Je suis une snob

I know this is totally impolitic, but I have a funny story to tell about one of our recent class participants. First, a little background. Ever since we opened, I have been resisting teaching a French cooking class, because I thought it would lend itself to cooking snobbery, and I can't stand that. However, people kept asking and asking for French cooking. I told them that American cooking IS French cooking, and there's really no reason to learn to make pâté or the other iconic French dishes. We just don't eat those things, despite Julia Child's best efforts. However, a couple months ago Krista volunteered to teach a French cooking class, so I gave in and put it on the schedule.

A few weeks ago, Krista sent me her recipes for the upcoming French class. While I was editing them, I was thinking how fussy French cooking is. French recipes start with instructions like, "Take a very fresh chicken..." Here in the land of the free, we take whatever chicken we get at the store. Plus I was all grumpy about having to look up where to put the accent marks: I know enough French to be annoyed when people get their accents wrong, but not enough to be totally sure of them myself.

As I was helping Krista set up for the class, I was complaining about prissy French cooking, and I snidely speculated that the people who choose to take a French cooking class might not be my favorite bunch. Right at that moment (I'm finally getting to the point of the story here), the first class participant arrived...wearing chef's whites and a beret. I had to leave the room to avoid an embarrassing fit of laughter. Luckily Krista was much more gracious and mature.

However, everyone else got the last laugh, because the class turned out to be totally fun (and the beret guy wasn't snobby at all), and I realized during the class that it is really true that many of the basic techniques of American cooking are embedded in the French culinary tradition. Even if you never make a classic "French" dish at home, learning those recipes will make you a better cook. So the French cooking class is here to stay, and if it makes you have a better time, you are welcome to wear a beret.

Butter butter butter butter butter

Butter is my new favorite food. Not ingredient, food. Generous Servings now uses only homemade butter in all our cooking, which gives you another reason to have one of our croissants or scones--they are more homemade than almost anything you'll ever eat.

It is very fun to have a bowl full of ten pounds of butter, as you can see:



And it is very good for moisturizing one's hands. This is not to say that my butter recipe development has been without frustrations. There has been a lot of cream thrown out of the mixer onto the floor. One time the cream never turned into butter, although I mixed it for about an hour and a half (usually it takes 15 minutes). That evening our cleaners happened to be working in the kitchen, and they asked me several times what I was making. I kept saying that I was making butter, and they would look dubiously at the bowl full of cream, which never looked remotely like butter. The next time they came, I was making cultured butter, which requires me to sterilize all the implements I use, so I had an array of big pots of boiling water, alcohol swabs, thermometers, and spoons balanced precariously to prevent their bowls from touching the counter, and a whole area of the kitchen blocked off. Again, the cleaners asked what I was doing, and I said I was making butter. At this point, they think I'm delusional.

One of the unexpected difficulties of selling food is dealing with the packaging. It's taken me a long time to figure out the best way to package the butter: what shape should it be in? where do I get the right kind of foil? how big should the label be? And that stuff is expensive, particularly if you aren't buying it in huge quantities. But the Micro-Market is opening in less than a month, so today I made some big decisions and ordered the equipment I need to scale up this project.

How can you get your hands on some of this great butter? I'm glad you asked. At the Highland Micro-Market (MiMa), of course! I will be there with lots of butter, along with other local producers selling vegetables, fruit, herbs, meats, honey, eggs, and more. We've been spending lots of time getting ready for the MiMa, so we really hope to have a great turnout when we open! Heck, just come for the free butter samples. The MiMa will be held every Thursday from 2-6 pm, starting May 14, on the Generous Servings patio. Check out the website: www.HighlandMiMa.com. We'll have an option to order your butter, too, so you can be assured that I won't sell out if you're coming toward the end of the market. Stay tuned for that.