Alex Paul
Do you like to cook?
Do you like to eat good food?
Do you like to laugh while doing any of the above?
Then the place to spend a few hours on a Saturday night is the Seafood School at the Duncan Law Seafood Consumer Center in Astoria.
There, teacher and chef Eric Jenkins will tantalize your taste buds and tickle your funny bone all at the same time, while teaching you how to prepare a number of delicious seafood main dishes.
Last fall a foursome from Sweet Home took in the 2 1/2 hour class in a complex operated by Oregon State University as a seafood research center. The overall program’s goal is to develop added value markets to seafood products.
The goal of the cooking school is to provide consumers with a broader appreciation of seafood by teaching ways of preparing dishes.
Chef Jenkins, who would look just as at home on a football field as behind the grill, started his cooking career by accident.
“It was the early 1970s and I was working as a busboy in a Portland restaurant,” Chef Jenkins says warming up a class of about 12 persons as pots of water begin boiling on the stainless steel stove. “One of the cooks didn’t show up, which wasn’t unusual in those days, so I took off my busboy tie and put on an apron. That was about 28 years ago.”
Chef Jenkins took over the seafood school three years ago and says the classes are just a part of his many duties.
“I had only one day off in August,” he said. “I just can’t say no to people when it comes to cooking.”
In addition to the cooking classes, which are held a couple Saturday nights each month and booked up well in advance, Chef Jenkins also prepares meals for the many conferences and business meetings held at the Seafood Center.
Groups of up to 12 can have private classes at the schools and there are guest chef demonstrations as well as in-season demonstrations of how to use various types of seafood.
Costs are minimal, ranging from $10 for in-season demonstrations to about $30 each for the evening school, which includes eating the meal prepared by the guests overseen by Chef Jenkins. Wine is plentiful as are other refreshments.
In less than three hours, a dozen strangers learn to work and laugh together. Chef Jenkins assigns tasks to each guest. Three are set busy shucking oysters for the Oyster Rockefeller.
One makes tasty garlic bread from fresh olives, another cuts up spices, one toasts red peppers and boils noodles.
The school can be a fun family event. One grandmother from Portland, who recently lost her husband of many years, came with her grandson. They brought their own colorful aprons and had a great time.
A mother and daughter duo from Washington, have made the schools a regular on their social list as has a friend from work.
One guest, known more for eating good food than preparing it, was assigned the task of frying a large pan of bacon and steaming fresh spinach. All went well until, while moving a pan of noodles, a towel caught fire. It was quickly extinguished, no major flames and no burns.
Chef Jenkins moves quickly around the well-equipped kitchen area. Going from student to student, he tosses the bacon, turns the peppers, and offers a cooking tip here and there. He also demonstrates ways to slice, dice and peel staples…all the while with a smile on his face.
Soon, the guests are all smiling too and talking as the smells of the cooking food come together. Garlic, onion, peppers…the guests are getting hungry.
In a couple hours, Chef Jenkins, like a good football coach, calls the team together and begins pulling the fresh ingredients prepared by the students, into the main dishes. He talks about the oyster industry and new ways of shucking them that are faster and more hygienic than by hand.
He explains that the monk fish the group will be grilling tonight, was once considered a trash fish to be tossed back overboard. Not so today, he says, as the tasty filets are highly thought of. One guest said he saw whole monk fish on sale at Pike’s Market in Seattle for about $20 per pound. Chef Jenkins said he purchased fish locally for about $5 per pound.
The class learns that much research is going on to promote other types of fish usage. For example, one operator in Alaska is working with OSU to develop a coloring system for a type of salmon that tastes good but isn’t as red as other types. Experiments with beet powder are proving highly successful in adding the tinge of magenta that consumers expect.
Another project is improving the image and valued added market for carp.
In just minutes Chef Jenkins has turned a variety of ingredients into a sumptuous meal that soon graces a long table accented by a centerpiece of pink roses.
Guests take small helpings of the fare at first, sampling the variety of tastes. Each has a favorite. For some, it’s the Oyster Rockefeller which is topped with the handcut spinach blended with bacon bits and other spices.
For others, it’s the penne pasta with swordfish and for others, it’s the grilled monk fish.
The guests are encouraged to take home any of the hundreds of seafood recipes sitting on a nearby table.
Laughter and good conversation fills the room as a dozen strangers became a little closer for a few hours over a hot kitchen stove and a table full of homemade food.
Bon appetite.
Editor’s Note: The Duncan Law Seafood Consumer Center is located at 2021 Marine Drive, Astoria, Oregon 97103. The telephone/fax number is 503-338-6523. Class registrations can be made over the internet at http://www.seafoodschool.org.