I taught skills classes at the CIA for years and always looked forward to preparing Cauliflower Polonaise with the students... cauliflower cooked in a 'blanc', strained and then served with a buttery breadcrumb sauce of brown butter, Italian parsley, lemon zest, and chopped hard-boiled egg-absolutely delicious.

I learned to butter -roast parsnips to fold into mashed yukon gold potatoes for a very high profile dinner several of us CIA chefs were preparing. The key is to cover a heavy, roasting pan with foil to achieve a delicious, golden caramelization of the roasted parsnips... and a lot of butter!

I taught skills classes at the CIA for years and always looked forward to preparing Cauliflower Polonaise with the students... cauliflower cooked in a 'blanc', strained and then served with a buttery breadcrumb sauce of brown butter, Italian parsley, lemon zest, and chopped hard-boiled egg-absolutely delicious.

I've enjoyed poached and baked eggs with deliciopus, vegetables such as this all over Europe. This recipe is a wonderful brunch menu item which takes a little time to mise en place but will impress your friends and family.

I like growing kale, chard, escarole etc.. in my garden. I cover the leafy vegetables with cloth row covers in the hot summer or cold winter so that these plants last for over a year, reproducing & I can prepare healthy, delicious salads, soups, etc...

Cooked Brussel sprouts are delicious with a sweet & horseradish taste-almost like wasabi. I use an abundance of boiling, salted water so that the sprouts are tender & still have a nice green color.

Bok Choi & Asian Cabbages are slightly sweet, Escarole is a little more bitter, Kales & Chards have a slightly earthy flavor and are great with bacon; all of these leafy vegetables are absolutely delicious raw in salads, sauteed as a side vegetable with ginger, garlic, scallions & olive oil.

Chef Ehlmer challenged our class to prepare ratatouilli... with confidence! put a rondeau on the fire, as the rondeau heated, peel/pare and dice 3 onions, 5 red bell peppers & 5 cloves of garlic-add olive oil to the rondeau and begin sweating the vegetables. (seasoning as you cooked) The point was to cook with passion and confidence! And Fast! Then, in the time it took for the vegetables to soften & develop flavor, we had to wash, pare and dice 4 zucchini, add to the sweated vegetables… then add 2 diced eggplant and then 8 peeled & seeded tomatoes and finally basil... I naively volunteered for the challenge & was able to accomplish my first ratatouille-got an A!

I've seen chefs doing a style of cooking which I'm very much against... I believe it's called a 'hard saute' and basically involves getting a cast iron pan piping hot and searing vegetables. The vegetables get too dark and bitter for my taste. There doesn't seem to be a lot of 'cooking with passion' in the hard saute! worse yet, restaurants are often deep frying broccoli and serving it as roasted...