No Place Like Home -- Karen Wight

According to a February Harper’s Bazaar article titled “Is Cooking the

New Shopping?” cooking is one of the new waves of chic activities.

Chef/instructors are akin to baby nurses -- they teach you, test you,

then send you home armed with recipes and “hot-line” phone numbers, just

in case you encounter an emergency while in the middle of a chiffonade.

Enter Leslie McElroy, home chef extraordinaire. First and foremost a

mom, Leslie attended culinary school, worked at Aubergine and Haute Cakes

as a pastry chef and now teaches groups of women to boldly go into

culinary worlds they have never gone before.

Our mutual friend, Denise, invited a group of 10 women to cook in her

kitchen with Chef Leslie at the helm, directing our efforts. We were

asked to bring our favorite chopping knife, an appetite and a desire for

good conversation.

Denise lives right around the corner from me, so I considered taking a

brisk walk to her house. Somehow, walking through the neighborhood

wielding a large knife while I was wearing my favorite pair of tie-dyed

pants sounded a little too Manson-esque for me, so I opted to drive the

two blocks, Southern-California style.

I entered a woman’s heaven: good food, good wine and a great group of

“girls.” Sometimes I miss my sorority days, but this encounter had

“chick” written all over it.

We began with knife etiquette. Leslie soon asked me to put my knife

down (I was feeling so bold with my Henkel at my side) and started with

basic cooking steps. She taught us a great technique to quickly chop

onions and shallots, which became my job.

Her solution to the requisite “onion tears” was to stick your head in

the freezer. So, after chopping, I followed directions and put my head in

Denise’s freezer. There was barely room amid the cookies-and-cream ice

cream and the chocolate chip cookies, but freezing the tear ducts turned

out to be a great tip.

As the ladies divided into groups with “jobs,” I couldn’t help but be

entertained by everyone’s choices. The attorney “picked” parsley, a

lightweight job after a heavy day at work. The nursing mother beat the

eggs, which somehow struck me as funny. And the niece of the potato

farmer peeled potatoes.

Did you know the yucky parts of a potato are called “black hearts”?

Yes indeed, they are according to Anne, the niece. Her Uncle Don owns the

Cal-Arvin Ranch in the San Joaquin Valley and provides potatoes to

notables such as Carl Karcher’s.

With Anne extracting black hearts, Monica beating eggs, Susan picking

parsley and I chopping onions and shallots, the heat and the conversation

was turned up to the boiling point, and the cooking and laughter began.

Denise was a good sport about getting every pan in her kitchen dirty; our

using every burner, blender and then some; and our kicking her four

children and husband out of the house for the evening.

Leslie’s theme for the evening was “Cooking For Your Family”and the

menu consisted of meatloaf with balsamic reduction, chicken tetrazzine,

panzanella (tomato bread salad), mashed potatoes with crispy shallots

and, a bonus recipe, chocolate souffle cake.

The recipes were straightforward and although they sound complicated,

all of them would be easily manageable while answering math and grammar

questions. I’m not sure they would be manageable while nursing a baby,

but since I’m past that milestone I found all of the recipes useful and,

of course, delicious.

Leslie went through all of our questions, big and small, and never

tired of our quirky concerns about past failures. She was delightful

throughout the entire lesson and even joined us in eating our meal, the

ultimate act of faith. Once our small army finished cooking, we all sat

at beautifully set tables and enjoyed the fruits -- and meats and

starches -- of our efforts. Of course, the conversation rivaled the food

for the top spot, which made the evening a success on all levels.

It’s an activity that I highly recommend you do with your own group of

friends, or better yet, gather a group of “girls” that haven’t met before

and find out what a small world it is. After all, good food, good friends

and good conversation are some of our best and most memorable blessings.

Thanks Denise, Leslie and the bevy of babes that I spent a wonderful

evening with. If you would like to plan an “event” of your own, you can

contact Leslie McElroy at lpmcelroy@earthlink.net. It’s not only good for

the family menu plan, but also a nice treat you can give yourself. Bon

apetit.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs Sundays.