A Week In Napa

I recently had the pleasure of spending an entire week in Napa to attend a boot camp at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. The entire trip was centered around food and cooking. The classes would start around 2 pm and go on until 8 pm where we gather around the table to sample whatever we cooked that day.

The class consisted of 9 students and we were split up into different daily teams and given 4 to 5 dishes per team per day. Every night there was an abundance of food that we were presented with and asked to sample. Since I am gluten intolerant, I did not get to eat everything but I knew from my colleagues "oohs" and "ahhs" that everything was very tasty!

We learned how to make pasta, baguettes, and cheese. We were also taught knife skills (for the novice cooks), how to truss a whole chicken, and how to debone a fish.

Each day consisted of a focus on one culinary region. Monday was continental, Tuesday was Italian, Wednesday was Asian, Thursday was dedicated to baking, and Friday was French.

In future posts, I will share some of the recipes on the blog for all of you to enjoy!

I also got to visit a couple of restaurants and I wanted to mention Terra in St. Helena and their labne risotto which is one of my favorites. I also visited a culinary market called Oxbow Market in Napa. It is an enclosed area with different vendors and small eateries. My favorite was the duck taco at C Casa and the oysters at Hog Island Oyster Company.

Enjoy the photos.