer foods prepared in a fun way with a variety of different shapes and colors. Kids will “invent” their own fruit smoothies with a variety of ripe summer fruit, make a seasonal salad “roll” that they can dip in a tasting dressing, shape and grill mini burgers and learn how easy it is to make crisp topping for their favorite summer fruit. The class is very "hands-on" and is designed to inspire kitchen creativity as kids make all the dishes from scratch and learn knife skills, kitchen safety and hygiene, how to properly measure dry and liquid ingredients, how to follow a recipe, and much more. Kids will enjoy their lunch at the end of the class.
Locals and visitors alike are smitten by the Healdsburg Farmers Market where farmers, fishermen, cheesemakers, olive oil producers and other artisans come togther to create a mutually sustaining gathering place for the community. Meet these purveyors, taste their exquisite products and explore new flavors at these monthly Chef's Market classes. Guests will stroll through the market with a local chef, meet the farmers and learn about seasonal products, saving time to purchase farm-fresh goodies as desired. The chef will then lead a brief cooking demonstration at the market before walking back to the Relish Culinary Center for a hands-on cooking workshop featuring the freshest of ingredients from the market. Each class will end with a delicious buffet lunch.
Chef's Market: Slow Lunch (hands-on)
with Elissa Rubin-Mahon
Saturday,
August 8
10:00 AM
Relish Culinary Center and Healdsburg Farmers Market, Healdsburg
$94
After our Farmers Market tour and cooking demonstration, chef, forager and Slow Food advocate Elissa Rubon-Mahon will lead guests as they create a delicious lunch with locally-grown and foraged ingredients. We'll start the class by making and canning peach chutney—each guest will take home a small jar—with Elissa sharing techniques perfected through her Artisan Preserves business. Guests will then transition into creating each flavorful course under the watchful eye of chef Elissa. Elissa is known for cooking with the best seasonal ingredients and creating mouth-watering flavor combinations. Guests will enjoy a buffet lunch with local wine.
Monthly Chef's Market classes will be held on the second Saturday of each month through November.
On The Farm: Dry Creek Peach
with chef John Ash
Saturday,
August 8
4:30 - 8:00 PM
Dry Creek Peach, Healdsburg
$125
It's our fourth year at Dry Creek Peach for the peak of the peach season and one of the highlights of the Relish annual calendar. Guests are greeted on a hot August afternoon with a chilled White Peach Bellini and ripe heirloom peach samples. Farm owners Gayle and Brian Sullivan then lead you on a tour of the beautiful orchard in the gorgeous wine-growing Dry Creek Valley. After the tour, celebrated chef and author John Ash will demonstrate a sophisticated dinner that features (what else?) peaches and other produce from the farm. A complete four-course dinner will be served with Dry Creek Valley wines.
Surrounded by vineyards, Dry Creek Peach & Produceis the last remaining fruit farm in the Dry Creek valley appellation and the only dedicated, certified organic peach farm in Sonoma County. Please wear sturdy shoes and a sun hat for the orchard tour.
Mozzarella and Burrata Cheesemaking Lunch (hands-on)
with chef John Franchetti of Rosso Pizzeria
Sunday,
August 9 SOLD OUT. Thank you.
11:00 AM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$89
See the recent Press Democrat article about Chef John and his mozzarella class at Relish
Chef John Franchetti leads this hands-on workshop where guests will make fresh Mozzarella and Burrata cheeses and incorporate them into a fantastic wood-fired dinner. Chef John makes fresh Mozzarella and his signature Burrata from fresh cheese curds every morning at his Rosso Pizzeria in Santa Rosa. Guests will be very surprised how easy it is to make fresh mozzarella from curds...and the results are delicious. (Lots of "yumming" at this class....Mmmmmm!) Chef John will share techniques for making different size mozzarella balls like bocconcini and divulge his top secret recipe for Burrata (mozzarella stuffed with a luscious ricotta cheese mixture). All guests will stretch Mozzarella, make Burrata filling and create mini Burratas. After all the cheesemaking, we'll create some of the most popular dishes from the Rosso menu, throwing pizza dough and baking pizzas and piadines in Relish's Mugnaini wood-fired oven. We'll enjoy our homemade feast with Seghesio Fiano and Barbera Italian varietal wines.
Wednesday,
August 12
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$39
Detailed information
At these
Thursday evening classes, you will learn how to taste wine like a wine
judge, exploring color, aroma and flavor. We'll start with a light dinner of salad and seasonal pizzas with a taste of a "whet your whistle" wine before pouring the first of two flights of wine. Throughout the evening you will enjoy twelve
superb wines hand-selected by Tom based on the evening's theme. There are no wrong answers as we
casually discuss what we see, smell and taste. Each
class provides a unique opportunity to taste side-by-side an inspired
compilation of wine—the price for one bottle often costs more than class
price. Tom is able to procure amazing wines for these events; check out
the wines from
previous classes to see what we mean. At the
end of the evening, you will participate in an informal "affirmation" vote to choose a
class favorite. The following week, you'll hear Tom talk about the
results of the vote on his daily radio "wine minute" on KSRO 1350.
Tasting & Talking Wine: Topic TBD
with Tom Simoneau
Thursday,
August 13
6:30 PM / 6:00 PM for dinner
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$50 or $60 with gourmet pizza and salad dinner
Details coming soon
Wednesday,
August 19
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$39
Detailed information
On The Farm: ZIN Garden
with chef Jeff Mall
Friday,
August 21
4:30 - 8:00 PM
Eastside Farms, Healdsburg
$125
Upon arriving at Eastside Farm, you'll be handed a cold farm-inspired refreshment as chefs Jeff and Susan Mall lead a tour of their private ZIN Garden, giving you an exclusive look at the seasonal ingredients that inspire Jeff's regional American cooking style at ZIN Restaurant. We’ll help pick ripe ingredients for the cooking demonstration where chefs Jeff and Susan will utilize the hand-built wood-fired oven. Dinner will be served as guests enjoy the vineyard views, watch the sun set behind the western hills, and savor some premium local wines.
In his quest to use the freshest ingredients, Jeff Mall, executive chef and co-owner of ZIN Restaurant in Healdsburg, created the ZIN Garden at Eastside Farm with his wife Susan. Together they grow beans, squash, peppers, herbs and twenty varieties of heirloom tomatoes, plus fruit trees and blackberry bushes and....CHICKENS! (Check out Susan's (aka Chicken Mama's) blog for the latest on "the girls.") All On the Farm classes will be held outdoors so please wear sturdy shoes, dress casually and in layers, and bring a sun hat.
Summer Salads (hands-on)
with Lia Huber
Saturday,
August 22
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$84
Mid-August is the beginning of the big harvest season here in Sonoma County for not only grapes but all the summer produce like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, squash and more. Farmers markets and home gardens are teeming with all of these wonderful fresh fruits and veggies so the timing for a great salad class is perfect. Local food writer Lia Huber is known for her fresh and delicious recipes that have been featured in Cooking Light and other publications. Lia will expand your salad horizon with recipes that not only use seasonal produce but also whole grains, global spices and flavors and creative dressings. In addition, all of these recipes can easily be adapted for both vegetarians and carnivores, making them great for crowd-pleasing entertaining. Our salad buffet lunch will be served with premium local wines.
Wednesday,
August 26
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$39
Detailed information
Tales of New Orleans
with chef Poppy Tooker
Wednesday,
August 26
6:00 - 9:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$79 / $97 including a copy of Poppy's Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook ($24.95 value)
We are thrilled to offer this class with native New Orleanian chef and food activist Poppy Tooker. Poppy's motto "Eat it to save it" runs through all she does and cooks. A sought-after speaker and culinary personality, Poppy entertains and educates through her cooking demonstrations punctuated with personal stories, regional history and culinary lore. Experience for yourself how dishes like these are more than food, they are a connection to the foodways of a region rich in culinary history. New Orleans meets Sonoma as guests enjoy this authentic New Orleans meal paired with local wines.
Can't make it to the class but want to meet Poppy and buy the book? Come to a book signing at the Relish Culinary Center from 2:00 - 4:00 pm on August 26th. We look forward to seeing you!
Gluten Free Eating (hands-on)
with chef Victoria Blumenstein
Thursday,
August 27
6:00 - 9:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$79
More and more people are exploring ways to remove or minimize gluten in their diets as they discover an intolerance or allergy to foods that contain wheat. And so many foods contain wheat. The obvious ones are bread, pasta, crackers and cookies—easy enough to identify and stay away from but often favorite foods that are difficult to remove from daily eating habits. Many processed foods contain "hidden" wheat-based ingredients like soy sauce, flavored yogurt and canned soups. To ensure that wheat is completely removed from a diet, food must be cooked from scratch. Chef Victoria Blumenstein perfected her gluten-free recipes cooking for a friend whose daughter has Celiac Disease. Chef Victoria will lead guests as they make a variety of recipes, some are creative examples of non-wheat dishes and others are direct substitutes of their wheat-based counterparts. In particular, there will be a focus on making gluten-free pizza dough, gluten-free sweet and savory pastry, and decadent gluten-free cookies—especially the secrets for baking with wheat flour alternatives. You'll go home confident that you can provide your friends and family delicious and creative gluten-free dishes. The complete meal will be served with local wine.
On The Farm: Cider Making Workshop and Harvest Lunch (hands-on)
with farmer/chef Doug Nicosia
Saturday,
August 29
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Sensuous Farms, Sebastopol
$108
We return to Sensuous Farms for this festive Cider Making event with chef/farmer Dough Nicosia. Guests will pick apples and participate in pressing the apples to make fresh cider. Chef Doug will share information and recipes for turning the juice into hard cider or vinegar. Each guest will take a quart of fresh cider and a bit of mother vinegar to experiment at home. After our cider-making activities, we'll sit at the farm table and enjoy a seasonal farm lunch with wine.
September
On The Farm: Artisanal Pickling Workshop and Italian Picnic (hands-on)
with farmer/chef Doug Nicosia
Sunday,
September 13
10:00 - 3:00 PM
Sensuous Farms, Sebastopol
$108
Homemade pickles are easy to make, delicious and the perfect answer to the annual question, "What do I do with all this zucchini!?" Chef and farmer Doug Nicosia will lead guests as they make and can pickled veggies using a variety of methods such as lactic acid, salt & vinegar, and classic vinegar pickles. As with all of his classes, ingredients are grown by Doug on his farms using organic/Biodynamic methods. In addition to pickling techniques, guests will pick produce from the farm while learning about Doug's farming practices, the heirloom vegetable varieties he grows, and the complete process for prepping, pickling and canning using natural old world methods (which means no added chemicals.) At the end of the class, we'll sit at the long farm table for an Italian-inspired picnic of Doug's Sensuous Farms paté, salumi, mustards and our newly-made pickles with local bread, cheese and Quivira wines. Guests will take home one jar of each of the pickles and copies of recipes.
This class will be held outside on a working farm so please dress casually, bring sunscreen and wear sturdy shoes. Guests will be standing for about 2 hours for the pickling portion of the event, then seated for the farm lunch. Two glasses of wine will be provided with the lunch; guests are welcome to bring additional wine to enjoy and share.
Cheesemaking Workshop: Fresh Cheeses and Wine (partial hands-on)
with chef Sheana Davis
Sunday,
September 20
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Relish Culinary Center, Healdsburg
$89
At this interactive workshop, Sheana Davis, cheesemaker and producer of The Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference, will show you how to make a variety of fresh cheeses, including chevre (fresh goat cheese), crème fraiche and fromage blanc with assistance from guests. Starting with a brief discussion of artisan cheesemaking, chef Sheana will demonstrate cheesemaking techniques that are surprisingly easy to reproduce at home. Sheana will share creative recipes for each of the cheeses, including her newly launched Delice de la Vallee cheese. Each cheese dish will be served with a different local wine as Sheana talks about how to pair wine and cheese. The final course will be a cheese course featuring artisan cheeses and creative accompaniments. Each guest will take home instructions and a Crème Fraiche culture to encourage you to make cheese at home.