A student demonstrates his cooking knowledge, even to Mom
4/12/2011 11:00:00 AM by Jonathan Haring, Director of Culinary Services
On Thursday, March 31, Jonathan Valasco, a student with Tulsa County’s Phoenix Rising Program, did a difficult thing: he stood in front of his mom and taught her how to cook.
Jonathan, as part of the program’s student mentoring program, planned a menu, prepared food for ten people, and demonstrated how to prepare the menu to a crowd of his teachers and mentors and his mother.
On Wednesday afternoon, we met with him and talked about what he would like to make. That afternoon we worked with Jonathan on recipes and techniques for cooking. We had him do a dry run and take notes. In the morning he did a trial demonstration in our teaching kitchen and then made all of the food to feed his “class” so he was familiar with items beforehand.
Armed with his hand-written curriculum, he set out to teach the teachers. When he said he was nervous, I asked him to pretend to be confident and assured him that no one would know the difference. It went perfectly. He demonstrated how to make Lemon Pepper Chicken Pomodoro over Farfalle.
His mother was proud and volunteered him to cook for the holidays.
Here is his recipe:
Jonathan Valasco’s Lemon Pepper Chicken Pomodoro with Farfalle
10-inch sauté pan
Tsp cooking oil
Medium chicken breast
Salt
Pepper
½ cup of chicken stock
2 tsp. lemon zest
2 cloves of garlic minced
½ cup of basil pesto
½ cup of fine diced onion
½ cup of diced tomato
¼ cup of minced green onion
Two cups of cooked farfalle (bow tie pasta)
Chopped parsley
Heat the oil in a sauté pan. Coat the chicken in salt and pepper to taste. When the oil is warm, place the chicken in the pan skin side down to cook. Flip when browned. When the chicken is cooked, pull it from the pan and set it aside to rest. Saute the onions in the pan and add the tomatoes and garlic when the onions begin to turn clear. When the garlic is almost browned add the stock and green onions and pesto. Fold in the pasta and coat it with the sauce. Slice the chicken breast. Pour the pasta into a bowl and place the chicken slices on top. Garnish with parsley.
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