Publication Date: Friday, February 04, 2005
A recipe for love
A recipe for love
(February 04, 2005) Chocolate class offers ways to say 'I adore you'
by Carol Blitzer
Dark, firm and glossy on the outside. Gooey, almost runny, on the inside. Prepared in individual half-cup soufflé dishes, Lou Seibert Pappas' Warm Chocolate Cake, served with small mounds of home-made ice cream, is indeed a gift of love.
For those who want to incorporate the mood-altering agents phenylethylamine and seratonin -- key ingredients in chocolate -- in their Valentine's Day celebration, Pappas is offering a class on chocolate desserts on Feb. 9. She'll cover the basics of creating such treats as an Elegant Party Torte, Chocolate Roll, Bittersweet Chocolate Nut Tart and Chocolate Gelato. Salad and a snack are included.
Pappas has more than 50 cookbooks under her belt, as well as travels to 60 countries. She's been sharing her knowledge and passion for food and cooking for 50 years, since her early days at Sunset Magazine in the '50s.
Beginning in 1991, she began teaching at local community colleges and Palo Alto Adult School. She offers participation-style classes, where students pair up to prepare one dish. Her chocolate class will include eight different recipes.
Pappas grew up in the Willamette Valley, surrounded by people who loved food. Her grandfather had owned a bakery in Sweden, and her father was a wholesale grocer in Oregon. Often he brought home the freshest ingredients, such as salmon or crab, and her mother soon acquired a commercial mixer. She loved to bake and make ice cream -- pastimes also enjoyed by Pappas, who became a home economics and journalism major.
She launched her food-writing career at Sunset. "That's where I really learned all the ethnic cuisine," she said, noting that Mediterranean is still her favorite. She ultimately left to raise her four children, and began freelance writing. Soon she was writing for Gourmet Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor and House & Garden.
Then she joined the staff of the Palo Alto Times, where she worked as a food editor for 13 years. "We met all the famous people ... Julia Childs, and made international trips with food editors," she said.
In recent years Pappas has devoted herself to writing cookbooks and teaching. This past year she wrote five -- a record. Within the next few months, her books on "Ice Creams and Sorbets," "Sweet and Savory Crème Brulees," "Thanksgiving" and "Fondue" are set to appear.
Recent titles include "Biscotti," "Crepes," "Pancakes and Waffles" and "The Christmas Cookie Deck" -- a deck of cards with recipes that was mentioned on the Today Show. Many of her books are published by Chronicle Books, some specifically for Williams-Sonoma.
New this year from Chronicle Books will be a metal recipe box filled with 50 favorite recipes, which she described as ideal for beginning cooks.
Students in her chocolate dessert class range from the beginner to the more experienced. She cautions all about two key things when cooking with chocolate: 1) Try not to scorch it -- chocolate melts at body temperature. She suggests using a double boiler or low power in the microwave; and 2) Don't let steam mix with the chocolate, when using a double-boiler.
"Moisture -- like steam -- can cause chocolate to 'seize'," where it suddenly becomes solidified and hard, she said. This is difficult to re-melt, unless you add oil. When chocolate gets too hot, it won't be smooth, she added.
"My recipes are generally very easy to do and they (students) don't have many problems," she said. "They love coming to the chocolate class ... and eating their fill."
Her favorite chocolates for cooking are either locally made Guittard, or the big blocks of bittersweet from Trader Joe's.
Given that chocolate is a firm favorite of Pappas, she was recently asked to create a chocolate-themed dinner for Valentine's Day, for a local professional food group. Her menu includes spinach salad with cocoa nibs and tangerines, salmon Dijon, quinoa with cocoa and sesame oil, chocolate almond soufflé cake, home-made ice cream and a tasting of designer chocolates from Guittard.
She'll offer a similar chocolate-themed cooking class at Gamble Garden on June 30.
For the first time in a year and a half, Pappas doesn't have her calendar filled with cookbook writing -- although she does have galleys and proofs still coming. "You have to let things flow and things happen," she said, noting that sometimes she proposes cookbook topics and sometimes the publisher comes to her with an idea.
She's whipped out a book in as little as six weeks, but most take several months of writing and testing recipes.
A slender, small-framed woman, Pappas doesn't worry that sampling her own cooking will put on the pounds -- not since she gained 20 pounds while working at Sunset. "I'm very disciplined," she said, noting that she works out several times a week and swims at Rinconada.
"I learned there's always another meal coming," she added.
As for chocolate, "I think everyone should indulge once in a while," she said.
Assistant Editor Carol Blitzer can be reached at cblitzer@paweekly.com.
What: Best Ever Chocolate Desserts for Valentines.
When: Wednesday, Feb. 9, 6-9 p.m.
Where: JLS Middle School, Room 150.
Cost: $39.
Info: Call Palo Alto Adult School, (650) 329-3752 or visit www.paadultschool.org.
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