Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Chef School: All Things Pasta


For those of you that have been under a rock for the past year, The Greenhouse Tavern is one of the hottest restaurants in Cleveland, even being named one of the top 10 new restaurants in the country in 2009 by Bon Appetit Magazine. The Greenhouse Tavern is the dream of Jonathon & Amelia Sawyer, among others. Jonathon has worked in many great kitchens around the country, including under Charlie Palmer in NYC and Michael Symon at Lolita in Tremont and Parea in New York City before returning to his hometown of Cleveland to open Bar Cento in Ohio City, another Cleveland gem. He received lots of recognition while running the kitchen at Bar Cento but was eager to open his own restaurant. That's where The Greenhouse Tavern comes in.

The Greenhouse Tavern was the first green certified restaurant in Ohio. From the recycled decor that decorates the restaurant, to composting their food scrapes, to toilets that don't use water, The Greenhouse Tavern truly practices what it preaches. Oh yeah, they also serve some pretty good food. You're not going to find any "foam" on the menu and Jonathon isn't likely to be seen using an immersion circulator or molecular gastronomy on his menu. Jonathon is one of many Cleveland chefs who follow the Earth to Table movement. His menu focuses on preparing high quality, local, in season ingredients as simply as possible to let the ingredients shine.

The Greenhouse Tavern Chef Series Schedule - Click to see Details

The Greenhouse Tavern recently started a program called Chef School. Once a month they are hosting "students" like me into the restaurant for the ultimate hands on cooking class. As a birthday present, my awesome wife sent me to Chef School in February for their pasta making class. I recently read a book (Playing for Pizza by John Grisham) that really got me interested in Italian cuisine, so the timing couldn't have been better. Earlier that week, I took my first cooking class, the basic knife skills cooking class at the Viking Store at Legacy Village. I was extremely disappointed in the class at Viking (biggest. understatement. ever!) so my expectations were pretty low as I headed into The Greenhouse Tavern. I should have known better.

The class was on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I arrived a little early to pick up some beans from Erie Island Coffee Company on E. 4th. It was great to see so many people out and about downtown, walking their dogs, and hanging out on E. 4th on a Sunday afternoon when there were no sporting events going on. There was also a steady crowd of diners at the Greenhouse Tavern throughout the afternoon / evening. After picking up coffee I was still 15 minutes early so I sat at the bar and enjoyed an Ithaca Brewing Company Flower Power IPA while watching the Cavs battle the Magic. Once all the students arrived, we were invited down to the kitchen and offered a glass of Monmousseau Brut Champagne and a spread of food to snack on. While we were snacking and drinking, Jonathon began talking to us about the history of pasta and introduced us to one of his cooks, Dan, who joined The Greenhouse Tavern after working under James Beard winner, and pasta guru, Barbara Lynch in Boston.

Jonathon & Dan teaching us about basic pasta dough

For the next 4+ hours (the class was advertised as being only 2 hours long), Jonathon & Dan taught us not only how to make delicious homemade pasta, but also provided us with the historical and regional context of the dishes we were preparing. I also learned many great tips for working in the kitchen throughout the day. I feveriously took notes & pictures on my iPhone (sorry, the iPhone doesn't take the best photos) while they were demoing how to make each pasta and then they set us lose to make it ourselves.


We started by making linguine. We were told this was a Roman pasta typically made by less weathly people. We used the well method of cracking one egg into a well of flour and slowly working the flour into the egg with a fork before using our hangs to knead the dough. We kneaded for 10-15 minutes, fully developing the gluten that gives pasta its toothsome bite. After the dough had the proper texture, it was put in a bowl covered with a damp cloth for 45 minutes before we rolled the dough and cut it into linguine. We were able to try a manual pasta roller / cutter like in the picture above as well as the pasta attachment for a kitchen aid mixer.

Rolling egg yolk ravioli dough

The second dough we made was a 3 egg yolk raviloi. Originating in the Emelia Romana region (Bologna), this was a heartier, richer pasta due to the use of only yolks and was more fitting to the people in this colder region of Italy. This dough also used the well method and hand kneading to develop the gluten that gives raviloi its toothsome bite.

Stuffing ravioli

After the dough rested, we rolled it into sheets, used the rings shown in this picture to layout the ravioli on the dough, stuffed it with a mixture of potato, housemade fromage blanc and fresh herbs, brushed the pasta lightly with water, covered it with a top layer of pasta, and cut them into ravioli.

 Rolling gnocchi

The final pasta we made was a light, pillowy potato gnocchi. The process for making gnocchi dough is similar to making pasta dough, but unlike the others you do not want to develop gluten. It should be handled as little as possible to ensure it remains light & airy. We made a well out of poached potato, covered it with flour, and cracked an egg into the well. This dough is much stickier than the other doughs but once it had the texture of scrambled eggs, we worked the dough with our hands until we could roll the dough into "cigars" and cut into 1" or so gnocchi.


 Potato Gnocchi w/ Brown Butter & Crispy Sage

Jonathon and his kitchen staff then used the pasta we made to serve us an amazing meal: Potato Gnocchi with brown butter & sage, New Potato & Fromage Blanc Ravioli, Linguine alla Vongole (Linguine & Clams), and a scoop of Jeni's coffee ice cream.

I had no experience making pasta prior to this class. Similar to what I mentioned in this post on baking bread, I always thought making pasta was a difficult, time consuming process. The class showed me that it is actually pretty easy and the results are well worth the time. I am eager to put my new skills to work in my kitchen. Luckily, one of the recipes in Michael Symon's Live to Cook is egg yolk pasta dough!

If you are interested in a hands on cooking class, I highly recommend checking out the rest of the Greenhouse Tavern's Chef School series. I am very disappointed that I can't make it to the March class where they will be teaching you how to butcher a whole 300 lb pig but I am sure I will be at another one soon enough.

Ok, now it's your turn. Tell me about the best cooking class you've ever taken.

14 comments:

  1. Dave, you did a wonderful job describing the class and left me very hungry. You obviously learned skills that will be really valuable to you from now on. Keep making those pastas, so that you can do them with your eyes closed. Then you'll be able to start playing with variations on them...like spinach gnocchi and all kinds of ravs...and flavored pastas. Lemon and mushroom are my faves.

    Your pleasure from cooking really give me great satisfaction. Keep it up!

    Linda Griffith

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  2. Dave, great post. I've been making homemade pasta for a while (though not as often as I should, or would like) now and it really impresses and the mouth feel and taste are unbeatable. Everyone should try it, but I (as I'm sure you'd agree) recommend a pasta roller, otherwise, you'll have forearms like the govenator).

    Have you ever tried making dumplings? I've been making them lately from my Busia's (Polish for grandma) "recipe" and really love them.

    Keep cooking!

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  3. I don't have a roller yet so if I make it at home I'll either be making gnocchi or eating thick pasta :)

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  4. Also, for anyone that has an iPhone, I suggest checking out Michael Ruhlman's new app called Ratio. Check out this video here: http://blog.ruhlman.com/2010/03/ratio-smart-phone-app-video-demo.html

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  5. Really excellent write-up, thank you.

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  6. What an awesome class - can't believe they promoted it at 2 hours and it went for so much longer than that. I'm going to keep an eye on TGT's blog to see what else is on the schedule. I don't know how I feel about the pig butchering!

    Thanks for the heads up on the knife skills class - I'll stay away from that one!!!

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  7. i really, really wanted to attend the butchering class but $100 is just outta my league. rats!

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  8. Sounds like a wonderful class. I'm all too familiar with making pasta, but I'd still love to take this class if it's offered again in the future. I always enjoy learning why we do things the way we do. I don't usually understand the science behind it- I just know that's how my grandparents did it, and that's how I do it!

    I can absolutely understand why Chef Sawyer skipped the step- but if you really want to make authentic gnocchi, you need to get a gnocchi board. I haven't mastered that quite yet, but the ridges are essential for holding in the sauce. And the sauce is, in my opinion, the very best part of the meal.

    My go-to Sunday pasta is ricotta cavatelli. So easy, and so delicious.

    If you get a chance sometime, I'm very curious about your experience with the knife skills class. We received a gift certificate for their classes, but I can also use it on merchandise.

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  9. @Poise - If you've ever used a knife to anything, including butter, this class is probably to basic for you.

    @erratic - You are right, $100 is a lot but when compared to the $60-80+ that Viking and other schools charge, this is a steal. Remember you also get an amazing meal and drinks as part of the class. I considered buying 5 classes to get the 6th free, but I can't commit to being free for a Sunday afternoon for the next 6 months.

    @Renee - Jonathon definitely talked about making the grooves in gnocchi and that it helped the sauce stick. He said you could use the back side of a fork or a special tool. About the knife skills class, I might consider taking the advanced one because supposedly they teach you to de-bone a whole chicken, but I am hesitant after taking the basic. I've heard good things about some of their other classes. Jonathon did a knife skills class in January, I really wish I would have attended it.

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  10. Thanks for the tip, I would never have known about these classes otherwise. I bought my wife one of the Viking classes ("superfoods") for Christmas and she liked the idea but wanted something different. I'll probably sign her up for the grilling one or "forest foods".

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  11. Nice review of the pasta class at The Greenhouse, I'll have to consider attending one. I was surprised to hear you were very disappointed at the knife skills class at Viking. I have taken the same class and thought it was very informative and helpful, I left with new knowledge and improved basic skills. As you commented to another reader, it is basic but you have to consider there are students included who never used a knife before. I've taken a couple classes at Viking and thought they have all been great, they all have included hands on instructions, printed recipes, as well as food we prepared during the calls and wine or beer. My favorite has been the BBQ basics.

    Besides Viking, I'm looking forward to attending Michael Symons class Real Men Cook. It was a Christmas present from my girlfreind.

    I enjoy reader your blog, keep it up! Thanks!

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  12. @Tim - Everyone I talked to in the class was pretty disappointed. The instructor was literally reading from the paperwork provided to "teach" us about the different parts of the knife. We got to slice / dice a carrot, onion, red pepper, garlic clove and de-bone a chicken breast. You'd think we'd start with the easiest cuts and work towards the more difficult, right? No, we started with de-boning the chicken breast. When we got to the last cut, garlic clove, she told us it was the easiest cut. Why would you save the easiest for last? Just doesn't make sense. Once we'd cut each of our veggies, we were told to go hang out in the retail area (and of course spend money) while the instructor put the ingredients together for us to eat.

    I assumed in a knife skills class we'd been given multiple of the same ingredient to practice on and maybe receive some suggestions on how to improve our technique. Some of the things the instructor told the students was flat out wrong. I have a gift certificate for another class so I will definitely be giving them another chance but I won't go in with high expectations.

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  13. i understand it isn't a bad deal but good deal or not, $100 is still just not in the cards these days. someday....hopefully!

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  14. @Dave "I assumed in a knife skills class we'd been given multiple of the same ingredient to practice on and maybe receive some suggestions on how to improve our technique." We did do this when I took the class. You must have had a terrible instructor at Viking. I took it a few years ago and I'm on the same page as Tim.

    I took the knife skills at GHT in January and it was very very basic. Chopping carrots, celery and onions for soup that's it. The rest was demo of all the food we ate (which was excellent of course). Our class was 3-3.5 hours. I am signed up to take the "Best of" class in April and I look forward to it even more after hearing about the pasta and pig classes.

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