Tight Belts Get Help From Cooking Classes in Washington Kitchen

On a recent Wednesday night, chef Bryan Moscatello was teaching a cooking class featuring tender braised short ribs and chicken leg confit and aimed at tighter belts and budgets.

Brother, can you spare some thyme?

Moscatello is the executive chef for Stir Food Group, which owns a combined wine shop and test kitchen in Washington’s trendy Penn Quarter called Zola Wine & Kitchen. Last month it offered “Dollar Saving Comfort Food” classes on Wednesday evenings for $70 per session or $250 for four.

The classes were designed to show home cooks how to stretch their budgets with less-expensive cuts of meat and staple seasonings. After the lesson, the meal is served at a long elegant table with wine.

Restaurants are seeing more empty tables as more people are trying to economize by eating at home -- and finding it helps to know how to cook. Janeen Sarlin, who has taught small cooking classes in her Manhattan kitchen since 1975 said she has been getting three times the usual number of calls to attend her “Cooking with Class” since January.

“The economy has hit everybody,” Sarlin said. “I’ve had people come who just lost these high-stress jobs and they realize they really don’t know how to cook.” She has reduced her rates to $95 a class from $120.

At a larger cooking school in Chicago called The Chopping Block, Carolyn Maniaci, an instructor, says she sees more people wanting to learn how to make everyday meals.

White House Veggies

Victory gardens also have begun sprouting up in increasing numbers. Michelle Obama planted hers on the White House lawn last week with help from the same group of elementary-school students who broke ground for it last month.

Seed sales were up 23% last year from 2007 and Bruce Butterfield, research director at the National Gardening Association, expects that number to rise again this year. He said 43 million households plan to grow their own fruits, vegetables, berries and herbs in 2009, up 19 percent from 36 million in 2008.

In Washington, Moscatello brings a wise-cracking, good- humored style to his state-of-the-art kitchen and cooking class. He has the capital’s first ever French-made Athanor range suite, with six burners, a pasta cooker, a “plancha” for searing, a deep fryer and three cast-iron ovens.

He began by breaking down a chicken, showing how nearly every part can be used. He said he’s on a mission to get people to start buying whole chickens instead of the more expensive packaged breasts. A few students who volunteered to dismantle the birds elicited cheers at the end of the messy process.

Warming the Fat

Thirteen students, all wearing aprons and sipping Fiji water, watched earnestly as Moscatello showed how to braise short ribs, from seasoning to searing, and prepare chicken leg confit, from curing the legs to warming the fat.

“Anything cooked in its own fat has to be good,” Moscatello said.

The students then got to perform each step themselves. Midway through it was clear that braising short ribs and waiting for the fat to congeal on the chicken confit was too time- consuming or too complicated for many of these novices. Most managed to at least sear their ribs to perfection, however.

At dinner, William Valencia, a 46-year-old information- technology consultant, said he has replaced going out to dinner three times a week with home-cooked meals and dinner parties. Economizing is important especially since he fears he may be out of a job soon.

“Part of preparing myself for the change is cooking and entertaining more at home” he said.

Vat of Cacciatore

Marcia Pincus, a 41-year-old government analyst, said she cooks to relax. She has already cooked and stored a “vat” of chicken cacciatore, which she learned to make at a previous class. She says she spent $40 buying ingredients and has the dish in her freezer ready to serve at least five or six meals.

“These are go-to recipes with very practical and very basic ingredients,” Pincus said. “There’s nothing exotic in there like unicorn horns and saffron spread!”

Dan Mesches, who owns Zola Wine & Kitchen, said the next “Dollar Saving Comfort Food” class is June 3, but he said every cooking class at Zola helps you economize.

“The whole idea of these cooking classes is you can do it yourself and save a lot of money,” Mesches said. Friday, April 17, will feature “Spring Has Sprung! Ramps, Morels & Peas.”