Everett Doner, Executive Chef Events
Executive Chef Events’ Culinary Activities are designed to be a deliciously fun way to spend an afternoon or evening with friends, colleagues, or co-workers. In addition to great times and tasty food, we pride ourselves on making our interactive culinary experiences valuable to every home chef.
Our cooking classes, naturally, make learning fun and easy, and unlike many of our peers, we select our chef instructors based not only on their culinary skills but also how well they can effectively communicate and demonstrate the skills of their craft. We want every participant to leave one of our classes with some new recipes and some confidence as well as tips and tricks to avoid pitfalls when cooking any number of dishes. Here are some examples of what you can pick up from our activities:
Chicken Parm - that classic Italian dish, that we teach in our Italian Cooking Class, originates as much in America as from Italy. Cook the chicken cutlets and the red sauce separately - and bring them together only at the very end - to keep the crispy crust you've worked so hard to create.
Caesar Salad Dressing -Another recipe we feature in our Italian Cooking Class, this is a classic dressing that is common because it’s so darned good. It’s a great way to learn how to create an emulsion as well as work with anchovies as a background flavor (the right Caesar dressing shouldn’t taste fishy, only meaty and super-savory.) Additionally, as with many Italian foods, you don’t want to overdo it with the garlic - less is more, despite what you might think about Italian American dishes!
Hummus - There are dozens of variations to this dish that can be found across the Mediterranean; that’s why it’s a favorite recipe of our Medityerannean Cruise Cooking Class. This means there’s no such thing as a perfect “Authentic” hummus - or, rather, every version is! Let us help you learn about balancing the starches, liquids, oils, salt, and acid that go into this dish. And one tip: don’t forget the Sumac! It’s a reddish-purple berry used throughout the middle east, and it provided acidity to the entire region thousands of years before citrus made their way from Asia to the middle east.
Roux the day - Gumbo, the cornerstone of our American Comfort Food Classics menu, is a wonderful reflection on a multitude of culinary traditions from Indigenous peoples of Pre-colonial America and Africa, tempered through french culinary techniques. Making a Roux (sometimes called cajun napalm when hot) is the backbone of a good gumbo, and we pride ourselves in being able to teach you how to make a proper one - either with wheat flour or a gluten-free one - right the first time, with no burning.
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