liv bites

I love wine. And I especially love drinking wine accompanied by a multi-course dinner prepared with love. I know what I like and what I don’t — but my understanding of the objective aspect of pairings is admittedly limited. And I never drink white wine with fish, choosing instead to believe that a dry Pinot [...]

I mentioned in my last post that my classmates and I each had to come up with our own full restaurant menu for a recent assignment. Now you know all about the Rabbit and Wild Mushroom Ragout, but I thought it might be fun to post the rest of my fantasy restaurant items. Think of [...]

Before I started culinary school and thought I knew what I was doing in the kitchen, I used to love posting my own recipes on my blog. For the past six months, I’ve been learning the correct way to do things — the “techniques” — and I’m happy to say I’m having more fun in [...]

Friends, I may have found my calling. Friday was a workshop in Advanced Cake Decorating, meaning we all baked and embellished a miniature-sized wedding cake. It’s interesting how my class is divided into the pastry-loving folks and the pastry-phobic; some people were stressed out by the whole exercise and couldn’t wait for their cakes to [...]

I murdered a lobster in class this week. If it sounds dramatic, it was. Most people take the easy way out when it comes to crustaceans — submerge them while they’re still alive in boiling water, and they die instantly. But according to my culinary instructor, there’s actually a more humane way to go about [...]

Our schedule for last week mentioned a work shop in “Unusual Breads,” which naturally set my mind reeling. No-knead bread? Rice flour? Croissants? In the end, the breads we made were not so unusual at all, and in fact, the process was very eye-opening. I’ve personally found bread-making very intimidating in the past, and I [...]