Cooking with Wine

Last Christmas I had this wild idea that it would be fun to take a cooking class.  It was a spur of the moment Christmas gift to a friend from a Groupon offer.  Little did I know how difficult it would be for us to take advantage of the certificate.

Not necessarily because of the company but we frankly let the coupon escape our minds for a while.  Then when we remembered my travel schedule made it difficult to take advantage of the certificate.  We finally settled on October 27th, her birthday, as the only day that it would work before the coupon ran out.

Now we know the Chicago area pretty well but I hadn't been to this part of the city before. It's not exactly a location that makes it easy to find or one that screams: "here's the perfect location for a cooking school." It's in an industrial area which I guess makes sense because in the back is a bakery churning out thousands of baguettes every night.

We were going to be completing their Chanel menu which included:

• Starter –Bouchées à la reine

• Entrée – Homemade sausage with boar

• Side – Pomme cuite, Pomme au four

• Dessert – Ile flottante

Cook au Vin provides everything necessary for food and cooking but you need to bring your own wine.  We decided on some French -- yet not so French -- wine.  

Over the past couple of years on our trips back to Sonoma we've found a small little winery, Frick Winery, run by a gentleman who absolutely has a passion for the business. And a passion for French varietals.  He's a member of the Rhone Rangers, a group of wineries that are committed to promoting the wines of the Rhone Valley. 

Bill, who does everything from caring for the vines to making the wine to managing the tasting room, has crafted some really delicious wines.  Including one I had never heard of before: Counoise. After our visit this summer I had purchased a couple of bottles and chose to bring two along for the night. As it turned out, it was a delicious pair to the meal. 

Counoise is pretty rare in the United States but it's one of the primary components of Chateau Neuf de Pape wines. The Frick Estate Counoise begins to set itself apart from other wines from the moment it's poured into a glass.  The brilliant earth red colors and aromas of plums and raspberry along with others start the experience.

Even to my unsophisticated taste, you can pick out strong fruit flavors along with a little spice.  So, while the other "students" arrive we begin with some cheese and pates to go with the wine that we brought.. I'm beginning to wonder if I brought enough.

Even to my unsophisticated taste, you can pick out strong fruit flavors along with a little spice.  So, while the other "students" arrive we begin with some cheese and pates to go with the wine that we brought.. I'm beginning to wonder if I brought enough.

Our classically-trained instructor not only does this but his full-time job is cooking for the Jesuits at Loyola University. And from his stories, they may not earn a lot or own anything but they eat extremely well. But I digress.

The class begins with us working on the dessert first.  Each couple has their own workstation. We're next to the instructor I can see close up what we're supposed to do. It begins by taking a vanilla bean and splitting it down the center and scraping out the seeds for the creme anglais (upon which the meringue sail will float). 

And now is when the dreaded "expert" cook began to rear her ugly head. You know the person -- the one who always has a comment.  In this case, they had taken a couple of cooking classes at Sur la Table and now took it upon herself to ensure the instructor was doing it "the right way." 

While classes are normally limited to six couples, this woman was part of a group of six that pushed the group to fourteen. One group too many to effectively work without bumping elbows.  For the rest of the night we were subjected to listening to her go on and on about this or that. Often missing the instructor's directions because she was talking not listening.

While the others in this group were very pleasant, Miss Know-it-All almost ruined the experience.  I won't provide a blow by blow description of the dinner but suffice it to say I learned more than a few things along the way.  

The best part of this was that the Chef/Instructor did much of the hard work ensuring that the meal was done correctly.  He did say that we did more of the work than other groups.  They primarily came to eat and drink and so they spent most of the time socializing and drinking rather than cooking.  

At the conclusion of the evening, we were all served family style.  Perhaps the most fun -- and something that will be tried at home -- was the sausage making.  

Is this something that I would do again? Probably. But it would mean that all the participants were people in my group. Then again, I might want to spend more of my time drinking and socializing rather than cooking.  At the end of the evening we had made a few new friends, learned some new things and drank some really fabulous wine.  

You can't ask for more than that.