ALL ABOUT FOOD: Taking a life journey through cooking classes

What does someone with a graduate degree in Latin American History, two years’ experience teaching anthropology, doctoral work in Urban Planning and 30 years as a general contractor doing historic restorations do when they want to cut back? Why, enroll in culinary school of course! If that wasn’t your first guess, then you obviously don’t know Kim Allen, one of the most sophisticated and knowledgeable cooks in our home chef series to date.

Growing up in Berkeley in the mid-1960s, when hippies ruled and hippies cooked, Kim was a kid who loved to bake and was always interested in food. Her whole family watched Julia Child on “The French Chef” and she still loves the French way of cooking — rich food in small portions. Perhaps she got the cooking gene from her grandmother who was a licensed cheese maker in Finland. The gene skipped a generation as her mom, although a good cook, found it a chore.

Kim maintained her interest in food, but it wasn’t until graduate school at UC Davis that she had a kitchen of her own and could pursue her penchant for parties. “Why cook for two or three when you can cook for 20 or 30?”

It was there that she began a Halloween party tradition, an annual shindig that continues to the present day. The most recent featured a mashed potato bar and hundreds of baby tamales that looked like witches’ brooms, put together with the help of her husband, Gary Phillips, a mathematician and very exacting sous chef.

It was right after graduate school that she and her partner Jim Lee began a general contracting business.

When she married and moved to Laguna 26 years ago, she continued to pursue her passion for entertaining. She also discovered that hallmark of Southern California life — the barbecue grill. They love it so much, they even barbecue when it’s raining.

After many years in the contracting business, she found herself burning out. Definitely not ready to retire, she began cutting back. Then, the death of her mother in 2003 jolted her into a new awareness of her own mortality.

With her daughter, Allison, away in school at Davis, she took time to re-evaluate her priorities and to pursue her passion for cooking on a professional level enrolling in the highly regarded culinary school at OCC. Because she is still working part time, the three-year program will take her 4 1/2 years to complete, as she takes two classes a semester. Kim says all the students and even the teachers are younger than she is.

After the food safety class, she cleaned up her act at home, careful now to use gloves when handling raw protein, never using a tasting spoon more than once and keeping surfaces scrupulously spotless.

A new addition to her kitchen gadgets is the fisherman’s Leatherman, a multi-tasking tool she cannot do without and recommends heartily to all cooks.

She has learned cleanliness, orderliness and precision are essential elements in professional cooking. Having all your ingredients measured and ready to use makes cooking both efficient and pleasurable.

Most impressively, she has learned to butcher large animals. Turning cows, pigs and lambs into steaks, spareribs and chops is no small job. In the process, she has come to appreciate the pig as the perfect food. It yields the most meat in relation to the amount of feed it consumes and virtually every part of it, except the hooves, is edible.

Using these skills for the first time at home, she butchered a huge hunk of lamb to make a stew for her St. Patrick’s Day party.

Kim’s next party will honor Shakespeare’s 444th birthday with a menu featuring venison meat pies, mince pies, leek salad, Shrewsbury tart with candied fruit and manchet (a large white bun). Of course, there will be ale and a sweetened spiced wine with cream, popular in Elizabethan England. All will be served on her huge collection of lead-free pewter.

We couldn’t help asking what she planned to do when she finally finishes this rigorous professional program. Is there a restaurant in her future? “Definitely not,” she said. “Right now, it’s all about the journey.” However, she does have some fantasies.

One is to turn a building she owns in Long Beach into apartments with some type of meal service. Another would be to teach cooking, perhaps to seniors. She is certainly very knowledgeable, with interests in the anthropology of food as well as composting, sustainability and eating locally grown food.

Kim is a lady who just loves to cook and seems to do everything she undertakes with purpose, energy and enthusiasm.

Kim’s Mexican barbecued pork

2 pork tenderloins

Brine:

½ cup salt

¼ cup sugar

2 quarts water

Chipotle Barbecue sauce:

1 tablespoon oil

1 cup finely chopped onions

2 minced garlic cloves

1 cup water

1 cup orange juice

¼ cup brown sugar

¾ cup cider or red wine vinegar

1 chipotle chili from a can of chipotle en adobo, minced

¾ cup ketchup or barbecue sauce

a dash or two of Tabasco

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Achiote glaze

1/2 cup of orange juice

1 tablespoon oil

3 tablespoons annatto powder

½ teaspoon chili powder, preferably chipotle

1. Cover pork tenderloins with brine and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight. Remove and discard brine.

2. Sauté onions until soft. Add garlic, cook slightly, add rest of sauce ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

3. Combine glaze ingredients and rub paste over meat.

4. Cook on barbecue over indirect heat to internal temperature of 141°.

5. Slice pork. Serve with barbecue sauce.

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned A La Carte for 20 years. They can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected]