Have you ever watched a cooking show where a chef throws together an exceedingly complicated dish in a matter of minutes?
The recipe unfolds at breakneck speed and then the chef smugly proclaims that cooking is easy and there’s no excuse for you not to produce the same high calibre of dish at home. Good luck and see you next week.
Talent and culinary prowess aside, there are actually a number of behind-the-scenes factors that allow your favourite television chef to shame you into thinking your cooking technique is on par with a four-year-old in a Fisher Price kitchen.
Not the least of these factors is advance preparation. In many professional kitchens, entire lines of dedicated cooks transform raw goods into ready-to-assemble recipe ingredients.
On TV, notice how that celebrity chef has a countertop of neat little ramekins containing precisely measured and chopped ingredients that are magically placed at his disposal. Cooking would be a lot simpler if someone did all that prep work for you, wouldn’t it?
I have some good news for you. Well Fed Studio, down on East First Street in North Vancouver, will do the heavy lifting for you too, allowing you to throw together relatively advanced dishes in record time.
Well Fed specializes in meal assembly classes in which participants arrive at the cooking studio to find recipe ingredients laid out for them, perfectly portioned, easily accessed, and accompanied by foolproof assembly instructions.
Well Fed publishes a new menu every month featuring a dozen or more dishes. Participants choose up to eight dishes in advance of their meal assembly session. Required ingredients are then prepared by Well Fed owner and principal chef Ann Marie Rideout, and are laid out on oversized baking trays before the class. Meat ingredients are held in a commercial refrigerator until needed.
I visited Well Fed one recent weeknight to observe one of these classes in action. On the evening of my visit, about a dozen participants surrounded a large communal prep table at which there were labelled ingredients for their recipes.
Rideout employs a team of assistants to work the room throughout the meal assembly session, fetching items for participants, offering advice on proportions of ingredients, and helping to label and package completed meals.
The class itself is a fascinating scene to watch, and at around 8 p.m. Rideout stands back from the action to survey the room, which is filled with the sounds of mixing, blending, and conversation. Rideout has been on hand since 5:30 a.m. getting ingredients ready. The shift seems staggeringly long but if you do the math, it is understandable: 12 participants have selected eight dishes, but not necessarily the same eight dishes as everyone else.
Some have chosen to double up on certain recipes, requiring different proportions. Now, make allowances for vegetarian, gluten-free, or dairy-intolerant participants. Add to that a host of complex blends of spices required for dishes like Channa Saag Paneer or lamb curry, not to mention communal vats of commonly required ingredients like crushed garlic, ginger, and freshly cracked black pepper. The behind-the-scenes mechanics of the operation are enough to make one’s head swim, but the participants are not privy to the toil.
The demographics of the session I attended were surprisingly varied. I have noticed an implicit suggestion in the promotional imagery for other cooking schools that only uber-hip, young and implausibly attractive participants need attend. At Well Fed, I get the impression that guests, ranging from singles to married couples with kids at home, are genuinely interested in the food. Which is not to say that a Well Fed experience isn’t a good social forum too. Indeed, while cooking, many of the home chefs sip on a glass of white wine included in the cost of the class and compare culinary tips with their neighbours.
Menu items range from family friendly meals like panko-crusted fish sticks to more adult fare like asparagus and portobella lasagna with truffle cream or lamb keftedes with tzatziki. I emerge from the class with a ready-to-cook meal of Kang Pha Nang, a traditional sweet and sour chicken curry the recipe for which Rideout brought back from cooking classes she attended in Thailand.
The dish featured generous helpings of boneless, skinless chicken in a coconut curry base studded with exceptionally fragrant kaffir lime leaf. This is authentic fare, no question, the coarse consistency and potency of the curry paste revealing its handmade pedigree.
It is worth noting that Well Fed uses pork and chicken sourced from ethical farms through Cioffi’s Meat Market and Deli. A meal assembly class, including eight meals, each yielding approximately four to five servings, costs $238 per person, or roughly $6 per portion. It’s up to you to assign a value to feeling like a Food Network star when you cook.
Well Fed is located at 260 East First St. in North Vancouver. wellfedstudio.com
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. Contact: [email protected].
