Gourmet Specialties on a Budget

Going out to eat can sometimes take as much, if not more, effort than sitting down for a home-cooked meal. Hiring a babysitter, getting a reservation, deciding what to wear, making the reservation, and then mentally ticking off all those dollar signs (bottle of wine, check, appetizer, check, salad, check, main course, check, dessert, check, after dinner drink question mark, tip, check…). Regardless of the logistics and the expense, eating out can be justified by the pure experience of having a talented chef, friendly wait staff, and intricate dishes with layer after layer of undeniable flavor.  Let’s not forget there is no sink full of pots and pans awaiting rubber gloves either. Is dining out a luxury, it can be depending on the cost associated with it. What that means is maybe, in today’s financial times, adjusting how much one eats out. Instead of dinner out several times a month, maybe it is a once a week occasion.

Chef Michael Salmon realized the need for people to stretch their dollars and thus created the cooking class “Gourmet Specialties on a Budget.”  Chef Michael makes gourmet approachable. He brings it into your home and practically sits it down on your dining room table.  Think of the times you have said or thought “Who cooks like that?” in response to a recipe in a cookbook or food magazine.  After this class maybe you!

The menu for “Gourmet Specialties on a Budget” (February 5 or 6)

• Mozzarella and Charred Bell Pepper Bruschetta
• Roasted Tomato Soup with Chopped Basil
• Sweet Potato Crusted Salmon
• Tarte Tatin of Pears

Weekend packages are $325/$515 and include two nights lodging, breakfast each morning, afternoon cookies and tea, a gourmet candelit dinner for two and enrollment for one in the cooking class. Additional enrollment into the cooking class is $45 per person. Classes are held Saturdays and Sundays from 1 -3 in the afternoon.

p.s. this is an excellent Christmas present!!!