Kevin Marple

Chef Matt McCallister

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Chef Matt McCallister likes to keep things moving. Formerly of Stephan Pyles, he's been hopping across the country keeping the fires hot at places like McCrady's in South Carolina, Alinea in Chicago and Daniel in New York City.

Back in Texas, one of McCallister's current projects is serving as the consulting chef for a soon-to-open restaurant in Oak Cliff called Campo Modern Country Bistro, which will bring Buenos Aires-inspired fare to the local restaurant scene. (Campo will be the next-door neighbor of Jonathon's, which Scott reviewed a few weeks back.)

That restaurant's not set to open for several weeks. So the intriguingly tattooed chef is filling up the time by hosting a cooking class at DUO, a culinary venue where you can take a class, hold an event or even purchase cushy dining luxuries like imported table linens.

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via Valerie and Michael at What We Ate

Deep-fried elotes. Hot damn.

​Last week, we posted our list of eight foods that should really be fried this year at the State Fair. And within minutes, our dreams became reality. Pecan Lodge fried burnt ends. Cane Rosso fried their pizza. Will from Lockhart Smokehouse fried foie gras.More >>

Photos by Lauren Drewes Daniels

Chef Sergi Arola visits Central Market.

​Madrid was a little lighter this past weekend and Dallas a little fuller as chef Sergi Arola of Spain traveled here to dispense his passion for food, music, Harley Davidsons and life in general. Through Central Market's Passporte España event, Arola hosted three cooking classes locally and one in San Antonio enlightening us in the art of tapas and Spanish bravado.

Bearing a resemblance to Al Pacino, the chef sports a rock-star look with tattoos, black boots and aviator sunglasses. Visiting Texas for the first time, he quickly became enamored by the state and likened it to Spain by way of size and food -- noting that just as Texans have barbecues with friends, Spaniards have tapas with amigos.

"One thing I tell you, in Texas you would never eat barbecue without friends, right?" said Arola. "Well, the same goes for Spain. You always eat tapas with friends."

See, we're practically cousins.

As you may know, in Europe the best of the best restaurants are ranked with Michelin stars. (Yes, the same company that makes the tires. In 1900 the Michelin brothers made a restaurant guide for travelers, which was the inception of the now revered reviews.) Well, Arola's restaurant in Madrid called Gastro has been awarded two Michelin stars, which is considered outstanding. He has a bevy of highly impressive awards and successful restaurants in his back pocket, but the thing that caught my attention on his bio was that he is a "leader in the molecular gastronomy movement." Fearing his class may be like day surgery, I did a little research and watched a video that actually was part cooking and part science lesson.

Curious about Texans' reception to this concept, I asked Arola if, after teaching a few classes around the state he thought people "got" this molecular gastronomy movement? Well, Sergi obviously didn't write the marketing brochures that preceded his visits because he shied away from the label.

"First of all, all cuisine in general is molecular," he said. "If you take a T-bone and put salt and pepper on it, it's a chemical process. And to be very honest, great food doesn't need any extra label. There are only two types of cuisine. Right and wrong. Good or bad."

So, no need for the Bunsen burner, flask and goggles I brought. Bummer.

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Anyone have a good recipes for blueberries with, say, bacon?

​At least when Whole Foods Market asks you to trade in cheese-covered gristle for a sporkful of hummus, they know they're asking a lot.

So that's why they plan to hold your hand through most of it. This month the store launched the Eat Right America 28-day Challenge, a program that encourages eaters (and shoppers, of course, all those wonderful, loaded Whole Foods Shoppers) to adopt a nutrient-rich diet to "achieve optimal health." Thanks, Whole Foods. With vernacular like that, I'm already feeling better about myself.

Just to make sure you don't tip into a pile of fire ants and poly-unsaturated fats, Whole Foods won't take the training wheels off. After signing up for the 28-day challenge, participants will receive an individualized nutritional and personal assessment, a daily eating plan and a month's worth of e-mail support and access to the Eat Right America online member center.

The store offers short Saturday classes for free geared to help you retain the momentum of your nutritional evolution. This Saturday I checked out the Pantry Stocking class which, you know, taught me how to stock my pantry.

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Photos by Brooke Nottingham

​All innuendos and dirty jokes duly noted, I prefer my food in compact ball-shape. I like cheese balls, sausage balls, popcorn balls and meatballs. Thanksgiving always has and always will find a Butterball in my oven (sorry, Stephan Pyles.) So for dessert my natural choice is cake balls.

If cupcakes are the washed-up, allegedly drug-addicted B-list star of last year and pie is the 2011's fresh-faced starlet with a freshly inked CoverGirl contract, then cake balls are the kind-hearted girl who did really good in the talent show last fall and will make it, one day. Or at least, that describes the girl who gave me the recipe when I worked with her at Yankee Candle last year.

A cake ball is a nugget of an imploded cake, and they fit right in with my repertoire of recipes that don't contain any actual food. Or cooking.

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Woman, where's my meatloaf?

​I don't own any kind of Viking appliance. But if I did, now I know what I would do with it.

I didn't realize that the "Experience the Viking Difference" cooking class at the Viking Cooking school referred to the difference a Viking appliance can make in a cook's life. Corporate executive chef Scott Campbell explained that switching to a Viking appliance (which symbolizes a commitment to the "Viking lifestyle") is like switching from an eight pack of Crayolas to a 64-pack. The class had as much to do with cooking as that metaphor does.

But I enjoyed the class. It was a free infomercial about the history of Viking, the wonder of Viking and the love of Viking, sprinkled with cooking tips. Just from the chef's advice, I feel confident that I can find my way around a Viking broiler, even if I may never be wealthy enough to own one. (MSRP for a typical Viking range: If you have to ask, don't bother asking.)

The six-student class was set up at the bar of a demonstration kitchen inside the Viking School. Campbell bustled back and forth from the kitchen, delivering a three-course lunch and enthusing about Viking products. Laura Heibel remained with the class and also gushed about Viking, explaining why they are the best, most efficient and innovative appliances. By the end of the hour-long class, I was convinced. If you're going to buy Kenmore or Maytag, you may as well just build a campfire and cook that way.

My five classmates all owned Viking appliances, so they were enthralled with the demonstration of the range's brass rings and built-in griddle. I sat quietly and nibbled on my herb vinaigrette-drenched salad. The grimy gas stove that came with my apartment is good for heating soup, burning chicken and leaking gas. A broiler may lurk somewhere beneath the thick layer of carbon and charred food, but until I get renter's insurance, I'm definitely not going to check.

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​Whereas other families might have a Christmas turkey or goose, Puerto Rican families such as my own eat pork for their holiday meal.

The meal -- actually a night-long party called Nochebuena -- is held on Christmas Eve and involves music, dancing, coquito (Puerto Rican eggnog), pitorro (Puerto Rican moonshine), a Mass that seems to never end and, most important, an array of foods. Chief among the vittles enjoyed that night is roast pork.The pork is served in two ways: spit-roasted whole (lechon) or oven-roasted shoulder or butt (pernil). The former is time-consuming -- 24 hours time consuming -- making the latter more popular.

The recipe for the pernil is really just a guideline to experimentation. If you'd like to play with the recipe, perhaps by adding more garlic, feel free. The preparation and consumption of the pernil ought to be fun. To up the fun factor, drink the aforementioned alcoholic drinks, if you're fortunate enough to have obtained or made any.

Ingredients
1 seven-pound pork shoulder
8 peeled garlic cloves
7 whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
Kosher salt, and a lot of it. Pork absorbs salt quickly and easily. Not enough salt risks a bland pig.

The Night Before Cooking the Shoulder
Before mixing the seasonings in a blender (no one expects you to use a mortar and pestle anymore. But if you want to do it the hard way like I sometimes do, knock yourself out), with a sharp knife remove the skin from the pork and trim as much fat as desired. Set the fat aside. Score the skin and the pork. Set the skin aside. Place the pork into a roasting pan. Put all seasoning ingredients and seven teaspoons of salt in a blender. Go to town with it until it becomes a paste.

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Jenny Block

​Two nights ago was the first night of Chanukah, and I decided it was time I made my first brisket--traditional holiday fare. I had no idea the best way to attack a brisket, and, after scouring the Internet, I only felt more confused. So, I did what I should have done in the first place and called my mom.

Lucky for me she was with her sister and the two of them got on the phone and told me how it's done.

"You have to brown it on the stove first."

"Grape jelly and onion soup mix. That's all you need."

"You can't keep it in the oven too long. It just keeps getting more and more tender."

"After it's been in the oven for at least three hours, take it out, slice it at an angle, across the grain, put the slices back in the pan and put the pan back in the over. Cover it, give it 20 minutes, and that meat will just suck up the juice."

"Lots of flavor. That's what you need. Lots of flavor."

I'm not sure if I felt better or worse after that challenge. But I definitely felt like the heat was on. I decided to just get crazy and mix and match what I found online and what my mom and Aunt Ruth had shared.

I used Paul Deen's Texas Oven-Roasted Beef Brisket as my base and added and subtracted from there. I started with a dry rub made of...

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Smitten Kitchen

​When I was a kid, I helped my mom make latkes every year. But this was my first year going at it all on my own.

Before oil met pan, I decided to investigate the online latke universe. And what a massive universe it is. People make them with everything from apples to zucchini and top them with everything from caviar to ratatouille. But after a phone call to my mom, I decided old school was the only way to go. More >>

Stephan Pyles

​Among other things, the Thanksgiving cooking class at Stephan Pyles taught me that the main things I know about journalism are wrong.

I had a journalism professor open his class with, "You think you're going to be happy? You're not. You think this career is going to be easy? It's a struggle."

Photos by Brooke Nottingham

Butternut squash soup

​But I believe that Stephan Pyles' cooking class, the grand finale of my journey through some of Dallas' cooking classes, is a contender for the top three happiest times in my life. The main thing I struggled with was putting my fork down long enough to take thorough notes. I was wracked with guilt thinking about the unlucky journalists, struggling with their beats to deliver hard-hitting news. My guilt dissipated somewhere around my second glass of 2009 Nyers Carneros Chardonnay paired with a savory, velvety-rich curried butternut squash soup with apple-bacon chutney.

Platanos rellenos

​Saturday's cooking class at Stephan Pyles Restaurant was a $125, three-hour demonstration of scrumptious alternatives to tired holiday staples. Nestled elbow-to-elbow at long tables with my 40 or so classmates, chef Pyles demonstrated the butternut squash soup, platanos rellenos with venison picadillo and avocado-jicama-watercress salad (paired with Rahr & Sons Brewing Company's "Buffalo Butt" amber lager), molasses grilled quail with Port-poached pear tamales and candied walnuts (paired with 2009 Chateua Sant Cosme Cotes-du-Rhone), honey-fried chicken with cranberry sauce, maple grits with Parmesan wild mushrooms and country ham, pumpkin-white bean chile rellenos with pomegranate cream (all paired with 2009 Garnacha de Fuego) and for dessert, caramelized apple upside-down cake with candied ginger-mascarpone ice cream and chocolate-bourbon pecan pie with whipped crème fraiche.

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