Brewing up the good stuff

Jennifer K Mahal

“This keeps me on my toes,” Janice Morrow says, moments before the

doorbell rings and 12 giggly girls invade for a cooking class in

Morrow’s large, immaculate, professional kitchen.

The girls from Brownie Troop 282 have come to The White Apron

School of Culinary Design, in Morrow’s Eastbluff home, to prepare a

Halloween menu. An all-girl class is unusual, Morrow said. The

majority of her students are boys.

The menu this night is truly frightful -- Black Caldron Worms with

Pumpkin Seed Pesto, Parmesan Bone Bread, Layered Pumpkin Spice

Monster Eyeball Cakes with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting and Witches

Finger Brew. None of the girls, ages 7 to 9, look especially

terrified, though, as they pick their seats at child-sized tables.

The classes always include something savory, something sweet and a

fun drink.

“Whatever they make that’s sweet, they take home to share with

their family,” said Morrow, who also teaches cooking classes at

Corona del Mar High School and at Sur La Table. “I don’t want to

sugar the kids up.”

Each place setting has an apron, a towel and a paper chef’s hat

with a star cut out at the top. The professional hats, which Morrow

has imported from France, are too big for the girls, who end up

having to tape the sides to fit.

A 13th girl arrives unexpectedly. Although classes here normally

contain 12, the chef takes in stride, sending assistant Lupita Pena

out for another place setting and putting a seat at the head of the

table.

It takes Morrow a week to prepare for one of her classes. Not only

does the 42-year-old mother of four pretest every recipe, timing it

to make sure everything will be done in an hour and a half, she also

runs around buying the freshest ingredients from area stores and

farmer’s markets.

“My policy is that they don’t have to like everything we make,”

Morrow said, “but I love for them to try it.”

Morrow, a Newport Beach native, started The White Apron School

after receiving culinary training around the country. She studied at

The International School of Baking in Oregon, The New Orleans School

of Cooking, The French Pastry School in Chicago and other places.

“We would spend our vacation time where I could catch a class at a

cooking school,” she said, crediting her husband, Bill, for his

support.

Three years ago, Morrow put fliers out at her youngest son’s

preschool, advertising classes for children ages 4 to 11. The classes

filled in two days. Now her business is run by word of mouth. She

holds signups twice a year, and her classes -- including her

twice-a-month adult classes -- are booked by the end of the day. With

only 12 children per class and four classes a week, there’s usually a

waiting list.

Clay Thabit has been taking classes with Morrow since he was 4.

The active 6-year-old said he’s learned the purpose of salt, what

baking soda does, not to eat raw eggs and how to make some pretty

yummy food.

“She takes a lot of good ingredients and mixes it all together to

make something unusual, but very good,” Clay said.

Among his favorite recipes are a frozen berry and tangerine juice

drink, a paper-wrapped chicken entree and orange roughy fish kabobs.

“He eats better if he’s cooked it, and it’s easier to get him to

try new things after cooking class,” mother Susan Thabit said.

Thabit said the classes have inspired her to cook with her son,

letting him do some of the work.

That’s the main thing Morrow hopes will result from her classes --

more time spent between parents and children.

“You’d be amazed how much kids can do, given the opportunity,”

Morrow said.

Having donned their hats, the girls line up to wash their hands

before they start cooking. Morrow is very strict about health. No

sick kids are allowed. But her class is so beloved that she has

parents who have come when their child was ill, hiring a sitter and

sitting in the tiny chairs themselves to make sure their child gets

the recipes to make at home.

The parents this night -- troop leaders Janice Markley, Diane

Brown and Kim Daboub -- sit at the adult table, watching as the

children shape pieces of dough into bone shapes.

Every class has a theme, and the UC Berkeley graduate with a

graphic design degree makes the most of it, from menus printed on

cute stationary to the cups and plates used. She orders most of her

supplies from France.

For the Halloween class, the pesto is to be served in miniature

cauldrons. Desserts will be taken home in pumpkin cartons with

sparkly orange ties. The Witches Finger Brew will be drunk from

colorful plastic cups sporting black cats and Frankenstein monsters.

Everything ties together.

And no two set of classes are alike. Morrow changes the recipes,

creating them with the help of the cookbooks that fill four

floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

The recipes this night turn out to be winners.

Morrow explains about pepitas -- roasted pumpkin seeds -- and

shows where lemon zest comes from, never talking down to the children

in the cinnamon-lemon scented kitchen. They learn about layers, how

parsley gives people good breath and why you shouldn’t lick your

knife. The tasks the girls are allowed to do are simple, but fun --

shaping dough, brushing on butter and cheese, icing cakes, mixing

pesto sauce with noodles.

Laughter fills the homey space, as the Brownies put scary red

veins on their Eyeball Cakes with a pastry bag. An eyeball gumball

finishes the concoction, which then is put away to take home. As the

girls follow Morrow to different parts of the kitchen, Pena cleans

the tables and sets up Halloween plates and napkins.

The “bones” come out of the oven, the pasta is mixed and placed in

caldrons and the story of the Witches Finger Brew is told as frozen

grapes and 7-Up are added to grape juice to make the chilly drink. As

they learn about the magical, not scary, witch who lost all her

fingers after being frightened by spiders in her wish-giving caldron,

the finishing touch is added -- ice cubes with green rubber fingers

wearing spider rings, bought from a novelty store.

“It’s grotesque,” says one of the girls.

And then it’s over. Leftovers are packaged up, the aprons and

towels placed in hampers and small parting gifts are given. The

whirlwind of child activity sweeps out, leaving the kitchen quiet

once more.

“Mom, what’s for dinner?” 15-year-old Scotty Morrow asks.

BLACK CALDRON WORMS WITH PUMPKIN SEED PESTO

3/4 cup hulled, roasted pumpkin seeds

1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup fresh basil

3/4 cup flat leaf Italian parsley

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons, olive oil

Combine pumpkin seeds, Parmesan and garlic in the bowl of a food

processor fitted with a metal blade. Process for 20 to 30 seconds.

The seeds should be finely ground. Add the basil, parsley, lemon zest

and juice. Pulse a few times. Add the oil while the machine is

running, just to mix.

Serve with cooked pasta cork screw noodles.

This will keep for three days refrigerated.

PARMESAN BONE BREAD

12 defrosted bread dough rolls

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup chopped roasted pumpkin seed

Shape dough into bone shapes. Brush the shapes with melted btter.

Sprinkle on cheese and seeds. Bake at 375 degrees until light and

golden in color, about 15 minutes.