Culinary Experience for a Cause at St. Joseph's Center

Once in a while, an opportunity to do good, eat well and give back presents itself. This weekend, multitasking karma-seekers can participate in St. Joseph's Center's Culinary Experience for a Cause cooking classes, where they'll learn how to make French pastries from Gourmandise Desserts owner Clemence Gossett.

The funds raised by the classes go directly to the 100% donor-supported St. Joseph's Culinary Training Program,  a nonprofit family services organization in Venice. The training program is dedicated to giving low-income, unemployed individuals a chance to make a career in the culinary world.

Pastry chef Gossett will be guiding guests through hands-on training to prep their pancreas for the holiday seeaon. Students will create desserts such as petits fours, mascarpone tortes and both almond-vanilla bean and chocolate-pistachio financiers — little cakes named for the Parisian bankers who historically favored them.

Thankfully, you don't have to be as monetarily situated as a Parisian banker, as the class costs a modest $85 per person or $150 per couple. The sweetest part? You can hand off 50% of the bill to your accountant. The fundraising classes are tax-deductible.

Read the full article on the Brand X blog>>

-- Krista Simmons

Photo: Strawberry tart made by Clemence Gossett. Credit: Courtesy of Gourmandise Desserts.

Bravo orders 'Top Chef' spin-off 'Just Desserts'

On the heels of news that Bravo has renewed "Top Chef Masters" for a second season comes word that the network has ordered another "Top Chef" spin-off, the sweet-centered "Just Desserts." Read more here.

Photo: The graham cracker chewy bars at Julienne's bakery in San Marino. Here's the recipe. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

 

Celebrate National Coffee Day ... with the largest macaroon in the world?

While you’re drinking your cup of joe today, raise a mug for National Coffee Day, the day in which coffee addicts can rejoice in their brews and refill without shame.

When you order a cup of coffee at participating Los Angeles and Orange County Panera Bread locations, grab a coupon for a free second cup when you mention National Coffee Day and the “Pay It Forward” phrase, effective only today.

Not crazy about coffee but love the delectable desserts that go with it? Settle down with a fluffy New Orleans-style beignet dusted with powdered sugar – find the recipe from the L.A. Times test kitchen here.

And though it’s not in celebration of the best part of waking up, another great highlight of today is happening at Brentwood’s La Provence Patisserie &  Café this afternoon.

Attenders hope to witness the world’s largest Parisian macaroon, as chef and restaurateur Farshid Hakim attempts to break the Guinness Book of World Records title. Hakim and his staff began working early this morning with what they hope to be the world’s largest collection of macaroon ingredients -- almond flour, sugar, butter, cream, etc. – to create the enormous 16-inch egg white and almond delicacy.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to leave your coffee at home: La Provence will be serving Intelligentsia coffees and teas, as well as full-service meals during the record-breaking baking.

La Provence Patisserie & Café, 11677 San Vicente Blvd. For more information, call La Provence at (310) 442-1144.

-- Kelsey Ramos

Photo: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

Kiss My Bundt Bakery's Red velvet cake recipe

Our selfless quest for the best red velvet cake led to the acquisition of Kiss My Bundt Bakery's recipe, which has become a favorite with many of our staff. Owner Chrysta Wilson says it's based on a recipe she learned years ago from her aunt, when, as an 8-year-old, she was baking cakes in her Easy Bake Oven.

Her bakery is celebrating its 1-year anniversary, and the recipe (which follows below) will be included in her upcoming cookbook "Kiss My Bundt Cookbook," due out November 2009.

Yup! It's amazing! Almost as amazing as her maple bacon bundt cake. Only wish I'd asked for both recipes....

Taking aim at Alice Waters, Michael Pollan & Co., and rethinking that Diet Coke

From today's Opinion page:

Keep your self-righteous fingers off my processed food: By demanding we all pay more to fund their agendas in these harsh economic times, foodie snobs and lefty social critics may as well tell us to eat artisanal cake.

And Monday's Health section:

America's sweet tooth is growing. Like many other mammals, we are hooked on sugar because it is packed with energy and our bodies have evolved ways of encouraging us to consume more of it.

Photo: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Post-City Bakery, Birdbath rises in West Hollywood

Maury Rubin closed the L.A. outpost of City Bakery in Brentwood this spring but promised he would open a Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery in West Hollywood this year. And so it is. Rubin says he has signed a lease, and a Birdbath bakery -- the first outside of New York -- will open in the newly renovated Pavilions complex at Santa Monica and Robertson boulevards this fall.

"It's a small-scale [700-square-foot] takeout bakery with lunch to go and some unusual beverages," Rubin says. "The food and drink is organic or locally sourced or seasonal or all three."

Expect the pretzel croissant plus cookies, muffins, scones and breakfast tartines. For lunch, small pizzas (including the "green pizza," which just made its debut on the High Line in New York) and pressed sandwiches. Vegan options include the sesame-banana-agave cake, pictured above. And the "unusual beverages" refer to edible flower lemonade, the "Two-Tone" (coffee & chocolate), "foamy" organic orange juice and a new Birdbath hot chocolate. 

Wait, there's more: "some form of shaved ice and/or sorbets and/or frozen custards and/or dessert-like fruit soups," Rubin says. "Eco-themed" pastries include the "What's Your Carbon Footprint?" cookie, "Save the Whale's Tail" turnovers and "Green Energy" cookies (organic butter cookie with jalapeno peppers).

In New York, customers who arrive by bicycle or skateboard get a discount. Here, anyone who arrives in a hybrid vehicle will get a discount.

-- Betty Hallock 

Photo of sesame-banana cakes courtesy of Birdbath. Photo of footprint cookie by Betty Hallock.

The California Cook: Frozen souffle

Think about homemade ice cream, creamy and cold and full of fresh fruit flavor. Think about ice cream so light it seems to float off the spoon. Think about ice cream that comes to the table not in cute little scoops but a good 5 inches deep, so tall it towers above the dish.

You’re not thinking about ice cream at all; you’re thinking about a frozen soufflé.

Now you’re never going to catch me saying anything bad about ice cream, particularly the homemade kind. But ice cream has a certain aesthetic. It’s homespun, like summer evenings on the porch with an old-fashioned wood-slatted churn and a box of rock salt.

A frozen soufflé offers a decidedly different approach, sheer as chiffon and drop-dead elegant.

— Russ Parsons

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Payard serving up sweet scents

Francois Payard has closed his famed New York patisserie and restaurant due to an untenably steep rent increase. (He’s in search of another location.)  Meanwhile, you can evoke his sweet temptations with his “gourmand perfumes,” called Inspiration.

Your sweetie have a thing for chocolate? Seduce with a dab of Lychee Mousse ($42), Pistachio Ganache ($45) and Bergamot Truffle ($48) behind your ears (or elsewhere). Each perfume evokes a signature Payard creation. Available online from www.payard.com.

Me, I’m not so sure I want to smell like a chocolate bonbon. Truffles or an aged aceto balsamico might be more my style

-- S. Irene Virbila

Photo credit: S. Irene Virbila

Culinary SOS: Molasses cookie with a ginger snap

 

The Model Bakery in St. Helena makes a molasses cookie that's hard to forget. So Sarabeth Rothfeld from Woodland Hills asked Culinary SOS to get on the case. The Model Bakery was happy to help, and Times Test Kitchen Manager Noelle Carter adapted the recipe. (The cookies were a huge hit in the test kitchen too. Noelle had to make sure there were enough left for the photo shoot.)

Enjoy, Sarabeth!

And if there's a recipe out there that you're just dying to have, write to us at food@latimes.com and we'll do our best to get it for you. In the meantime, here's a look at some other Culinary SOS requests that we were able to answer.

--Rene Lynch

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

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Cinco de Mayo recipes: tuna tostadas, carne asada, chicharrones . . .

 

If you are like me, you're always looking for an excuse to break out the chips and guac. So I was happy to dig through the Times Test Kitchen's archives for some recipes in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Still, I wanted to come up with something ... different. (Nothing against refried beans, mind you!)

So this is a photo gallery of the menu I came up with:

There are grapefruit margaritas to start, along with appetizers including radish salsa, tortillas and chicharrones de queso -- roughly translated as fried cheese, tuna tostadas with chipotle mayo and queso de chiva fundido con pipián verde -- roughly translated as more cheesy goodness. For the main course, choose from green corn tamales, El Cholo's famous chiles rellenos, carne asada tacos, achiote-marinated fish tacos, duck tacos with a chile-cherry compote (I told you I wanted different) and two types of veggie enchiladas.

But I wasn't completely nontraditional. I did include guacamole. And, for a finisher, flan. 

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

-- Rene Lynch

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Photo credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times