One of things I love about my life is that I get to give back as much as possible. There is nothing like the joy of helping out others in need or feeding someone that can’t feed themselves. Often I’ll submit my services for cooking lessons to silent auctions for several charities and it’s win – win situation for me, because I get help these charities make money and the people that bid on my services usually become new clients.
Just last week I donated a $200 cooking lesson to www.womenforwomen.org for a fundraising event they did at the Canvas LA downtown organized by super coordinator Megan Davis. It was beautiful event by the pool full of people willing to give for a worthy cause. I stayed for about an hour until I had to go make some food for another client, but the event still turned out great.
The next week I receive an email from somebody saying they had the winning bid for the cooking lesson in the silent auction and what was my availability to do the cooking lesson. Since I was going to be out of town for about a week I thought it would be best to schedule it for when I return back to LA.
We made plans to do the lesson on a Friday night around 7pm, because they wanted to go see Julie and Julia to get inspired for the cooking lesson.
As I walked in this beautiful duplex in West LA I was taken by how welcoming the atmosphere of the décor made me feel when I walk thru the door. From eclectic furniture to the art on there walls with framed menus from there favorite restaurants. The kitchen was very modern and CLEAN which I love when clients have clean kitchens because if it isn’t clean I end up leaving them cleaner than they were after I’m done.
The three ladies Jamie, Celina, and Elise were very ecstatic about getting right to the food and I had no problem with that, because that’s what I was there for and believe me I was
ready.
Beverages started flowing and the party was about to begin. Another girl showed up shortly after Jamie’s gorgeous friend Lori who just happened to be from my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio it actually turned out that she was just born there but raised in California, but it still was a crazy coincidence. After hanging out for a minute Lori left, because she felt like a fifth wheel. Celina was waiting for her husband Josh to bring the wine since that was one of his two tasks for that day the other being to bring cheese also. The ladies started making drinks with vodka and rum but they really wanted some wine to go along with the meal that I had planned.
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First I wanted to show them how to make the Chocolate Cinnamon Bread Pudding from scratch so they can see how easy it was to do. Now I don’t normally cook from a recipe it’s mostly by memory and technique, but for them I measured it out so they could get an idea of the recipe. After I finished showing them how to make the bread pudding I slid it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Just like clockwork Josh walks in with the wine and some gourmet cheese from trader joe’s that the girls were just crazy about because Elise and Jamie couldn’t stop eating it.
After Josh and I introduced ourselves then I proceeded to make the Curried Brown Rice with Cranberries. I brought my own non stick skillet since i'm more familiar with it and clean up is also easier because I can just take it with me if I don’t have time to clean it up.
Soon as I started to sauté with the onions in butter and added the curry the ladies made there way to kitchen individually to see what was causing that amazing aroma. I told them step-by-step what I was doing and that they could substitute the butter with flax seed oil to make it healthier. The only dish that required the most work was the butter sautéed carrots with vanilla. The carrots needed to be peeled and sliced unlike the brown rice which I pre-cooked before I made it to the house, because everybody knows how to cook rice at least they should. As I proceeded to make the carrots that’s when Elise husband Tim finally arrived to the party, a very energetic and animated sort of guy that made the night a little more fun with his witty conversation and entertaining stories. Now we were waiting on more dinner guest and that was Jamie’s date for the evening Joe, he arrive right before I was about to demonstrate how to make the Sweet Potato Crusted Salmon with Rosemary Cream Sauce He turned out to be a very cool down to earth type person that can roll with any situation and Jamie seemed to really relieved that he finally made it.
After we finished the last rounds of introductions I prepared the Salmon by rubbing on a mustard/mayo mixture for an adhesive coating for the sweet potatoes to cling to while cooking. Into the oven the Salmon went then we had some light conversation about dancing and various other parts of our life, then Elise proceeded to tell me she is a dancer as well which wasn’t really that surprising since she looked like a ballerina type anyway.
ooohs and ahhhhs it’s funny to me to hear that every time I make a dessert and the final product is revealed.
As I cleaned up the kitchen Celina broke the camera out and all of a sudden the whole room was her subject. The Salmon was close to being done so I started to reheat the rice and carrots in the sauté pan so it would be nice and hot when the Salmon was done.
When the Salmon was done we took out some plates and I begin to put the food on the dishes and distributed then around the table in and orderly fashion making sure everybody had a plate with equal portions of food well at least that’s the way I tried to coordinate the whole meal and it worked out.
Everyone begin to eat and have conversation with pleasure, the dinner turned out well with satisfaction across the board. Now it was time for the dessert. This is the fastest I’ve ever made this Chocolate Cinnamon Bread Pudding so I was kind of worried that it might not turn out as well as the last time I made it. As I was taking it out of the oven I noticed that it did indeed turn out splendidly.
We collected the plates from the dinner and I was proud to see clean plates except for some bits and pieces of rice and carrots, but that’s pretty normal. I plated the bread pudding trying to give the guys bigger slices so they can dig in a little deeper and boy did they dig. I don’t nobody enjoyed it more than Tim, because as I remember I don’t think it was a spec of chocolate left on his plate……..Good Job!
Enjoyable as it was the evening for me had to come to an end. After finishing the clean up and hauling my equipment back to the car I said my goodbyes, but the party for them kept going. I LOVE MY JOB!!
Chef Lovejoy Cole
The Dancing Chef
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