Cooking exposed: how two club executives spiced up a Tuesday night.

Two things Americans just love: European accents and a great chef. Both instill a wondrous sensation, a kind of thrill having to do with mysterious experiences and awaiting adventures. A sort of longing, wanderlust, so to speak. That's why travel destinations become more exotic with every passing year. And that's why cooking shows proliferate over the television airways. In fact, a new cooking show featuring chocolate, nothing but chocolate, is set to air soon!

The Shenandoah Club Executive Chef Roger Light, CEC, CCE and I were relaxing in my office, pondering the success of Chef Ramsey's cooking show, Hell's Kitchen. We had watched, with pity, as Chef Ramsey's excoriated, humiliated pupils hung their heads and soldiered on, seemingly oblivious to the camera. They wore their sliced fingers, burned souls, and hopeful dreams like a badge. I expected chants of "we are not worthy, we are not worthy" following every "yes, Chef."

My friends and children watched the show religiously and all asked the same question: "Is that what it's really like in the kitchen?"

When I hear that question I immediately know two things. One, this person did not work his way through college waiting tables. Two, the kitchen really is a mystery. After all, Americans spend over 50 percent of their food dollars in restaurants these days. Who is cooking at home? No one, apparently.

Chef Light and I talked Hell's Kitchen for awhile, and then it hit us. We could really capitalize on that mystery thing. Our members had been asking for a cooking class for quite some time but we kept putting them off because we would have to close the kitchen to do a cooking class. BINGO! That was it! Let's CLOSE the kitchen and create a cooking class. Let's do it on a Tuesday night, a night when we sometimes have absolutely no business. Let's get about 16 members to sign up at $100 a pop, and we'll promise to take the mystery out of cooking! We were psyched!

And so our cooking class was born. We call it "COOKING: Exposed." In every class we promise to expose tricks of the trade, favorite recipes, and secret ingredients. We begin by assembling the class in the bar and plying them with a good stiff drink while Chef Light launches into an overview of the evening.

Each participant receives a royal blue apron with our club's embroidered logo and a blue binder with the evening's recipes. These are not your mother's "100 Ways to Cook Chicken" recipes. Chef has decided that the aspiring and innocent "chef interns" will create and consume their own Tasting Dinner, defined by us as "Eight Tiny Courses Designed to Delight!" Each course will be consumed by the class in the kitchen at their own cute little table with blue cloths that match their aprons. Thus, each course will supply them with the energy to get up and prepare the next course. Wine, where appropriate, is chosen to complement each course. Chef has decreed there will be no wine drinking in the kitchen except when the "interns" are seated. Surprisingly, they really don't sit that much. They are psyched!

MENU

Wild Mushroom Tart with Red Wine Butter Sauce.

Macaroni and Cheese.

Butter Poached Maine Lobster in Creamy Lobster Broth and Mascarpone-enriched Orzo.

Potato-Butternut Squash-Truffle "Risotto."

Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras and Chicken Stock Reduction.

Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass.

On Pinot Noir Stewed Onions with Baby Bok Choy and Veal Stock Reduction.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls.

A Dipping Sauce of Sweet and Spicy Vinegar.

Wok-Steamed Taylor Bay Scallops in Lemon-Thyme-Chorizo Nage.

Char-Roasted Beef Tenderloin "Mediterranean" Tenderloin Larded with Fire Roasted Chile and Briny.

Anchovies served with Roasted Eggplant-Caramelized Onion Puree and Red Wine Olive Sauce.

Bittersweet Chocolate-Preserved Ginger Truffle Tart with Fruity Caramel Sauce.

The chef interns are mostly husband-wife couples. Chef Light is a wise man--he splits up the spouses, creates four teams, and explains the team assignments. Most of the participants already know one another, so the teasing begins early on. When we first go to the kitchen there is a lot of milling around and some hemming and hawing as the groups try to figure out how to proceed. Chef has the night's ingredients already divvied up into four work areas with our sous chef and a pantry worker on hand to assist in any way possible.

Our kitchen has a front line, a back line, and a pantry that doubles as a plating station for banquets. The four teams file in and admire the products Chef Light has set out for them to see, fondle, cook with, and consume: mushrooms from Washington State, live lobster from Maine, truffles from France, bay scallops from Taylor Bay, orzo, Hawaiian ginger, Venezuelan chocolate, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, fresh herbs, vegetables, and more. The astonished troops settle into their stations and get down to the mysterious business of cooking. Pleas for help begin early: "Chef, Chef, Chef!!" Chef Light runs from one group to another, frantically answering questions and demonstrating techniques. I can tell by the round-eyed look on his face he's having a great time. Breathe, Chef, breathe!

There are four little tables set up over near the pot sink where the food is to be savored by our interns. We only have two servers on duty. All they have to do is pour wine and clear the wine glasses and plates. Oh, and bring silverware out for every course. Everyone is laughing, having a great time. I see one gruff male intern, a doctor in real life, attempting to quiz the pantry worker. I don't know who looks more puzzled, the member or the employee. Finally, the member realizes the employee speaks no English. He looks up, bewildered, and asks, "How do you guys do it?" We shrug--she always seems to know what WE want! He laughs and gets back to work.

Soon the wild mushroom tart is ready. Hungry by now, the class consumes the tart greedily, gulping an Italian sangiovese with it. They toast themselves and speedily return to their stoves. Soon a really important secret about lobster emerges. We all know you throw lobster into a pot of boiling water, but why? So the flesh will "sieze" away from the shell. This is important if you want to get all the meat out. Chef Light demonstrates how to retrieve lobster meat and soon the class is dining on mascarpone-enriched orzo with lobster meat and downing a lovely French chenin blanc.

Next the class produces a faux risotto made with potato and butternut squash. Don't cook the vegetables too long or they turn into sugar! All food has sugar in it and how you handle it is important. More chenin blanc is consumed. Can't make gravy at home? How's this for a secret: open a bottle of red wine, pour it into a heavy bottomed pan, and reduce it down to one-fifth of its volume. We used some left-over sangiovese. Stew some onions in the wine reduction and you've got a great sauce to put under a beautiful piece of seared fish. Pour a glass of sangiovese and you are set.

The class was mesmerized by the making of the Vietnamese spring rolls. Everyone wanted to learn how to make those rolls. A little goes a long ways, as we had plenty left over. Soon the savory smell of thyme and bay scallops wafted overhead. No one had seen bay scallops in the shell before. We learned they turn to rubber if you cook them too long. Don't think that was a secret, though. We drank a buttery chardonnay and toasted ourselves again.

Chef Light is all about flavor combinations. What is spicy and salty and sweet? Think fire-roasted chile mixed with briny anchovies and blended into a roasted eggplant-caramelized onion puree. Yep, they made that, and then learned how to "lard" the beef. I would have just said "stuff the beef," but that's just me. Using a pastry bag, the mixture was literally piped into the center of beef tenderloin that had been made ready by coring the beef with a long knife. Another wine reduction, this time with olives, served as our sauce. We quaffed a fabulous Aussie grenache.

By now it's about 10:30 p.m. but no one wants to go home. The bittersweet chocolate tart has cooled and we pass it around, breathing deeply the mysterious mixture of chocolate and ginger and black pepper. Black pepper in chocolate? Wow, that really was a secret! The tangy pear sauce is laid down first, then the chocolate pastry on top. A glass of California cabernet sauvignon is poured and the class is silent for the first time all night. But only for a moment. Another toast and cries of "Let's do this again" ring through the air. I can't wait to see what Chef Light comes up with next! Cheers!