CIA first round - Napa Day 3

Today was the first day of boot camp culinary classes! We arrived at the imposing Greystone castle (Actually, an old winery, re-purposed) and met our 9 fellow classmates. First we got kitted out with our chefs coats (I'm disappointed to share that they are loaners and do not have our names embroidered on them, as I had hoped,) our recipe folder, a cookbook, and other odds and ends including a random napkin.

Joy, our instructor, walked us through ~2.5 hours of cooking terms, knife skills, etc before we headed into the kitchen. We then spent the next three hours preparing lunch for ourselves. I was super excited that I got to try my hand at Duchess Potatoes (Think really fancy pants loaded-twice-baked potatoes.)

Duchess potatoes

We worked in teams of 3-4 people so that everyone had their hand in at least one recipe. Once we brought everything to the 'pass' we all sat down and critiqued the dishes. There's a pretty wide range of skills in the class - including a professional chef. That being said, there were a lot of 'professional' critics. ;) All in all most things turned out. A couple in our class are 'avoiding gluten,' so some less than successful substitutions were made. That being said, we learned a lot.

After class, we headed to a tasting at La Sirena. Kris found this label while researching Heidi Barrett - the wine maker behind the outrageous Screaming Eagle brand. David, who is apparently her brother, lead our tasting. He is an absolute scream! Kris and I just tried to hold on after our full day in a hot, steamy kitchen. Heidi's new wines are absolutely delicious! And in a rare move for us, we ordered a case to have shipped home. Namely because you can't carry anything out.

Dinner tonight was back at Greystone. While it was nice to get to know everyone, it felt and tasted very typically of a large catered affair - I would have rather had cocktails with light bites and split for a 'real' dinner elsewhere in the valley. All in all though, a great day!