So this weekend, I spent some time up at the Sanderling Inn for their “Cooking School Weekend” that their executive chef, Christine Zambito, put on. A very long time ago, the restaurant at Sanderling was the first place I really saw just how much impact changing chefs can have on a restaurant when they’re left to their own devices and allowed to do what they do best, so I found it oddly appropriate that my first ever formal cooking class would in the same place.
Friday night I arrived and they had a nice little reception upstairs at The Lifesaving Station restaurant. I figured it was just going to be a little meet & greet kind of thing, but no, it was better! Wine and hors d’oeuvres – and then Christine showed us how to make all the goodies we’d gotten to eat AND had recipes for all of them to take home. All of these were absolutely wonderful and easy as all get out to make, but look and taste fairly impressive. What we had:
- Sanderling Crab Dip – this is what they serve in the restaurant. This recipe is particularly good as far as I’m concerned because there is none of this adding artichokes or any other silliness – just lots of crab goodness.
- Roasted Red Pepper Hummus served on Belgian Endive – insanely easy and absolutely blows away anything I’ve ever bought prepared, ever. The presentation on the Belgian Endive looks great, and adds a great crispness to it.
- Smoked Salmon Canapés – Just your basic smoked salmon w/jazzed up cream cheese in pinwheels. Half on crackers, and the other half on cuke slices. I was really surprised at how good the ones on the cukes were – it wasn’t a combination I would have thought of (one of my biggest weaknesses w/food is being able to envision new combinations,) but I really liked it.
- Bruschetta w/the following toppings:
– Black Olive Tapenade – I’ve had this before and could kind of take it or leave it, but this was out of this world. Not sure if it’s the dry cured olives, the fact that it was fresh or what, but I could have eaten this with a spoon.
– Diced tomatoes with Garlic & Herbs – All I can say is this shows how much of a HUGE difference really nice, fresh, not-ripened-on-a-truck tomatoes make. SO good.
– Herbed goat cheese – this is in my list of recipes, but I’m pretty sure this either wasn’t in with what we ate, or I somehow missed it, but it looks good and I’ll be giving that a go at some point as well.
So, we got ourselves all good and noshed up to get things kicked off. Headed over to the Swan Bar in the restaurant and discovered that they have lost the recipe for Keoki coffee that I left them the last time I had drinks there (14 years ago…), so they now have that again, and I’ve got a new friend in the bartender, Jason.
Originally posted at Cafe Chat Noir on 4/30, so if it looks familiar, that’s why.