This "Foods of the Americas" cooking class highlights a number of those pre-Colombus American ingredients.
One of the things that really interests me, as a chef, is the history of food. I'm not particularly interested in authenticity as it relates to cuisine, but I am curious to know where foods come from and the story of how they travel and change. The Columbian Exchange - the global transfer of crops, animals, people, ideas, and diseases that came about after the voyages of Christopher Columbus in the 1490s - stands as a major episode of food history. Many foods now found in many corners of the world - potatoes, tomatoes, chiles, corn, squash, peanuts, chocolate and much more - have their origins in the Americas. We'll prepare a roasted winter squash soup garnished with hazelnuts and parsley; blue corn flatbread; seared cod glazed with a maple syrup-mustard sauce topped with a carrot, dried cranberry, pecan salad; and a roasted winter squash, wild rice salad.
