Winter & Spring 2013 Cooking Classes

Ah, the new year. Time for reflection, refreshing and
restart. Take a half step back and a full step forward. If you subscribe to an
Asian mindset toward the new year, you can celebrate twice – first for the
solar calendar and then again for the lunar calendar. (February 10, 2013 will
launch the Year of the Snake.) That means you can take your time to set goals
and meet them!

I’ve been cleaning my office and making sure that I square
away past commitments and have new ones in check on my schedule. Last year was
crazy with the book launch, travel and events. I hope to mostly stay close to
home this year, especially because I have the book manuscript to work on.

Additionally, I’ve  committed
to teaching a number of local cooking classes. They are all hands-on classes
and geared for lots of learning and fun.

It used to be that I had to travel faraway to teach engaging,
intensive classes but this won’t be the case in 2013. Thus far, the class schedule
includes:

4-hour classes at
Love Apple Farms: We sold out the first time around with this series of
classes so we’re running them again. Some people took all of them, driving as
far as Fresno. I already know that someone is flying out from the Midwest for
the Viet class. Love Apple Farms is a unique biodynamic farm in the Santa Cruz
Mountains, about 1 ¼ hours from San Francisco. There are locals who sign up
but many people make a day-long excursion to cook in the mountains, then
hang-out by the beach for dinner.

• Sun, Jan 27, 12-4pm:
  Asian Dumplings (great for gearing up for Chinese New Year) SOLD OUT
• Sun, Feb 24, 12-4pm: DIY Asian Tofu
  (plus a mostly vegetarian full menu of tofu dishes)
• Sat, Mar 16, 12-4pm: Get Into the Viet
  Kitchen (includes banh xeo sizzling rice crepes)
• Sat, Apr 20, 12-4pm: Asian Dumplings (added after the Jan class sold out)

5-hour classes at the
San Francisco Cooking School: This is a brand new facility in San Francisco.
The classes will be intensive and fun so I hope you’ll join me to break in the
new school. I’ve got a weekend booked in March. The longer class format means
that we can do interesting things. For example, in the tofu class, we’re going to
make yuba, fresh tofu skin that’s out of this world, not to mention vegan. The
dumpling class got tweaked a bit too from others that I’ve taught.

• Sat, Mar 23,
  10am-3pm: Homemade Tofu (go from bean to curd, make yuba, and a
  whole meal of tofu) 
• Sun, Mar 24, 10am-3pm: Asian Dumplings
  (master classic doughs, shapes, and cooking techniques) WAITLIST ONLY
• Sun, Apr 7, 10am-3pm: Asian Dumplings (added after the March class filled up)

½ day at Cakebread
Cellars: I like to offer a little wine at the end of each cooking class but
for this special class at renowned Cakebread Cellars, the winery is doing the
pairings! Hurray. I’m looking forward to what the winery uncorks. We’ll start
off with a morning hands-on class of Vietnamese favorites and then you get to
take a private tour of the winery. Finally, everyone gathers for lovely sit-down
lunch with paired wine. The staff and I will be on hand to answer questions. No
wonder Cakebread calls their cooking classes the “Good Life Series.”

• Sat, May 18,
  9:30am-early afternoon: Viet Spring Celebration (cook, drink, and
  learn about Viet food and wine pairing)

With all of these cooking classes, there is a staff to clean
up. You attend to cook and tinker. At the end, we eat the food that we make.
Hope to cook with you this year.