So it appears that most of this week’s section has been devoted to cooking schools, cook books, and cooking-for-corporate-synergy events. That last one is a sort of Iron Chef thing, where co-workers split into teams and gently compete under the watchful eyes of the in-house chefs. It actually sounds like fun, and certainly beats those stupid team-building obstacle course things where you have to figure out how to forge a river or whatever.
We also liked the piece about a cookbook author whose niche is cloning fast-casual restaurant recipes for home use. Not that we’d ever, in a million years, seek out a way to make Applebee’s “Grilled Shrimp ‘N Spinach Salad” or the like because we’re way too elitist), but we appreciate the populism involved in the effort.
In terms of roundups, there’s a very helpful guide to the various cooking courses on offer in Chicagoland, divided by category. These include French, Kosher, sushi, vegan, and so forth.
Meanwhile, if you don’t want to learn anything, Denise O’Neal can point you toward a “Wanchai Ferry’s Kung Pao Chicken dinner kit,” where all that’s required of you, the hungry diner, is to add chicken and vegetables. Wait a sec, that’s kind of a lot of work! But still joyously skilless.
No-pressure cooking [Sun-Times]
Restaurant recipes no longer top secret [Sun-Times]
2007 cooking school guide [Sun-Times]
Outta the box: Kung Pao Chicken [Sun-Times]
