Aim To Please Home Cooking: Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Prosciutto, Spinach and Boursin Cheese
Aim To Please Home Cooking recently did a nice write-up of one of Chef Eric’s more famous recipes.
Check out the full write-up here.
Read about Culinary Classroom News! All things culinary and news, together!
Aim To Please Home Cooking recently did a nice write-up of one of Chef Eric’s more famous recipes.
Check out the full write-up here.
LA-Story.com did a nice write up on some of Chef Eric’s most famous Valentine’s Day meals!
Check out the full article here:
Chef Eric_LA Story_Paste-up 2-11-14
Check out this featured Valentine’s Day post on Aim To Please Home Cooking. One of Chef Eric’s most famous Valentine’s Day recipes is featured!
Read the rest here:
Chef Eric_Aim to Please Home Cooking_Paste-up 2-11-14
We’re so excited to have been featured on LA-story.com! Check out the rest of this article for some incredible Super Bowl snack ideas from Chef Eric.
The Examiner recently did a write-up of Chef Eric’s Prime Rib & Au Jus with Horse Radish Sauce. Read about it here.
On Thursday, December 12, 2013, I was lucky enough to be a part of the Kcal 9 News at noon. While I was there, I prepared and got to share one of my tasty desserts: banana-rum crepes with chocolate drizzle.
Sandra Mitchell the anchor for the news at noon was gracious enough to assist me in making the crepes. For all the ladies out there, I was able to extinguish the fire that almost broke out!
For those of you who missed it, here’s a link to me in action.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/12/12/wow-you-guests-this-holiday-with-dishes-from-chef-eric-jacques-crowley/
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I was lucky enough to work with One Direction two weeks ago to lead a cooking experience for the guys. It was a fantastic experience working with them to help promote their fan event, One Direction Day. I still can’t believe that they were brave enough to try some of the dishes I prepared for them like Indonesian Fried Rice, Korean Scallion Pancakes and Malaysian Chicken Satay, and if they got fan questions wrong, they had to eat Sheep’s brains, Tuna Milkshakes, Grasshoppers and Pigs Feet! These are some of the hardest working guys in the industry and it truly was a pleasure working with every one of them. The dishes didn’t affect them too badly as they went on to win TWO American Music Awards the next night! Best of luck to them in the future!
If you missed my live performance, you can view the video HERE.
Thank you to Valley Scene Magazine for featuring us in their July 2013 issue! You can read the article here.
Last week, along with other members of the press, I took part in a cooking and wine-pairing class at Chef Eric’s Culinary Classroom in west L.A. Eric Jacques Crowley is a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, who apprenticed at some of the most acclaimed restaurants in Europe before going on to supervising event catering for the Patina Restaurant Group. He’s been teaching both professional and recreational cooking since 1999 and he’s a gifted and very patient teacher. With constant encouragement of “great job” and “that looks terrific,” he makes his students feel they’re ready to apply for the job of sous chef at Spago, even if all they’ve done is chop a few mushrooms or sear a couple of scallops.
Those are pretty much the chores I took on during the three-hour class and dinner. The menu included eggplant and zucchini fritters, fennel-dusted pan-seared scallops with grilled wild mushrooms, homemade pasta with tomato and olive tapenade sauce, a braised lamb stew and sautéed chicken breasts with sunchokes.
There were ten of us amateurs sharing kitchen duties, along with Chef Eric’s very talented staff. By the time we sat down to enjoy our repast, we had all gotten to know each other a bit and learned a few tricks along the way. My favorite: to peel a large quantity of garlic (for, say, chicken with 40 cloves of garlic), simply remove the outer tissue from a head or two (you can do this by smashing the clove against a work surface). Grab two metal bowls. Place the garlic heads in one, invert the other to form a lid, and shake the bowls up and down like crazy for 15 seconds or so. (You can also use a sealed Tupperware container in place of the bowls.) Uncover the bowl and-voila-perfectly peeled garlic cloves.
Chef Eric teaches dozens of team-building cooking classes every year for clients like American Express, Honda, IBM, MTV and Merrill Lynch. The classes can be completely customized, with gluten-free or vegan menus, Iron Chef type competitions or lessons in preparing hors d’oeuvres with an emphasis on pouring wine. I can attest it’s a delicious way to mingle with colleagues old and new.
Shelley Levitt
Editor
California Meetings + Events
Thanks to EATING LA for featuring the Culinary Classroom on your blog! Here is what they had to say…
Post pulled from here.
Ever thought of trying to take your sketchy home cooking skills to a new level? I’ve been looking into cooking schools lately, particularly those with semi-pro courses. It turns out that at the moment there are really only two places that offer a semi-pro course: the New School of Cooking in Culver City and Chef Eric’s Culinary Classroom in West L.A.
Several years ago, I took Thai Street Food with Jet Tila at the New School, but when I was offered a trial class at Chef Eric‘s, I thought it would be a great way to get a taste of what the school has to offer. In fact, not just a taste, but a full meal. Chef Eric invited some food writers to try his Wine and Food Pairing class, which includes quite a few dishes: zucchini eggplant fritters to start, seared scallops with wild mushrooms, homemade pasta with tomato and kalamata olive tapenade sauce; sauteed chicken breasts with sunchokes and sundried tomatoes; lamb stew with wild mushrooms and tiramisu for dessert. In addition we tasted several nice wines when we were done cooking everything.
It’s been several years since I’ve taken a cooking class, and I’m a decent home cook, but even at a one-night class you always learn a handy tip or two. For example, Chef Tila taught me a quick way to peel ginger (with the back of the knife) that I still remember. Here’s a few things I learned from the class:
1. Lots of restaurant/travel writers don’t actually cook much, they’re too busy travelling. So like in other classes, the ability levels of your classmates will vary greatly. Take advantage of the teacher and assistants to make sure your technique is correct even if you think you know how to chop vegetables, for example. It turns out I didn’t really know how to do it right (hint: it’s a rocking motion).
Chef Eric demonstrates a garlic peeling method |
2. Need to peel a bunch of cloves of garlic quickly? Put the separated cloves in two bowls and shake vigorously. Voila, most of the peels will fall away, leaving naked cloves to be chopped.
3. In most one-night cooking classes, the entire class will end up with at least five dishes, but you will likely be assigned to a team that will only make one dish from start to finish. This seems to be the main complaint about cooking classes on Yelp — people think it’s actually possible to teach a dozen or so people how to make five dishes, have everyone make them all from scratch and eat them in three hours. That’s not possible, thus the team method. I was assigned to sauteed chicken breasts, but wandering around, I also got a turn cranking the pasta machine and chopping the wild mushrooms.
4. Cooking classes are also a chance to taste something you wouldn’t normally order. Lamb is not my favorite, but the lamb stew was delicious. Chef Eric uses excellent ingredients like scallops from Santa Monica Seafood and wild chanterelles, which makes a big difference in flavor.
5. Pay attention to when the class is when deciding what to take. I’m glad I took the sample class on a weeknight after work, because I realize now there’s no way I would have the energy to do the 18-week Master Chef program on weeknights. Fortunately, if I ever decide to do it, it’s also available on weekends.
Which program to choose? Both schools are a bit far for me, and both semi-pro series are around $2500, so it will probably have to wait for a while. I liked the spacious facilities at New School of Cooking, though I’m not familiar with the teachers.
Chef Eric Crowley is a Patina Catering vet who graduated from the CIA, and he had an easy, friendly manner with students. But the kitchen is quite compact although it’s very efficicently set up. Try Chef Eric‘s Culinary Classroom for an evening or weekend class to learn anything from knife skills to sushi making or healthy cooking. There’s also a four week culinary basics series, for the true beginners, and kid’s classes, so you can make those little buggers learn to make you dinner.
Chef Eric’s Culinary Classroom
2366 Pelham Ave.
L.A. 90064
323-470-2640
Looking for cooking classes in the Downtown or Pasadena area? Here’s a recent L.A. Weekly article on five other places to take classes, but none offer a semi-pro series.