Chic Fall Entertaining with Olive Oil
A Cooking Class & Tasting Menu
November 6, 2014
Olivette, 1084 Post Road, Darien
6:30-8:30 pm
Tickets: $55 per person. Purchase your tickets online here.
Get ready for chic fall entertaining with a menu celebrating seasonal flavors and heart-healthy extra virgin olive oil. This two-hour cooking class features professional culinary instruction and demonstrations by Chef Silvia Baldini of Strawberry and Sage, a five-course tasting menu, extra virgin olive oil pairings and education by Alina Lawrence of Olivette, and guidance on sourcing seasonal foods locally by Analiese Paik of the Fairfield Green Food Guide. Every guest will receive a set of Chef Silvia’s recipes to use at home.
Learn to:
- prepare restaurant-quality dressings and emulsions
- prepare, dress and plate a salad like a chef
- prepare one vegetable/fruit base to be used as a soup or mash
- roast a fall vegetable for a festive side dish
- poach fish in olive oil and beautifully sauce and plate it
- choose and pair extra virgin olive oils
- source your food locally and sustainably
Dressings Demo*
Whisking:
*Baked Garlic with Leccino Chile EVOO and Pinot Noir Vinegar
Herbal Dressing with Picual Australia EVOO and Champagne Vinegar
Blending:
Shallot dressing with Sherry Vinegar
*Pistachio dressing with Picual Australia EVOO and Traditional Balsamic
Emulsions:
*Caper and rosemary aioli with Rosemary Olive Oil
*Silvia’s Honey dressing Picual Australia EVOOand Honey Vinegar
* Will be demonstrated for technique, all others will be recipes
Salad Demo
How to choose ingredients, wash, dress, and plate a salad
Pomegranate Quince White Balsamic Vinegar Poached Quince and Stilton salad with pistachio dressing
Soup and Mash Demo
One root 2 dishes
Celeriac and apple soup and a mash
For the base: Arbosana Chile EVOO ; finishing oil: Koroneiki Chile EVOO
How to Poach with Olive Oil Demo
Arbosana Chile EVOO poached halibut with caper aioli
Roasting Vegetables
Butternut squash roasted with Olivette butternut squash seed oil
Guests are welcome to enjoy bread and olive oil for dipping at 6:30.
Tasting Menu
by Chef Silvia Baldini of Strawberry and Sage
Extra Virgin Olive Oil pairings by Alina Lawrence of Olivette
Quince and Stilton salad with pistachio dressing
Celeriac and apple soup
Olive oil poached halibut with caper aioli
Roasted sweet heirloom carrots, parsnip, turnips, cauliflower, butternut squash and purple potatoes
Olive oil rosemary lemon cakes
Chef Silvia Baldini
Formerly an advertising executive at prestigious Madison Avenue firms, Silvia went back to school and graduated from Cornell University and the French Culinary Institute in NYC with a degree in restaurant management. She continued her culinary education with a Cuisine Diploma from Cordon Bleu, then worked as a chef at the Ritz London and other prestigious European Michelin star restaurants before founding Strawberry and Sage.
Strawberry and Sage is a creative culinary group that celebrates food and art. Food is our passion, obsession and focus. What we like to do: catering and food preparation, event management, strategic partnerships in the food and media industry, cooking instruction, menu developing, recipe development, writing and testing, photography and food styling, cookbooks and media consulting including TV, digital, and social media, restaurant and kitchen consultation and culinary trips. Strawberryandsage.com
Olivette is a distinctive tasting room showcasing the freshest Ultra-Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oils and authentic traditional style aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena with locations in Darien and Westport. Each of Olivette’s Extra Virgin Olive Oils is certified as Ultra-Premium, the highest quality standard for EVOO in the world. Alina Lawrence is an olive oil educator, speaker, consultant and owner of Olivette who received her training and certification in olive oil sensory analysis from the National Organization of Olive Oil Tasters (ONAOO) in Imperia, Italy. Learn more at Olivettect.com
ANALIESE PAIK is a sustainable food advocate and founder and editor of the award-winning digital news publication, FairfieldGreenFoodGuide.com, which empowers consumers to make local-sustainable food purchasing decisions that positively impact their health, foster biodiversity, and support our farmers, restaurants, specialty food producers and retailers. Fairfieldgreenfoodguide.com
