Café Juicy Lotus

Last night I got participate in a cooking class at Café Juicy Lotus. Before I say anything else - that was fun!

The class actually took place at their Harvard Café location and 10 of us showed up. The owner, Gigi Cohen, was away on holiday, but her daughter and general manager Jessica welcomed us, and Chef Tom spent 3 1/2 hours explaining, demonstrating, preparing and getting us involved in making: a basic tomato sauce, a vegan lasagna, minestrone soup, Mexican style vegetables with polenta, kale and avocado salad, and Teriyaki style vegetables. Everything was vegan too, which was great!

I suppose the primary thing I took away from the class was keep it simple. Nothing Chef Tom showed us was difficult, time consuming or required a day's worth of shopping for ingredients. It was also fun to see him demonstrate his knife techniques, the sizzle of a well heated pan, and how to flip your veggies in a frying pan. In having the attendees participate, it was also kind of fun to see who knew how to handle a knife and who did not. (Naturally, I was one who did and I also had the answer to a couple of other questions so I think I would've gotten an A if we'd been graded.)

Would I do another? Yes, I think I would. But I might prefer something with a theme. Eating Italian, Mexican and Chinese style food (tastes) in one sitting isn't something I'm used to, so I found that a bit different. Also, I might prefer a class that took place during the day on a weekend because eating teriyaki veggies at nearly 10pm is a bit hard for me to digest.

Oh yeah, and this also means that #41 on my Life List - Take a cooking class (preferably sushi class but any kind will do) - Check!