Chef Greg Singh at GO Cooking

Chef Greg Singh at GO Cooking

The table is set for guests to enjoy wines
chosen for each course by the evening's sommelier.

Chef Greg Singh filled the house on Tuesday evening at GO Cooking in Hamilton.  Guests reserved their spot months in advance to learn how he adds his own twist to the comfort foods of our autumn harvest.  Potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes; they all conjure memories of festive dinners and family gatherings. Our chef-instructor turned up the heat, though, adding chili oil to his soup, chorizo and jalapeño to the crown roast stuffing, garlic and caraway to the brussel sprouts and, best of all, bourbon to the sweet potato pie. 

The menu:

Butternut squash soup with candied pecans and chili oil

Crown roast of pork, stuffed with chorizo and cornbread

Yukon Gold mashed potatoes with garlic and buttermilk

Braised fennel

Brussel sprouts with garlic and caraway

Glazed carrots

Sweet potato, maple syrup and bourbon pie

Check our recipe page for a couple of Chef Greg's creations. 

Spinning veal into gold

 Chef Dan instructs on how valuable good butchery skills can be to the bottom line. 

With his gloved hand, Chef cuts carefully
around the knuckle and along the bone.  

The leg of veal was courtesy of Delft Blue Veal. The entertainment value was added by Chef Dan Notley. With practiced skill, a sharp knife and an alchemist’s outlook, he demonstrated how to transform a $200 primal cut into steaks, roasts and cutlets, and bits and bones for burgers, osso bucco, soup, stews, sandwiches and sauces. Those can translate to at least $1200 at the till in an upscale restaurant: not bad for a one-hour date with a skilled butcher. 

After the demonstration, this hindshank was braised for a couple
of hours until it was melt-in-your-mouth tender.

The secret's in the sauce...and the soup, and the appetizers.

       
Where Cook Basic classes hinge on foundation and technique, Advanced students spend a lot of time expanding on those fundamentals and nurturing their creativity. With Advanced classes following on the heels of Basic level, students are thrown right into a series of days that test their memory, concentration, creativity and organizational skills.

The challenge starts with sauces: reviewing the five mother sauces that are spun like gold into dozens of delectable smooth-as-velvet, sweet, savory, fiery or tangy finishes that can make a well-crafted dish pop, sizzle and sing.

Simon whipped up a Hollandaise sauce
over hot water.

During Week Two they revisit a number of soups and breads, and learn a few new ones along the way. The process of making a sparkling clear consommé is reviewed, from its birth as a full-flavored stock through its clarification. With a list of 15 different soups- everything from purees and cream soups to clear broths- they build their repertoire of breads alongside. The week culminates in a two-hour demonstration of their skills, with five soups and five breads to show for their efforts. 

Nathan made crispy chips from paper-thin
slices of  candy cane beets.

Appetizer week finds the budding chefs turning out progressively more imaginative and abundant morsels. The final day finds them absorbed in the kitchen, their concentration casting a blanket of silence save for the muted thud of knives against the cutting boards. This deceiving stillness, though, gives way to the clatter of china plates with the call from Chef Dan, “Five minutes to service, folks!”