ReMARKable Palate: Cooking class at Johnson and Wales

Well, our Miami adventure continues. After sampling his food at the Taste of the Nation Miami, we had the pleasure of a private cooking class with chef Michael Bloise of Wish Restaurant at his alma mater, the Miami campus of Johnson and Wales University, one of the premiere culinary schools in the US.

Chef Bloise focuses on an eclectic interpretation of Vietnamese cuisine, the food of his mother's culture. He showed us how to make Chao Tom, minced shrimp on sugar cane skewers with a traditional nuoc cham sauce.

We were also treated to 2 demonstrations by Chef Chris Wagner, Director of Culinary Operations and one of the instructors at JWU. He showed us how to make a traditional Apple Streudel from his native Germany, and an inventive Monkfish on a Cappellini Cake with Spicy Mini Ratatouille Chive Sauce.

Look for video podcasts of all three dishes in the near future, as well as a Culinary Roundtable of our tour of the campus with Chef Bruce Ozga, Dean of Culinary Education. On it, we hear about the amazing facilities at JWU, and reflections on the philosophy behind the Johnson and Wales experience.

It was a fun afternoon spent with other press representatives from Canada, Colombia, and Brazil, and we all took part in the preparation of our lunch (well, actually I spent the time taking pictures and shooting video for upcoming podcasts, while Jennifer got her hands messy making lunch. It's only fair, I'm always cooking, it's nice to let someone else make lunch once in a while!)