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Category Archives: Class News

Tags: Booze, Class News, Yoni's World
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14 May 2013

Springtime Cocktails with Ryan Fonash of Vintage Imports

This past Saturday night, we were delighted to host Ryan Fonash of Vintage Imports, a frequent instructor and friend of COOK, for a class about springtime cocktails. Preparing everything from a refreshing sparkling drink with absinthe and raspberry shrub to a concoction featuring his own homemade rosé vermouth (our guests got to take some home!), Ryan wowed the crowd with his grasp of spring-friendly spirits. We were also lucky to have chef Sam Jacobson, formerly of Sycamore in Lansdowne, in to pair some of his incredible cooking with Ryan’s drinks. Favorites here included scallops dusted with juniper and served with an orange-cardamom cream; and an airy lemon gnocchi chef Sam paired with hearty duck ragu and quail eggs. Check after the jump for more photos from this exciting evening!

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Tags: Chef News, Class News
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29 March 2013

Open Stove XI: A Bacos Bonanza!

Didja miss us?!

Open Stove, COOK’s recurring culinary battle, took a brief break in frigid February, but it was back and stranger than ever in the month of March. The 11th installment of the series brought in two new game victims competitors ready to take on absolutely anything: Carmen Cappello (left), COOK vet and sous chef/charcuterie expert aboard The Moshulu; and Jamie Wolf, who kills it in the kitchen of the nearby Alma de Cuba. Would Cappello capitalize on his familiarity with the battlefield and come out with his glove raised? Or would Wolf continue in the tradition of first-ever female victor Hilary Hamilton and earn the W? Read on to find out!

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Tags: Chef News, Class News
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24 January 2013

Open Stove X: Hip to Be Square

COOK’s primo Center City location puts it in super-close proximity to some of Philly’s best restaurants. Two of those near neighbors — Lacroix and Rittenhouse Tavern — provided the whisk-wielding warriors for the 10th installment of the always-a-blast Open Stove battle. In addition to being the first COOK-off of 2013, OSX (catchy!) also marked the first-ever participation of a female competitor. Hilary Hamilton (second from right), sous for Tavern chef/COOK regular Nick Elmi, toted her knife roll across the park to Rittenhouse Square-off against Doug Allen, one of the many talents to be found in chef Jon Cichon‘s next-level Lacroix kitchen.

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31 December 2012

Open Stove IX: Battle of the “Bars”

I’ve had an inappropriate amount of fun covering COOK’s Open Stove series for The COOKbook in 2012. From clashes European and North American to battles between bartender bros and actual brothers, the monthly competition ranged wildly in theme and personnel, but a sense of jovialty and culinary fellowship (often in the form of dude-hugs) pervaded each installment. OS9 was no exception, bringing together two chefs from two very different kinds of bars for a competition characterized as much by goofs as good food.

Kevin Yanaga (left) mans the sushi bar at Rittenhouse’s Zama, and is well-known at COOK for his fishy stylings and expertise in knife sharpening. Mark Regan (right), too, has appeared at COOK frequently, but this Open Stove was the first opportunity for the chef de cuisine of Newbold beer bar South Philly Tap Room to lead the charge.

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30 November 2012

Open Stove VIII: The King in the North!

There is perhaps no stronger international relationship than the diplomatic bond between the United States and Canada, but beneath all that warm-and-fuzzy chumminess lies a rivalry spanning generations. Yanks are fond of clowning our neighbors to the north for everything from their unflappable manners and melodramatic high schools to the scientifically proven fact that they’re all scared of the dark. Many Canucks, meanwhile, consider us to be arrogant dummies with wack healthcare, a penchant for passing the buck (passing the loonie?) and nothing but boorish disdain for anyone residing outside our 50 awesome states. (OK so maybe Canada’s not alone in all that.) With such close borders, it has to be this way. We’ll always be allies — but we’ll always have a bit of a score to settle. The eighth installment of COOK’s Open Stove competition series addressed this age-old struggle for cultural supremacy in the most dangerous death arena of them all: the kitchen.

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26 November 2012

A very COOK Halloween, starring a.kitchen

You’re probably still hung over from your gravy-soaked Thanksgiving weekend, so we figured it’s as good a time as any to take a quick look back on one of the wackiest (turkey-free!) events of the past few months: a raucous costumed dinner on Halloween night, starring COOK’s friends from the nearby a.kitchen. Sous chef Val Stryjewski is a COOK regular, but for this all-offal affair, he took on the persona of zombie Georges Perrier, complete with a legit blood-spattered Le Bec Fin coat he saved from his days working for the legendary Frenchman.

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Tags: Booze, Class News
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19 October 2012

Open Stove VII: Not as Think As You Drunk I Am

COOK’s Open Stove night is characterized by intense clashes between chefs — or so I thought up until the latest installment, something completely different for this monthly series. While past Open Stoves have pitted country against country, brother against brother and farmer against guy from Conshohocken, the common thread was that all the participants were cutting-board jockeys from the back of the house. For October’s Open Stove, COOK made a beeline to the bar, tapping George Costa of Pub & Kitchen and Al Sotack of Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. to orchestrate a cocktail mix-off for the ages.

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Tags: Audrey's World, Chef News, Class News
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10 October 2012

Audrey Claire on the COOK Masters Program

Earlier this week, COOK announced the launch of its COOK Masters Program, an intensive series that will provide intensive training to deserving culinary students and amateur chefs looking to launch a real-deal culinary career. We caught up with program mastermind Audrey Claire Taichman, who’s always a great interview, to get some more info on this new-to-Philly concept. To read more about the COOK Masters Program, click here!

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21 September 2012

SPTR’s Scott Schroeder goes Polish at COOK

“If you were hoping for real authentic Polish, you’re screwed.” That was one of the first things out of the mouth of the always-outspoken Scott Schroeder (right), chef of South Philly Tap Room and American Sardine Bar, at the outset of his class centered on the famously hearty Eastern European cuisine. That’s not to say the Detroit native, who was joined in the Pole-position festivities by chef Mark Regan (left) of SPTR, has no experience whatsoever with borscht and bigos. Back home in The D, Schroeder grew up visiting the traditional Polish neighborhood of Hamtramck, frequenting its many butcher shops, grocery stores and restaurants and soaking in all those feel-good babcia-crafted vibes. Nowadays, Schroeder, whose surname is far too vowel-heavy to pass for Polish, deals in thoughtful bar food, but that hasn’t squelched his interest in this kind of cooking.

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Tags: Chef News, Class News
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07 September 2012

Open Stove VI: City of brotherly shoves

Open Stove just keeps getting stranger. So far I’ve attended a total of three of COOK’s monthly chef-on-chef extravaganzas; July’s pitted Germany against France, while August’s pitted Spam against Spam. For September, things got very personal —brother vs. brother personal. Waldermar “Val” Stryjewski (left), sous chef at a.kitchen, did battle with his younger sibling of 10 years, Stephan “Steve” Stryjewski (right), sous chef at the Hotel Palomar’s Square 1682. I first got to know these two back in 2010, when we all accompanied COOK regular Peter Woolsey on a trip up to NYC’s James Beard House. Besides possessing a shared gift for indefatigable smack-talk, the Stryjewskis are both sure-handed as hell in the kitchen. But if Open Stove, built around a series of “secret ingredients” selected by the COOK staff, is good for anything, it’s ensuring any modicum of culinary comfort disappears faster than a dozen Federal Donuts at an over-attended brunch potluck.

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