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03.31.10

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Phaedra

Cook it yourself!

By Gretchen Giles


Hungry for a gorgeous urban dinner tonight? And by that we mean: tonight, March 31. Then get thee to Cavallo Point, where famed Foreign Cinema chefs Gayle Pirie and John Clark are offering a two-and-a-half-hour class that is really a fantastic restaurant meal that guests can help prepare—or not, as they wish. Tonight's menu starts with asparagus and farro salad with pecorino cheese and arugula, segues nicely into a madras curry fried chicken with Gala apples and mixed chicories, and finishes with the Foreign Cinema's signature rhubarb pop tarts. The meal is $70 per person, replete with wine.

The cooking school at Cavallo Point may be one of the North Bay's best-kept secrets. Classes range from just shy of the three-hour mark to a sumptuous four hours and range from April 2nd's "Bubbles and Bites" class featuring sparkling wine and appetizers to April 10th's full-on cooking with Fish restaurant's own Kenny Belov, who only uses line-caught sustainable seafood at his Sausalito resto and who can wax eloquent for the full four hours on his passion. Guests are not pressed to do a thing, says chef-instructor Rosalyn England. But if they want to roll up sleeves and don an apron, that's all set up as well. "The four-hour classes are hands-on," she explains. "People arrive—we max out at 20 people—and we'll discuss the menu, where we've procured all of our ingredients and break the group up into three or four smaller groups and will have a chef-instructor who will guide them through the meal. They'll make first or second course or the dessert. We set a really nice table, and we all sit down and have a really nice meal. It is tagged with wine, two glasses with dinner."

Belov's class is $125 per person, which is a great deal considering that no participant will ever consider seafood through the same lens again, and most will be able to cook a filet or two well into the future. For information on tonight's meal or other Cavallo Point Cooking School offerings: www.cavallopoint.com.


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