What I Learned At Sea…

Anyone who has been on a cruise, knows someone who’s been on a cruise or even thought about going on a cruise knows that food and cruises go hand in hand, seriously, they are inextricably intertwined. There are buffets and snacks and spectacular meals at every turn. I know whereof I speak, my husband and I just returned from a seven day eastern Caribbean cruise that presented a completely unexpected culinary adventure.

Picture it, we’re at the lifeboat drill when I noticed the gentleman next to me holding a piece of paper what I thought look like a schedule of cooking classes with the bold red headline “Chefmakers Cooking Academy.” HUH? Really? This sounded too good to be true and I couldn’t be hallucinating from too much sun and salt air; we hadn’t even left port yet. I had to know, so I politely said to this stranger “Um, excuse me, but I need to insert myself into your vacation for just a moment. Exactly where did you find this schedule?” He graciously gave me a detailed path to follow to find the source, and then went on with his vacation minus any further intrusions from yours truly.

Lo and behold, we found the Chefmakers station, secured a schedule of our very own and commenced to contemplating classes. There were 16 classes to choose from running the gamut from “Knife Skills” to “Cooking Around The World.” After much debate (and coordinating around other activities) we decided that we would both take Playing With Chocolate and I would also take Risotto and Handmade Scones. This was quickly becoming a dream vacation beyond my wildest dreams. If Royal Caribbean had a staff meeting to determine just one more thing they could do to make my cruise even better, this was it.

When you register for classes you receive a Chefmakers lanyard (the perfect place to keep your Sea Pass on your person while keeping your hands fee). When you report for class, you’re given a paper toque and a label upon which to write your name. After you fit the toque to your head, the program coordinator staples it for you and you affix you name tag to the front. An obvious amount of thought had gone into these little details to make Chefmakers as much fun as possible for the passengers. When you complete your class you receive a red & white striped kitchen towel (Chefmakers colors) and a Chefmakers in pen. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

First up, Playing With Chocolate led by a team of three chefs with Chef Darcy from Australia teaching the bulk of the class. Chef Darcy walked us through the basics of tempering chocolate (optimum temperature is 90-100 degrees, absolutely no hotter). We dipped strawberries in dark chocolate and white chocolate and learned how to make those beautiful strawberry tuxedoes we’ve all admired.
With the dipped strawberries chilling we moved on to shapes and writing. Each student had a template of various shapes, as well as “Happy Birthday” written out with a sheet of wax paper on top so we could trace the templates (side note from Chef Darcy, when you’re writing with chocolate bigger is better because it’s easier !) I started the class on a mission to find out why my chocolate dipped strawberries didn’t have that nice chocolate “snap” when you bite into them. Turns out, I’ve been doing it wrong. I had been dipping my strawberries in ganache, what you need to get that snap is only chocolate, nothing more. It worked beautifully in class and I tried the technique two days after returning home and it worked in real life, too.

And then, there scones. Okay, not just scones, SCONES! Really, I’ve sampled many a scone in my time, some good and some bad, really bad. My quest in scone school was to find a simple scone recipe that would be used for sweet or savory scones that would be tender and delicious (as opposed to dry and flavorless). Chef Darcy assured us he had the perfect scone recipe. He, too, had eaten many a dry, disappointing scone until he met a woman who turned him on to the secret to scone perfection. He started using this recipe and never looked back. Now, seriously, this is not a typo, all you need is an equal measure of self rising flour and heavy cream. I promise that’s it. Chef Darcy knows his stuff. Again, it worked in class and I tried it within days of returning home and it works in my kitchen, too. Mix the flour and heavy cream together (use a spoon or your hands even, no mixer necessary). If the dough seems a little too sticky, add a little more flour. You can either mix in your additive of choice now (whatever you want… strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, chocolate chunks, bananas) or, if you want to make several flavors you can mix each scone individually after you cut them out. Pat into a disk about 1” thick, cut into rounds. Sprinkle with sugar (I used Turbinado sugar at home for a little extra color & crunch) then brush the tops with cream. Bake at 380 degrees for 8-10 minutes (Chef Darcy did this calculation from centigrade in his head. I’m not saying his math was off, I’m just saying in my oven it took twice as long at that temperature. Next time I think I’ll crank the oven up to 400 or 425 degrees.) With this same basic recipe you can also go down the savory path with cheddar & dill, prosciutto & parmesan, whatever flavors you savor. Oh, and an unexpected side note, we made whipped cream, then Chef Darcy asked if anyone know how to make butter. I piped up and said “You make whipped cream and go too far.” Chef Darcy exclaimed “that’s exactly right, now we’re going to make butter. And, make butter we did, by hand. Chef Darcy started to the process and we passed the bowl & whisk around taking turns until the whipped cream became butter. Chef Darcy threw in a pinch of salt, and voila, there was butter and it was delicious, such a pure and fresh flavor. May favorite thing about both of these classes was learning something that I really could, and did, apply in my real kitchen in my everyday life. (By the way, the Risotto class was cancelled, but I had so much fun with chocolate and scones that it jus didn’t matter).

And, speaking of applying those newly acquired skills, I must excuse myself now. I have a plate of perfectly chilled strawberries ready for their close up with a bowl of melted chocolate.