Take a group of 20 foodies to a kitchen with five cooking stations. Send in a top local restaurant chef with a menu and recipes for a complete dinner. Add the raw ingredients for each dish and some well-matched wines. Everybody cooks. Everybody eats.
If that sounds like a recipe for a pleasant Sunday afternoon, take note that four of the area's brightest culinary stars are signed up to teach this year's Accidental Gourmet cooking classes, a four-week series that starts Feb. 10.
Each class is divided into groups of four at workstations in UAA's Lucy Cuddy Center kitchen, says program coordinator Shelli Cutting. The presenting chef starts by talking through the menu and recipes "and kind of gives an organizational track," she says. "Then, we just go for it! There's lots to do, and the chef is walking around answering questions and coaching."
"Most of the class are pretty cook-y sort of people," she says. "There's a lot of energy, and the three hours goes pretty fast." The chef will sometimes improvise, suggesting different spicing or combinations for different groups, and the tasting session afterward can provide even more ideas.
The $100 fee (all four for $375) goes to several charities supported by the Zonta Club of Anchorage, a service organization of professional women.
Now an annual event, the Accidental Gourmet series was cooked up by Zonta volunteers and Patrick Hoogerhyde, winner of Anchorage's Chef of the Year award in 2002 and now executive chef at Orso.
"Patrick really founded the whole thing," Cutting says. "In fact, at first he taught all of the classes himself."
When the program took off, Hoogerhyde started recruiting other toques. This year's instructors are a brand-new cast. "Mixing it up keeps it fun for everybody," says Cutting, "and most chefs really enjoy teaching their craft." For the first time the Orso chef isn't teaching one of the classes himself.
Fernando Salvador of Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge will be all about sushi when he starts the series Feb. 10.
"I love it -- it's just a passion," he says. "You start with basic maguro (tuna) and hamachi (yellowtail), and then you can't wait to make your own rolls. It's fun to experiment, and it's easy once you get started."
Sushi isn't a regular feature in his restaurant, though "we did a sushi night two years ago that went over big, and we might do it again this year." He plans to teach the basics: making a shopping list, where to buy the ingredients, how to cook sushi rice, how to use nori sheets, how to roll sushi correctly.
"It's going to be pretty informal," he says, promising that the average Joe will go home with a competent sushi repertoire.
Steve Sandquist, chef at the Crow's Nest in the Hotel Captain Cook, promises a class that's just as accessible.
"Preparation for some of the things we do at the restaurant starts the day before -- that's not the practical approach busy people want from a class like this," he says.
Sandquist's Thai menu will include dishes he likes to make at home: "easy to prepare, very approachable and very flavorful." The four-course meal will include a red curry and "a purple-yam dessert that's just wonderful."
"I'm going to work with lamb as a centerpiece for my class," says chef Jack Nurmi from the King Career Center. He teaches high school students every day, but in that venue "the topic of wine rarely enters the picture." So a class with wine pairings will be stimulating for him.
"Cooking may be challenging," he says, "but it is not magic and it's a worthwhile skill to have."
Brett Knipmeyer is still tweaking his menu plans, but he's planning four courses that represent a meal at his Kinley's Restaurant & Bar. "We're still new to a lot of people," says the chef-owner of that restaurant, which opened less than two years ago, so he wants to give people a taste of what Kinley's is about.
Like Sandquist, Knipmeyer is eager to pitch in for a program that does something for the community. Proceeds from the class go to several programs, including local scholarships, campaigns to stop violence against women and the Salvation Army's trafficking project. Adds Sandquist: "It's also nice to be doing something outside of my kitchen."
• Play dining reviewer Mike Peters can be reached at mpeters@adn.com.
Cooking with class
Zonta's Accidental Gourmet classes meet 3-6 p.m. on four consecutive Sundays beginning Feb. 10 at the UAA Lucy Cuddy Center kitchen. Cost: $100 each or $375 for all four. For more information or to register, call 277-8560. To learn more about Zonta Club, the women's service organization, and the programs supported by the "Accidental Gourmet" class, visit www.zonta-ak.org.
Teaching this year's Accidental Gourmet series
Feb. 10: Fernando Salvador, assistant general manager at Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge
Feb. 17: Steve Sandquist, chef de cuisine in the Crow's Nest at Hotel Captain Cook
Feb. 24: Jack Nurmi, chef at King Career Center and former executive chef at Sacks Cafe
March 2: Brett Knipmeyer, chef-owner of Kinley's Restaurant & Bar
Tips from the pros
Salvador: "New Sagaya is the place to buy tuna."
Sandquist: "The order you put ingredients together makes a lot of difference in your enjoyment of the result. If you're building a dish around chicken, cook that first, then add broccoli and other vegetables you don't want to get mushy while the chicken is cooking through. Texture is an important part of eating, and if you put things together in the right sequence, you'll get the right texture."
Nurmi: "I came up with a few of my own spice blends and utilized them regularly at Sacks (Cafe) and still do today. Rack of lamb is not the same without 'Lamb Luv Rub.' "
Knipmeyer: "Breading is one of the things I pay a lot of attention to -- it's very versatile. People often think breading is no more than seasoned flour, then a dip in egg wash, then breading on top of the egg wash -- usually bread crumbs. But I also like to use nuts and coconut, herbs, spices, cereals ... to add another layer of interest to the dish."
By Mike Peters
mpeters@adn.com