In last week’s column, we looked at the long history of fried rice, born of a Chinese culture that had limited proteins and vegetables but a seemingly endless supply of rice. The recipe – little more than a flexible idea, really – spread throughout Asia by way of conquest, trade or any combination thereof. This…
Category: Cooking School
Red Velvet Cake: A Southern Legend
Red velvet cake is definitely a Southern creation, arguably even a Texas creation – unless you are one of those New Yorkers who associate it with the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, or a Canadian who thinks the recipe comes from Eaton’s department store. We call the latter two kinds of people benighted souls. Seriously now. Doesn’t red…
Chocolate Crepes for Your Valentine
As a chef, and really as a person, winter is an interesting time, a time when the need for comfort magnifies. For me the winter is when I slow a bit, recharge, refocus and spend time cooped up in my warm home reacquainting with my family. As I have watched this process play out each…
Gingerbreading a Local Landmark
Working in the kitchen can be fun, entertaining, challenging, rewarding, and exciting. An adventure always waits in the kitchen and sometimes that adventure is even better when shared. At the cooking school I get to live a life of sharing every weekend. And though I reap the rewards of satisfaction and joy with each class,…
The Exotic Flavors of Smoked & Dried Chiles
The smoking and drying of meats and other perishable foods reaches back beyond written history across the Americas, so much so that when French explorers sailed into the pre-colonial Caribbean, they found locals preserving food with smoke on grates called “boucains.” Thus, in French, these obviously wild, semi-naked practitioners became “boucainiers.” When that got translated…
A LATE SUMMER VEGAN FEAST
As a chef, I am asked to do many things related to food, and from time to time those things come with challenge and intrigue. This last month has been no different and, in fact, brought the particularly fun challenge of preparing a vegan feast for some guests we were entertaining here at the Culinary…
The (Bacon-Kissed) Taste of Summer
Today, sitting in my cabin office looking out onto the peach orchard, I was taken by the simple beauty of our Texas Hill Country oasis. I looked out at the fire pit just up from the rippling pond behind our store, canopied by the pines, and I began to imagine a beautiful picnic comprised completely…
Necessity Is the Mother of Salad
Though less dramatic than “How to Cook a Wolf,” the iconic 1942 book that helped Americans deal with wartime shortages (and launched the remarkable food writing career of M.F.K. Fisher), “How to Invent a Salad” recently became a fascinating quest nonetheless. No, I don’t mean “Make a Salad” – anybody can make a salad. I…
MEXICO ON THE INSIDE
It would unwise for anyone to defame or dismiss the so-called Tex-Mex style of cooking in front of its millions of advocates, defenders, practitioners and passionate fans. Even the snobbiest culinary scholars should see in its intense gravies and undeniable multi-cultural goodness the same things that happen when French and German foods get together along…
Cajun Christmas
Yes, gazing at the photo that accompanies this column makes me nostalgic – especially at a season of year given over to exactly such emotions. And that’s why we’re offering our first annual Cajun Family Christmas cooking class on Thursday Dec. 14. Being only human, the first thing I notice in the photo is the…
When Pumpkin goes Beyond Pies & Lattes
You might not think of pumpkin at this time of year with anything but “pumpkin spice,” – or served in any form other than a latte or a pie. But we’ve been hard at work on a few recipes that will not only excite your taste buds but give a fresh flavor profile to your…
Culinary Adventure Cooking School Opens
Deep in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, visitors and locals alike can learn to cook, taste, share and laugh as part of Fischer & Wieser’s new Culinary Adventure Cooking School, now open within the historic Das Peach Haus in Fredericksburg. Each 2-3 hour class features a four-course lunch, dinner or Sunday brunch with…