The Last Days of Summer: A cooking class with Caprial + John

I signed up for a cooking class last night with Caprial + John’s Kitchen. Last year I was able to attend one of their supper clubs, which was my first taste of their food in a family-style dining atmosphere in their beautiful backyard of their home (they usually hold it in their Kitchen, but circumstances had them move it to their backyard so it was like a wonderful summer party with friends). As fate had it, this class also would get moved to be held at their home instead of their kitchen/classroom, so I got to have another summer evening with food and friends and strangers thanks to Caprial and John. Even though it was unseasonably autumn chilly, John pulled out various sweatshirts for some of the participants, and there was warmth from their outdoor pizza oven too as well as their grill, burner, and various torches they had lit,

The cooking class gave me an opportunity to try another venue besides HipCooks, and also allowed me to dig into some Caprial + John Pence recipes which are more Pacific Northwest cuisine inspired. As a plus, the class offerings can be used to pace out a full formal meal (appetizer, salad, entree, side dish, and a dessert). Caprial and John are professionals- they used to run a quite famous restaurant, Caprial hosted a television cooking show and authored several cookbooks, and this duo is part of the movement and history that  helped give Northwest cuisine a name in American food.

The format for the classes is a demonstration by this husband and wife team that allows the participants to watch food preparation while asking questions and taking notes on their tips for variations or execution, and then dine one those products in a BYOB atmosphere (you can enjoy the BYOB from prep to dessert). It is also fun to be part of their banter and hear them tell their stories from their days working the line, running the restaurant, and making the dish for their family, all under the twinkling lights of their backyard and under the late summer sky with a glass of wine in hand.

On the list for the “Last Days of Summer” class included:

• Slow Roasted Tomato Salad on a bed of Mozzarella with Warm Anchovy Dressing
• Stuffed Grilled Pork Loin with Fontina, Roasted Garlic and Herbs
• Corn Salad with Bacon Tempura
• Potatoes in Parchment with Sweet Onions
• Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Bacon Caramel Sauce

Our first bites were enjoyed while still in the demonstration part of the class, the appetizer of slow roasted tomato salad with mozzarella and anchovy dressing. You can barely taste the anchovy… and I know when I make this salad to serve it with bread to mop up that dressing afterwards.

The highlight was making bacon tempura in their backyard kitchen/grill/pizza oven area for the corn salad with bacon tempura. We talked about lots of wonderfulness that can be made with the pan roasted corn niblets. But, watching that bacon tempura in progress was enough to make several of us pull out our cameras (after being discreet during the earlier part of the class) to capture that food pron…

We learned how to butterfly and stuff these grilled pork loins. John taught us the adult way to tie the loins, and then the children’s way involving a bunny, tree, and fox… which is totally the one I wrote down and still remember today. They came out of the grill all oozy like this

Dinner Plate for the dinner dining part

And finally dessert, the Grilled Peach with Mascarpone Bacon Caramel Sauce. Caprial carefully ensured we knew enough to be patient and leave the pot alone for the sugar browning, all saw the color for when to finally start stirring, and tales of smokestacks coming from the pot if you don’t keep your eye on your sugar.