@Ecole de Cuisine Pasadena (housed in Chefs Center)
45 North San Gabriel Blvd, Pasadena, California 91107
Saturday, October 16, 2010, between 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 17, 2010, between 11:-00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 16th: Schedule of Events
Tuareg singer and musician, Alhassane and Serena will perform Saharan blues and acoustic music throughout the day. Moussa Albaka, renowned Tuareg artist, will exhibit his jewelry.
Food lectures and cooking demos-
12:00 p.m.- Paula Wolfert Hand Rolled Couscous
1:oo p.m. – Chef Farid Zadi The Making of Mint Tea
Tearing mint leaves, gun powder tea, adding sugar slowly for “cherbet” consistency, tea poured from “up on high” and the “North African shot”
1:45 p.m. – Faye Levy– North African Jewish cooking lecture and sample tasting
4:45 Principles of Clay Tagine Cooking and Steaming Couscous
6:00 p.m.- Chef Farid Zadi The Making of Mint Tea
Tagine cooking, hand rolled couscous and proper methods for steaming instant couscous will be demonstrated throughout the day.
Read more about Paula, Faye and Farid.
Chef Farid Zadi is the Executive Chef for the Couscous Festival. He was born in Lyon, France to Algerian Berber parents.
Training and passion are fine things, but the proof is in the tagine. The fact is, Zadi is a brilliant chef. Everything he touches explodes with fragrance.
Charles Perry, Los Angeles Times
New York Times article about Algerian Pastries in Paris To Lure the French, Don’t Be Too Sweet
Gâteaux Algériens: A Love Affair
Gourmet Magazine The Spice is Right
Paula Wolfert– Guest of Honor
Paula is perhaps the single most influential cook and author among the professional chefs of my generation. Her relentless search for authenticity has led the chefs I love to accept no compromises, and to create real food for an American market that, up until 25 years ago, wanted none of that. She’s a lot of fun to have a drink with
Paula Wolfert is an expert on Mediterranean food and the author of eight cookbooks, including Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking, Mediterranean Cooking, The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, and The Cooking of Southwest France. Her work has received the Julia Child Award, the M. F. K. Fisher Award, the James Beard Award, the I A C P award, the Cook’s Magazine Platinum Plate Award, and the Périgueux Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2008, the James Beard Foundation inducted her book on Moroccan Cooking into the Cookbook Hall of Fame. A regular columnist for Food & Wine magazine, Wolfert lives in Sonoma, California. Her Web site is www.paula-wolfert.com. Her fans can also follow her via her Facebook/Clay Pot Cooking page and on twitter.com/Soumak. Her next book, The Moroccan Cookbook, will be published in 2011.
Faye Levy is the lead cooking columnist for the Jerusalem Post and the author of more than twenty acclaimed cookbooks, including Feast from the Mideast and 1,000 Jewish Recipes. She has won prestigious prizes for her cookbooks, including a James Beard Award. A syndicated cooking columnist, she has contributed many articles to the country’s top newspapers, as well as to Gourmet, Bon Appétit, and other magazines. She lives in Woodland Hills, California.
Sunday, October 17th: Schedule of Events
Tuareg singer and musician, Alhassane and Serena will perform Saharan blues and acoustic music throughout the day. Moussa Albaka, renowned Tuareg artist, will exhibit his jewelry.
Food lectures and cooking demos:
12:00 p.m. – Clifford Wright Origins of Couscous and The first Pastas
1:00 p.m.- Charles Perry– Medieval North African and Andalusian Dishes
1:45 p.m. -Chef Farid Zadi The Making of Mint Tea
3:30 p.m. – Clifford Wright Origins of Couscous and The first Pastas
4:30 p.m.– Charles Perry– Medieval North African and Andalusian Dishes
6:00 p.m. -Chef Farid Zadi The Making of Mint Tea
Tearing mint leaves, gun powder tea, adding sugar slowly for “cherbet” consistency, tea poured from “up on high” and the “North African shot”
Read more about Cliff and Charlie.
Clifford Wright won the James Beard/ KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year award and the James Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food in 2000 for “A Mediterranean Feast” which was also a finalist for the IACP Cookbook of the Year award. Saveur magazine chose the book for its Saveur 100 list His book “Mediterranean Vegetables” was chosen one of the top ten Cookbooks of 2001 by the Chicago Tribune and his first cookbook, “Cucina Paradiso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily,” was a “best book of 1992? in the New York Times Book Review’s Christmas List. He is the author of 14 books, of which 12 are cookbooks and a contributor to eight others. His latest book “The Best Soups in the World” will be published by Wiley in 2009. Colman Andrews, former editor of Saveur magazine called Wright “the reigning English-speaking expert on the cuisines and culinary culture of the Mediterranean.”
He also writes for Zester Daily and has a Mediterranean Cooking blog. He also teaches classes with Martha Rose Shulman at Venice Cooking School (classes are ongoing, visit the website to register)
He is the quintessential “Renaissance Culinarian,” equal parts historian, storyteller, detective and cook. While food is but one of Charlie’s passions — do a Web search under his name and you’re likely to find references to medieval cuisine, long-dead languages, Haight-Ashbury, Rolling Stone magazine and even Augustus Owsley Stanley (his college roommate) — it has, of course, been the focus of his professional life. A member of the Times staff for 18 years, Charlie has often been referred to as the wit of the Food section, with knowledge (and personal experience) covering everything from historic California pit barbecue to the finest ancient recipes for rotted barley.
Noelle Carter and Susan LaTempa, Los Angeles Times
