When my friend Serena asked me to dinner Friday night I didn't know that we'd be cooking part of the meal ourselves! Our night of culinary cuisine took place at Wild Thyme, an amazing cooking class/dining experience here in Lexington.
Our evening at Wild Thyme consisted of an array of amazing hors d'oeuvres to inspire our inner creative cooks, and then they set up a competition where you and your partner had to come up with a dish from a basket of mystery ingredients. Salmon, mango, dried apricots, and romaine lettuce is what we were given to cook any way we liked. The final dishes were to be judged by two professional chefs. This terrified me. I do not cook beyond boiling a pot of water for pasta or preheating the oven for a pizza, let alone letting a complete stranger (a professional chef no less!) eat what I've cooked! In the end our dish turned out great. I was shocked that I could actually cook something that myself and other people liked! We didn't win but I couldn't be prouder of myself.
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| snapshots of myself and Serena preparing our meal, our finished product, and the judges table |
The real treat though was watching the professional chefs work up meals with their basket of mystery ingredients later in the evening. With items like rabbit, lemongrass, tahini paste, kumquats, bird's eye chillies and crispy onions, chefs Andrew and Jane made two completely, but equally amazing, different meals. One was hearty and robust while the other was Asian inspired and spicy. I really felt like I was apart of an episode of Iron Chef!
I can't wait to sign up for my first class. Maybe I'll learn how to cook yet!
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| middle row l to r: Chef Andrew's rabbit and risotto dish, Serena and I's salmon and mango salsa dish, and Chef Jane's Asian infused wild rice and rabbit dish |
