Flavors of the world
Learn Italian, Thai, Indian and Southwestern cooking methods
Take your taste buds on a trip around the world during four cooking classes at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm. The classes, taught by Chef Elizabeth Gallery, will focus on Italian, Thai, Indian and Southwestern cuisine.
“I designed the classes around what vegetables the season is yielding,” Gallery said. “For example, making a fresh tomato sauce out of the late July crop and eating a nourishing light Thai spring roll on a warm August afternoon. India offers fresh, warm spices as we enter the fall months. As we head into the holiday season, the class will learn local Southwestern cuisine, which will make perfect Thanksgiving dishes.”
Participants will fine-tune their knife skills and chopping technique, learn how to cook with herbs and spices, how to balance meals, and ways to choose the best ingredients.
Classes begin on July 22, with Italian cooking. Students will make ravioli stuffed with fresh ricotta cheese and learn how to bake focaccia bread.
“I grew up next to an Italian family,” Gallery said. “Some of the best food memories I have are of their grandfather’s marinara sauce. We will re-create this old Italian recipe.”
Making salad dressing also will be taught during classes.
“As a young cook, the first place you start in a professional kitchen is making salad dressing,” Gallery said. “Salad dressing is the perfect sauce to understand balance. We will taste and see the dance of sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter on the palate.”
During the Thai class on Aug. 26, students will learn how to create curry lemon grass tomato soup, fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce, pad Thai and more. On Sept. 23, students will make cauliflower roti with coconut cilantro chutney, roasted marsala pumpkin with saffron cashew cream sauce, urad dal, beet raita and more during the Indian cooking class. The classes wrap up with the Southwestern cooking course on Oct. 21. Participants will make blue corn enchiladas stuffed with butternut squash, wild mushroom and kale; queso; beets, cilantro, endive, radish and lime avocado dressing; a cinnamon sopaipilla filled with apple custard and more.
Gallery got her start in culinary arts at age 16, when she began in service and front of the house management.
“When I realized my dream was to open restaurants, I entered the kitchen at 25 years old,” she said. “There I began to train with many good chefs and business mentors. I’ve always worked with cooks that were making meals from scratch and that are passionate.”
Gallery is a practitioner of Ayurveda, herbal therapies and traditional cookery.
“Food is medicine,” she said. “The kitchen is medicine and the best teacher. You are filled up with the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch. Ayurveda is a tried and true science. It provides people with a living knowledge we can heal ourselves with. The kitchen is the pharmacy. With robust digestion, life is simple.”