"Cuisine Minceur"

"You can remember that it's 'lean cuisine,' but without the box."

Chef Vinita gave an overview of the "historical" culinary revolution of the 1970s. "There was music in the cafés at night and revolution in the air..."* and in the kitchen too, apparently, beginning in France with cuisine minceur ("diet of slimness") and moving into nouvelle, spa, and California cuisines. In all of these, the emphasis is on fresh local ingredients, but the roots are classical French, a la Escoffier. During her lecture, the school's executive chef, Michael Weller, joined our class and sat in the back, as an observer. I practically prayed that my sometimes unruly, always unpredictable classmates would give Chef Vinita the respect she deserves. In the middle of her lecture, a cell phone rang. "How rude!" I thought, and then Chef Weller walked into the next kitchen to take his call.

When she talked last week about eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, Chef made an excellent suggestion. Balance and moderation are key, occasional indulgence is good and even necessary, but we should pay attention to the things we eat three times a week or more. In that vein, I've wanted to find a homemade alternative to the granola bars that are in David's lunch every day. Even though they're the "Nature Valley" brand, "a good source of whole grains," they still (grrrrrrr) contain high fructose corn syrup. Chef decided that today would be the day to experiment with something healthy, so that was my challenge.

I used the Raisin Spice Bar recipe from our Professional Cooking text, modifying it with Chef Vinita's assistance. The original recipe contains only 1 gram of protein per serving. In order to boost it, she recommended substituting silken tofu for the butter, and replacing the pastry flour with equal amounts of all purpose, whole wheat, and soy flour. I also used brown sugar instead of white, and instead of raisins, I added dried cherries, dried apricots, and pistachio nuts. I left in all the eggs. We put aside most of the tray, for energy tomorrow during our final exam. Chef Vinita is giving us all possible advantages, those of us who are open to receiving them.



So, alright already. These were delicious, and definitely something I'll make again, and at home. I just won't tell David about the tofu.

We had ground beef in the class refrigerator, for whatever reason, and in the spirit of "honoring the ingredients," it was used. Andrea prepared Italian-style meatballs with sugo (she was thrilled that she found a big piece of Parmigiano Reggiano, the official stamp visible on the rind), and Silvia made a big pot of spicy albondigas soup. As she dropped the meatballs into the simmering vegetable stock, she said, "I've never made this before, but I've watched my father do it many times." While we ate, Andrea commented, "When people make what they feel passionate about, the quality really goes up a notch, doesn't it?"

Chef Vinita and I chatted while I used the class computer to look up a recipe for preserved lemons (I'll use them as a garnish for my North African vegan stew on Monday.) She said, "I think after you are finished with school, we will get together and cook a meal. Sometimes it does happen that we start out as student and teacher, and then become friends. I feel as though that could happen with us."

* Bob Dylan, "Tangled Up In Blue," from Blood on the Tracks