Welcome to the heart of my kitchen, where the magic unfolds in pots, pans, and the symphony of sizzling ingredients, measured with my heart and thrown together in somehow consistently amazing dishes. The art of cooking, has long been where I flex my creativity, where meals are my canvas, and every dish is a celebration.
Despite hitting everything I’ve ever made out of the flavor park (okay yeah this is a lot of colorful language but I just love cooking and people consistently praise my cooking so shut up.) I decided to take advantage of my employers education stipend and take some cooking classes and a community dinner- Basic Knife Skills and a three week course on kitchen basics through a fantastic SF non-profit, 18Reasons. I loved it. Not only did I learn new skills, but I made new friends, ate incredible meals, and got to experience a different community in SF that I have not been apart of before.
I never really cooked anything growing up outside of breakfast foods but I did spend a lot of time in the kitchen and so I guess through osmosis is how I learned to cook. It’s weird, but I literally cannot remember what I ate the first few years after moving out, including when I first moved to SF, first lived with Sean. (is it weird to casually write about my ex? unsure but we lived together for the last six years and this is my blog so again shut it 😘). I really only started cooking on any regular basis when COVID hit, but since then cooking has evolved into my own personal wind down time after work every day.
Circling back to the classes though, I’ve decided to share 18 things that impacted me/I learned/I took away from this experience.
knife skills, I learned how to julienne a carrot and properly cut a shallot
how to properly cook a steak
how to skin a fish
I loved Chef Gracie’s teaching style- she showed us the way and then let us loose in the kitchen and I’m a learn by doing kinda gal
friends can be found in unlikely places, like random community dinners where you run into pals from the neighborhood coffee shop you go to
mixing random flavors is an experiment and highly rewarding
fried fennel is out of this world
their mission to “empower our community with the confidence and creativity needed to buy, cook, and eat good food every day”
being surrounded by other foodies is really fun
I am brave enough to try new things
plating is almost as important as the flavor
desert is essential (ok this may be opinion more than fact but we made cardamom simple syrup then infused it into whipped chantilly cream and put that over an apple crumble… need I say more?)
clean and dry your knife immediately after use
failures are easy to turn into successes, overcooked steak goes great on a salad.
exploration of flavors- chocolate olive oil cake anyone?
I don’t use enough salt
putting myself out there- I went solo to the community dinner and sat with a bunch of strangers and made some new friends!
they practice what they preach, every single person I met at the org was passionate af about the mission
I’ve already signed up for another series of classes, how to host, so get ready for even more fun parties from me. Cooking is not just about the food—it's about the stories shared, the memories created, and the love infused into each dish. Please send me your favorite recipes and then come over so I can make us dinner. (this is an open invitaion)
hasta la pasta,
Eden
