Stuart middle school demo

I was out in Commerce City this morning giving a demo to the chemistry students who excelled this year in their studies. Were quickly approaching summer and the schools have been calling like crazy. We had lots of great questions about the states of matter- liquid, gas and solids. I have noticed that the girls tend to ask questions about science and the boys ask how they can blow stuff up and shatter things. I am so glad I have daughters. Thank you to the students for making me this great banner.

A true miracle: getting kids to eat their fruits and vegetables

I have been working with the miracle fruit for over 3 1/2 years. I have never seen a natural ingredient that can alter the way you taste. Early on I used it for purely entertainment purposes. Now I see the potential with kids, diabetics, chemo patients and helping with weight loss. Recently I have been developing recipes that can work with the fruit.

If you have not tried the berry it works something like this. A frozen berry is placed in your mouth. You begin to suck on it until the skin comes off. The skin is actually very good for you packing as much antioxidants as wild blueberries. You then place the white pulp on you tongue and try to remove as much pulp as you can. The begging and end picture should look like this:

The fruit will make sour or bitter foods taste sweet. It does a number on lemons and limes but does nothing to broccoli or cauliflower. So the question is, How do we get kids to eat raw veggies? Our answer was to make a sauce that is made of carrots, lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil. It taste terrible, there is no sugar or salt and is barley palatable but after the miracle fruit it taste like candy.

Recently the miracle fruit man(the company I work with)was approached by the St. Lucia school district in Florida about using the fruit at lunch. I developed some recipes including the carrot dip and traveled to central Florida to show the kids and school staff how to use it.

After our 3rd trip to Florida we realized we have something very special here. I could expose kids to new fruits and vegetables and make them taste amazing. I am very excited to see where this project will take us in the next few years, perhaps we could change the way people eat.

Steele elementary demo

Here are some pictures from our demo last Friday. Thank you Lori Midson for the pictures and to her son Elliott for helping us out

Mckinley thatcher demo

We had a blast on Thursday making sorbet for all 240 kids. Thanks for all the great questions and we will be back soon

Art Institute Demo

I was asked by chef Corey to come do a demo at the culinary school I graduated from in 1997. They have started a new class called Art Cullinare where they study and then learn the techniques of the best molecular chefs. Their first day was El bulli, Alinea and The Fat Duck. We agreed that I would come make a composed dish using some different hydrocollids and the thermal circulator. I would then talk about some techniques using liquid nitrogen. My demo came on the Monday after Thanksgiving. We had not received our normal shipment of LN due to the holiday. There is a small airgas store pretty close to the culinary school so my plan was to stop over in the middle of my demo to fill my small dewar. Everything that could have gone wrong did. My thermal circulator would not work. This was the base for the composed dish. To make it even worse the shop were I went to fill the tank had the same problem, they did not receive there shipment due to the holiday. A good chef will always figure the situation out. I poached the eggs in water, not the same texture but they got the point. As for the LN, I talked about its physical properties and what I use it for. I will go back to the school on Monday so they can actually try something. All I could do is shake my head, smile and get through it. No matter how much planning goes into a event there is always something that will go wrong. The trick is not letting the guest know there is anything wrong.

Palmer Demo

We had a great time at Palmer elementary yesterday with Ms. Laventure's 4th and 5th graders.

We talked about how different gases help me cook. I brought my carbonation machine along and made some homemade sprite for the class.

Mckinley-Thatcher Demo

The proudest moment of this demo is when I asked the class how they thought I made the strawberry noodles. After hearing some very interesting answers, my 7 year old daughter told the class verbatim how I made them for her 1 1/2 ago. I was a bubbling dad

Pre-school Demo

I like to cook for kids, more then grumpy adults. They are so open to trying new things. We made strawberry ice cream and 40 second chocolate cake for the kids in my daughters pre-school class. I always wonder what will these kids eat when they are my age. Will we still have all of the choices we enjoy today?