Cooking with Chef Mike

Have gotten a few emails about the cooking classes...

Is pretty simple, we hang out at either someone's home or a professional kitchen, cook over a bottle of wine and eat everything we make...

Here are a bunch of pics that I will comment on throughout the day there are a lot of pics here, my external hard drive is having issues, when I get that up I will post some other ones that were a lot of fun...

Come with an open mind and leave with a full belly and new friends. Everybody gets a chef coat, an apron and dirty hands

Fundraiser at Mineral Point, HS for the Chorus
Picture of me and Reeva Pittz

John figuring out how to marinate 50 pounds of Chicken Breast for the Mineral Point HS Fundraiser

One on one cooking with my buddy Harry. The whole Harry story is elsewhere on the blog with all the pictures we had of the night. Including Harry's Redneck Egg Rolls which are pictured below.

Me, Harry and a good buddy of mine, Chef Greg did a dinner for 15 people, here I am garnishing the salads.

Me telling Greg that I am envisioning a height on plating Harry's Redneck Rolls, my hands are resembling the towers I was thinking about

Focus


Here are Harry's Redneck Rolls accompanied by an Asian Slaw

Teaching Knife Skills


The next group of pics is of an Italian Cooking Class I did at the Walker House in Wisconsin

Cleaning Melons for our Intermezzo

Chef Craig teaching how to chiffonade basil

Benita peeling Concasse Tomatoes for Sauce

Tim stirring up some Polenta

Wendy pouring out some basil and garlic infused oil we made.

Basil, Basil and More Basil
Life is good.

Tim Grilling some Tuna Steaks

Then have a seat and eat!!!!!!!!!!!

Me getting ready for a class

Chef Craig teaching the proper way to clean a Beef Tenderloin

Chef and his buddy Angie whipping up some crazy concoction to marinate the beef tenderloin in

Marinate that sucker

Me and Benita going over how to Concasse Tomatoes

Building a smokehouse in the Wisconsin snow and cold out of stuff found in the backyard

Me and Chef Dave hanging out prepping for a party for the Town Council and Historical Society welcoming us to Mineral Point

Wolf Lake Hunting Club
Chicago, Ill

I did a wild game dinner with Smaggie, an old Marine Corps buddy of mine, 12 courses for around 120 people in their little Hunt Club in SE Chicago. Definitely a lot of chow and I had a lot of fun with the kids.

Making pasty shells for a Venison-Fingerling Pasty

Yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!! Finally done, those were a pain in the butt

Now we have to make some house smoked trout enchiladas...
These kids were awesome, I had a great time as I am sure they did too

I'll bring the Beef, but maybe we oughta figure this thing out first...
My old Sous Chef Craig in total awe.

There is something that is so cool with hanging out with kids and cooking. Just brings you back to a more simple way of thinking...here is Chef Henry rolling himself out a pizza

Larissa, an exchange student that needed to trail a Chef for a class that she was taking hung out with me for a day, we did pasties, breads and cheesecake
More about that day and a ton of pics put Larissa into the search engine on top where it says to search this site

Hanging out in Durham with my buddy Chef Owen

Half the fun of making cookies is getting your hands really sticky

Me and Chef Craig pumping out a Six Course Wild Game Dinner that he designed

Pheasant with Cranberry Relish and Applewood Smoked Bacon at Tim Stacka's Farm

Tim has 600 plus acres in a small town in Wisconsin and has a group of family and friends that like hunting and fishing on his property and this is one of the signs that he has that you see when you enter his property