Culinary College with Chef Andrew Kirschner

Culinary College was back for its second run with chef Andrew Kirschner from the Wilshire Restaurant. Hosted by Los Angeles magazine and Snyder Diamond, the event is again hosted in the Snyder Diamond showroom in Santa Monica.

I was early, so I sat there sipping a glass of 2008 Viognier from the Santa Ynez Valley, picked by Ian Blackburn from Learn About Wine, waiting for the rest of the girls to show up. I was joined later on by Wandering Chopsticks, Caroline on Crack, Estarla, Shop Eat Sleep, and Faux LA Hipster.

We start out with some appetizers prepared by Chef Bridget Bueche from Sub-Zero/Wolf.

First up: Wood plank salmon with miso base, mizuna, japanese long onions.

Before the food was served, a large piece of salmon was displayed sitting on the wood plank, teasing us with the glaze and the smell.

Each dish is paired with a wine, selected by Ian from Learn About Wine. Ian did not only pick wines that will go well with the dishes, he also made sure to choose affordable wines that you or I may actually go out and buy. The salmon was paired with a Pinot Noir from Sweeney Canyon.
Sweeney Canyon is a family-owned vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County, near the Santa Ynez River, which gives their grapes a unique complex flavor.

While eating and sipping, we watched chef Bueche whip up our next dish using a Japanese claypot.
Just watching the chef season the beef and open up the claypot of the cooked beef was enough to get my appetite going.

Here it is: Claypot-baked, slow-cooked beef with craked pepper, coriander, mushrooms.
This was amazing! The beef was so tender, and the mushrooms were great. I just wish the dish was bigger :P The mushrooms are Hokto mushrooms grown in San Marcos, CA. The dish was paired with a 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon, grown in the Malibu canyons.

After licking our dish clean, we were ushered into the back room, the 'main stage' where tables are beautifully set.

Because of the number of attendees, the class is not hands-on, but you can watch chef Kirschner prepare the dishes and take notes. Note the slanted mirror on top of the stove - so you can watch what's going on there too!
Chef Kirschner showed us how to prepare two dishes.
The first is a Shrimp Summer Roll with Chili Garlic Dipping Sauce.
Paired with a Curran Gewurtztraminer from Santa Ynez Valley.

Second course is the Steamed Black Mussels in Red Curry Coconut Broth (find the recipe here)
These mussels are certainly delicious and I can see why they are so popular at the restaurant. The curry broth is bold in flavor yet not too spicy. I'll definitely order this at Wilshire Restaurant. Here the dish was paired with a Sweeney Canyon Chardonnay.

We all came home with a swag bag filled among others with a bottle of 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon and the newest Los Angeles magazine.

Read about the first class here.

Baja Media Trip: First Night in Tijuana. Tacos and Cerveza Obscura.

Thursday 6 PM, we all gathered at Union Station to ride the bus down to the first destination of our Baja FAM Media Trip: Tijuana, Mexico! (This trip was sponsored by Tijuana Convention and Visitors Bureau)

In tow were many of my foodblogger friends: Street Gourmet LA (the organizer, aka the don), formerly-teenage Glutster, LA&OC Foodie, Mattatouille, Food GPS, Gastronomer, Deep End Dining, and Eating LA and also some I have not met before including pro-writers Man Bites World (now with LA Weekly's Squid Ink), Table Conversation, and a few other food writers/photographer. There were also some chefs on board - Ramiro from La Casita Mexicana, and chefs and manager of Ciudad and Border Grill, and Brissia, the young owner of Cemitas y Clayudas Pal Cabron.

The mediocre chicken salad sandwich I got from the station was barely enough to tide me over, so naturally the first order of business when we got to Tijuana was DINNER!

First Stop (OF COURSE we're making more than one stop! The night is young):

Tacos El Poblano
7813 Boulevard Diaz Ordaz
Tijuana, Mexico

This place is a bit of a drive from the center of the city, but trust me it's well worth it.
Tacos El Poblano serves carne asada tacos with a mixture of three different cuts of meat: lomo (loin), pulpa (round), and chuleta de res (sirloin) -- thanks to Street Gourmet LA for the information!
There is no doubt about it, this taco blows any LA taco out the water. Any.
I mean, seriously, can I bring these guys back to Los Angeles and open a taco truck?

One taco is not enough, of course, so we got a tostada also, with the same meat.
The tostada is topped with even more meat than the tacos, and the crispy tortilla was so good. Nothing could be more perfect for kicking off our Baja trip and satisfying our hunger. And I do think tacos taste that much better late at night!

We also had a plate of jerky-like pieces of meat.
I never quite found out what this was or which part of the animal it was from, but it was so addicting for everyone.

Next - washing down our tacos and tostadas, with cerveza.

La Vuelta
2004 Revolución, Zona Centro
Tijuana, Mexico

What you need to know about La Vuelta: 24 hours, cerveza (casta and more), and mariachi.

With an amazing mariachi band in the background, the night and our trip is off to a good, lively start.

We each had (at least) two beers, both dark/obscura beers: Casta and Bohemia obscura.

Both beers are pretty good . After much thought I decided I like the Bohemia Obscura better although Deep End Dining preferred the Casta.

Perhaps because there were so many of us, the management served us some chicken taquitos on the house.

The taquitos are good enough, though they don't compare to the El Poblano tacos and tostadas we just had. La Vuelta isn't about the food anyway. It's about the casta, the late night out, and of course, the mariachi.

That's it for the first night. We were back at the hotel just in time to get enough sleep before our early morning start and our food decathlon the next day.

Recipe: Steamed Mussels in Curry Broth (CulinaryCollege/Andrew Kirschner/Wilshire)

Los Angeles Magazine teams up with Snyder Diamond to hold Culinary College, a cooking class series featuring established Los Angeles chefs. The second class in the series featured chef Andrew Kirschner from the Wilshire Restaurant in Santa Monica (event review to come).

In the Snyder Diamond showroom, chef Kirschner shows us how to whip up his well-loved steamed mussels dish.

Steamed Black Mussels in Red Curry Coconut Broth
- Chef Andrew Kirschner. Wilshire Restaurant, Santa Monica, CA.

















Serves 4

3lbs -- Black Mussels- Cleaned
1.5 cup - Coconut Milk
2 T -- Thai Red Curry Paste
1 T -- Paprika
2 T -- Lime Juice
2 T -- Lemon Juice
2 T -- Soy Sauce
2 T -- Mirin
1 cup - Dry Sherry Wine
2 T -- Honey
1 T -- Lemongrass, minced
1 T -- Ginger, minced
1 T -- Garlic, minced
1 T -- Kaffir Lime Leaf, minced
1 T -- Coriander, whole
1 t -- Cumin, ground
6 sprigs - Thai basil, chopped
2 T -- Fish sauce

Place all ingredients except mussels into a heavy sauce pot and simmer over low heat for 1/2 hour. Remove from heat, strain, cool and reserve.

Preparing mussels: place mussels in sauce pot with above mixture, cover pot and cook on high flame until mussels are steamed and just opened.
Serve with grilled sourdough bread.



The next Culinary College class will be held on August 19 and feature chef Jason Travi (of Fraiche and Riva). Cost is $50 pp. Please call Estrellita Dacanay at Los Angeles magazine 323-801-0034 to purchase.