Press release:

The Culinary Arts students from the Batavia Career and Technical Education Center who competed in the national Culinary Arts Challenge for the National NASA HUNCH Program have made to the top ten and now advance to the next round of competition.  Their menus items received top scores from the local judges!

The winning recipes are:

• Entrée: Shrimp fajitas with red lentil tortillas, creamy avocado sauce served with a side of cilantro lime cauliflower rice.
• Dessert:  Mexican chocolate brownie

In early April, this team and their instructor will travel to Texas for the next round of competition, which will be held at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.  

If selected, their entrée and dessert will be produced at Johnson Space Lab and sent to the International Space Station for astronauts to enjoy.

For adults, she is offering a class in Italian cooking basics and an Italian "Demo & Dine" small-plate dinner party, both next month.

Here's the lineup for young folks:

• Teen Treats Cooking Class (for ages 13-16) (limited to eight teens) -- $175, requires $50 deposit to book -- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., July 13-17
• Cooking with Young Adults (age 16+) (limited to 10 young adults) -- $175, requires $50 deposit to book -- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., July 27-31
• Kids' Baking Camp (for ages 8 to 12 years) (limited to 12 kids) --  $175, requires $50 deposit to book -- 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Aug. 10-14

Here's a couple of offerings for adults who love great Italian food:

• "Demo & Dine": Buon Appetito! Italian Dinner Extravaganza -- $50 total cost -- 6 p.m. Saturday, March 21 -- Let Jeanne show you how to make and enjoy a fabulous Italian meal.
• The Essentials of Italian Cooking (limited to 12 people) -- $35 total cost -- Tuesday, March 24 -- Sauce, bread, biscotti, gelato, basil, Grana Padano, Ricotta -- Many of the basics will be covered so you can learn to make amazing Italian dishes for your family and friends!

For bookings and more information, visit online at Jeanne's Table.

On Friday, the students in the Culinary Arts Program prepared their final projects for a group of judges. I happened to arrive in time for the last student of the day, Jose Vanegas, who made tacos and flan.

The Genesee County 4-H Program is excited to announce a NEW 4-H Cooking Workshop Series!

The first series will be learning how to cook Breakfast Foods and will be four weeks long.

4-H Breakfast Foods Cooking Series Dates:

• Saturday, March 2^nd, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
• Saturday, March 9^th, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
• Saturday, March 16^th, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
• Saturday, March 23^rd, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

The series is open to youth ages 9 and up. Youths need to enroll in the 4-H program to participate. All classes will be held at the Cooperative Extension building located at 420 E. Main St., Batavia, NY. 

Space is limited! To register please contact Brandie at the 4-H Office for more information. Call 585-343-3040 or email genesee4h@cornell.edu

At GO ART! on Thursday night, there was both a cooking class and an art show opening.

Joseph Rojo, above, provided a demonstration of Asian fusion cooking. Below, Kimberly Perl and Marie Scofield get to participate in creating a chicken adobo.

For the art show below, Judy Wenrich poses with her painting, "My 3 Pets." Look closely and you'll find three ferrets. The show features work by GO ART! members on the theme of "Juxtaposition."

GO ART! also has an art sale in the main gallery featuring both current member works and works from the archives.

Paulie Guglieamo, owner of Guglieamo's Pasta Sauce and a radio personality in Rochester, was the celebrity chef at the Culinary Arts Program at BOCES yesterday.

Guglieamo shared with students how he started his business and talked about some of the challenges and pleasures of starting and owning your own business. He then took the students into the kitchen and showed him how he makes his pasta sauces, which are based on recipes developed by his grandmother during the Great Depression and use garden-fresh ingredients.

He encouraged students to follow their passions as they set themselves on a path toward their eventual careers.

"If you have passion and you truly love it, you can do it," Guglieamo said.

Guglieamo's sauce is now sold in Wegmans, Tops and other retail outlets throughout the northeast. He said he's succeeded because of the passion he has for his product.

"When you actually have something that is an extension of you -- that's my brand, that's me, that's my actual phone number, I put my cell phone number on every jar we sell -- you can't possibly fail," Guglieamo said. "I cannot not sell this jar of sauce. I can't walk into a store and not sell it."

When Guglieamo was first starting his radio career, he was in sales.

"I was very, very, very bad (at sales)," he said.

If a customer offered an objection, he didn't have an answer, but now, selling his own product, he has all the answers.

"I have the answers to everything because this is my life, this is my baby right here," he said.

Normal 0 Local cooks and “wanna-be Iron Chefs” will be able to test their culinary chops with a new cookbook from the Genesee Country Farmers’ Market. Field Notes: Recipes from the Genesee Country Farmers’ Market contains nearly 200 recipes contributed by market vendors and customers. It is available at the market every Tuesday and Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. through the end of October.

Work on this cookbook began last summer when 2010 market manager Patty Hawley pitched the idea of a cookbook that focuses on local ingredients to the farmers and vendors at the market. “Customers are often eager to try new fruits and vegetables but are at a loss as to how to prepare them once they get them home,” Hawley said. “Farmers and vendors are the best source of information for food preparation because they’re so knowledgeable about their produce.”

Likewise, many customers would approach Hawley with information on a particular item. “Our customers were anxious to talk about their own personal recipes, some of them handed down through the generations, so the next logical step was to gather all of this information into a usable format,” Hawley added.

A call for customer recipes was advertised in various media outlets and vendors provided many of their own recipes as well. After months of collecting submissions the work of compiling them into a printer-friendly format began. “I was still receiving recipes sent in by the community through early May,” said Hawley, even though the deadline was March 1.

“We were fortunate to have secured assistance from Upstate Farms and Bison Foods, who underwrote the production costs of our cookbook,” Hawley said. The Daily News also donated the photos that appear throughout the book, taken by Rocco Laurienzo at last summer’s market.

Field Notes is a 248-page homage to the “locavore” movement – a growing trend that urges people to eat healthy and keep food dollars in the community by purchasing food locally, fresh, and in season. “Almost all of the recipes include ingredients that are grown here,” according to Sharon Brent from Schwab Farms. “This is a four season cookbook; menus can be planned throughout the year using fresh, local ingredients at their peak.” Most cooks will be able to easily recreate the recipes in Field Notes. “Because they are time-tested by real people and not in a test kitchen, the recipes tend to be quick and easy, even for a novice cook,” Hawley explained.

Field Notes: Recipes from the Genesee Country Farmers’ Market is available now. A launch party is planned for Friday, July 30 from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.; free samples will be available and representatives from the Niagara Wine Trail will provide wine pairings for each dish. Cost of the cookbook is $10 and all sales go to the Genesee Country Farmers’ Market Association. 

Those who attend will see firsthand how simple and fun cooking can be!

Susan Presher, food services director for the Caledonia-Mumford Central School District, will provide summer cooking tips and recipes.

For more information, call the library at 768-8300.