Tom ForquerIs Martha Stewart just not cutting...

Tom Forquer

Is Martha Stewart just not cutting it anymore? Invest your stock in a

new culinary mentor.

On Thursday afternoon at the Orange County Fair, chef Jan Mongell

taught her audience how to make a simple meal of albondigas soup and

gazpacho salad, giving them the additional treat of helpful tips on

cooking preparation and presentation.

In her 15 years as resident chef at the fair, Mongell has

developed a reputation for teaching accessible and practical recipes.

“She always does simple things for people who aren’t great chefs,”

said Eileen Hoffmann of Santa Ana Heights, who has been attending the

demonstrations since Mongell started at the fair.

The lesson on the stage began with the soup. The presentation was

aided by a large TV linked to a camera operated by Mongell’s husband,

Jim. The soup required meatballs, broth, a small assortment of

vegetables, rice, a can of tomatoes, salt and water -- all of which

were added to the pot and cooked simultaneously.

“The meatballs, I don’t care if you buy them or not. Who’s going

to know?” Mongell said.

The audience seemed particularly impressed by Mongell’s method of

dicing canned tomatoes, using household scissors while the tomatoes

were still in the can.

Mongell began cooking in her uncle’s restaurant at the age of 18

and has done just about everything culinary since then. She has

studied food styling and color coordination, written four cookbooks,

done cooking shows for the Trinity Broadcasting Network and has

helped develop special diets for people with brain cancer.

After the soup was put on the stove, the salad lesson began. Jim

had already prepared the ingredients -- cucumbers, mushrooms, red

onions, green peppers and tomatoes.

“I was so happy when he retired. I didn’t have to hire a sous chef

anymore,” Mongell said.

The salad was dressed to impress, with cucumbers lining the side

of the bowl and the rest of the ingredients meticulously layered.

The demonstration was periodically peppered with anecdotes about

her dog Peaches raiding her herb garden and some kitchen humor.

One joke produced quiet a few chuckles.

“It takes a smart man to let us know we’re right, even when we’re

wrong,” she said.

The salad lesson ended with instructions on how make a tomato rose

and techniques for making a napkin artichoke to complement the

stylish salad.

About 15 years ago, Mongell started Kitchen Talk, a culinary

consulting firm based in Orange and on the Web at

www.kitchentalk.com. Lately, she has been doing in-home seminars on

the art of napkin folding.

“I like to help people, that’s where I am coming from,” she said.

What she enjoys more than anything else is the look on someone’s

face when she has helped them make a dish, she said.

After the demonstration, Ron Soderwall of Santa Ana said that “I

loved that they brought the food out for us to taste.”

“It was the frosting on the cake,” his wife, Christie, added.