De Gustibus Cooking Class with Harold Dieterle and John Fraser: Fantastic!

Hi foodies! Yesterday I was back at De Gustibus for a cooking class with Top Chef season 1 winner and owner of Perilla and Kin Shop, Harold Dieterle along with the owner of What Happens When and Dovetail, John Fraser. The class was amazing. They were both fun to be around and the food was outstanding. The food that they prepared was:

1. Grilled Avacado, peach gazpacho, seabeans, anise hyssop (prepared by John Fraser)
2. Seared Diver Sea Scallops with snap peas, banana blossom & coconut broth (prepared by Harold Dieterle)
3. Pecan Crusted Flounder with grits and moque choux (prepared by John Fraser)
4. Braised Beef Braciole with escarole, grapes, white beans & tomato (prepared by Harold Dieterle)

The first dish was the Grilled Avocado appetizer. This dish was incredible. There were so many components in this dish and it gave the dish many dimensions. The grilled avocado was delicious and very different. The reason John Fraser made this vegetarian dish is because he is a vegetarian and has Meatless Mondays at Dovetail every week. He said that he wanted to prove to everyone that vegetables can taste good and a dish doesn't need meat on it to make it good.

The second dish was the Seared Diver Sea Scallops. This dish was really good. The coconut broth was incredible and very flavorful. The scallops were cooked great too.

The third dish was the Pecan Crusted Flounder. I loved this dish. The fish was amazing and the crust had a great flavor. Also the grits it was on top of were incredible and a good combination with the flounder.

The fourth dish was the Braised Beef Braciole. First of all I now know what I am making for Christmas. This dish was outstanding and really easy to make. The sauce also was delicious and the grapes in it gave the whole dish a fresh crunch.

Both Harold and John had different personalities but meshed really well together. One hilarious story that Harold told was when he was working as a line cook in a restaurant, the wait staff were animals at family meal which is when the chefs put out food for all the staff to eat. Harold and the other chefs were never happy that the servers would eat everything so Harold took some dish towels and put them in flour, than in an egg wash, and than he breaded them. He threw them in the deep fryer and put some melted cheese and tomato sauce on top. When it was time for family meal the wait staff was so excited to see "Chicken Parmesan" and they dug in. Harold was just watching them attempt to cut into it and saw people get so frustrated they picked it up with their hands. He said that it was one of the highlights of his life.

Also I wanted to write a little bit about John Fraser's pop-up restaurant, What Happens When. This restaurant opened in January and closes October 31. Each month the restaurant has a new theme or as they say, a new movement. The movement this month is Movement No. 4.5 inspired by prohibition. The recently lost their liquor license so in the middle of the meal all the guests get a voucher to get one drink that are valid at a few bars in the area. Then the diners return and finish their meal. The movement before this was inspired by jazz. I hope to visit What Happens When very soon.

The De Gustibus class with Harold and John was a lot of fun and the food was spectacular too. Keep checking back to Foodie Finders NYC for more restaurant reviews and more food events and cooking classes. Also in the next few days expect a very exciting post about another De Gustibus class which I went to on Wednesday. I took a class with Jean Georges Vongerichten and his son Cedric Vongerichten. It was the best but I will save the details for my next post. Bon Apetit!

-Mike