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by Benay Bernstein
 First, we were just five women, mostly American, looking for diversion while accompanying our husbands to meetings all over the world. Before we knew it our numbers and international membership grew. Now we are fourteen strong, representing eleven countries, loving the new tastes and the challenges of food preparation, fascinated with kitchen choreography, and savoring each excursion into the universal language of food.
Time was getting short. In less than a month, we were due in Buenos Aires and the cooking class I arrange for our group was not yet scheduled. Cooking schools are a relatively new concept to Argentina and cooking classes for tourists do not yet exist. Weeklong classes or three-day sessions might be arranged, but an afternoon of cooking was not possible. Switching gears, I contacted the concierge at our hotel, the lovely Caesar Park, and requested a cooking demonstration and tasting. Bingo!
Chef Rodrigo Toso was enthusiastic about demonstrating for us. Though wary, since I knew nothing about this chef, I recalled our hotel cooking lesson in Hong Kong that turned out to be quite wonderful so I decided to give it a try. Bingo again! Chef Toso is an Argentine Emeril with less bombast, more charm, and the talent of a maestro. In fact two months earlier, Toso was the featured chef in the American Express Platinum Cardholder's magazine. Talk about hitting pay dirt! Toso trained in Argentinean kitchens and went on to study for two years at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne in France, and a year at the Culinary Institute of America. After cooking internationally for a number of years, he decided to return to his beloved Argentina to apply his knowledge to native Argentinean ingredients.
Nestled in a semi-circle around an open cooking counter, our group sat comfortably in our private Master Class, watching, listening, and learning. Chef Rodgrigo thanked us for coming and passionately described the three course menu: First, an Argentinean Warm Sea Bass Salad appetizer dressed with a sweet and spicy syrup and served on first cut greens; second, a medley of three Argentinean meats each accompanied by a different homemade potato chip; finally, Tarte Fondant with Patagonian Chocolate and Berries, a warm chocolate torte served in a chocolate crust. Assisted by a staff of four sous-chefs the demonstration was as flawless as the food.
Chilean Sea Bass comes from Argentina according to our chef (Editors Note: Chilean or Argentinean Sea Bass is actually not a Bass at all; it is Patagonian Toothfish). It is pure white and when cut with a fork comes off in smooth plates rather than broken fibers. Lightly seasoned with olive oil and salt just before placing on the grill, the fish is cooked no more than five to seven minutes. Toso explained how salt draws moisture from fish, meat and poultry and should only be used after the natural juices are safely encased. Even before the succulent cooking smells reached our noses, we could almost taste the bass from Chef Rodrigo's passionate description, tender, velvety, tingly. We learned that first cut greens are the leaves that form immediately following the bottom, non-specific leaves of a green. Parsley was our first cut green. Yielding the complex, mildly spicy flavor for the sweet syrup, red Chorizo sausage made with a heavy dose of sweet paprika is boiled for fifteen minutes. The resulting liquid boils down with sugar to produce a syrup that perfectly melds the bass with the now warm, wilted greens.
Argentina is famous first and foremost for it's meat. Several of us had never tasted sweetbreads before this demonstration. Chef Rodrigo compared sweetbreads to liver. One is a gland; one an organ. Each, when perfectly prepared is a sublime delicacy, and indeed, he was right. Boiled thirty minutes in vegetable stock, cooled and chilled for six hours, the sweetbreads are sliced and lightly grilled with oil and salt, yielding a golden brown slightly crisp delicacy. And the flavor? Light, mildly complex, far from the strong flavor of liver. Served with fresh made potato chips, nine out of ten members of our group were well satisfied and proud of our adventurousness. Grilled baby lamb chop, finer than the finest we had ever experienced was our second meat. Tender, grilled to perfection after an hour's marinating in olive oil, garlic and herbs with no salt added until just before touching the fire, the lamb was served with tapioca chips. Magifique! But believe it or not, the hands down piece de resistance of the meat course was a stew, Wild Boar Stew to be exact! (for the recipe see Cook’s Corner) Chef Rodrigo said, as we hung on to his every word, the delicate patch of meat just below the base of a wild boar's neck is incomparable in this dish prepared with cane sugar, soy sauce and liquid smoke in the marinating/cooking liquid. When we finally tasted the wild boar accompanied with sweet potato chips, to a person, we knew heaven. Toso's eyes scanned the group with the satisfaction of a maestro.
Difficult as it is to trump a pinnacle, Chef Rodrigo pulled it off with his chocolate dessert. First, he carefully pressed a fine chocolate cookie dough made with whipped butter, cocoa, sugar, and egg around the sides and bottom of individual bottomless molds; each hollow housing stood on its own after baking when the mold was lifted. Covered with a thin bed of vanilla custard and dotted with gooseberries the tarts were filled with rich chocolate meringue and heated three minutes. WOW.
We carefully took notes on the recipe sheets ensconced in a golden Caesar Park Hotel folder and agreed that the sixty dollar per person cost for such a tasting was money very well spent.
Until our next gastronomic adventure: ¡Hasta Luego!
© May 2007 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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