“Moon-yah-eeni” Magic
PART II:
First Things First
(the second of a three part series)
(the second of a three part series)
Picture taken from the Mugnaini Facebook Page
Upon arrival at the Mugnaini Cooking School we were greeted
directly by Andrea and her constant companion, Elle, a most pampered pooch who
made a very lucky wrong turn some time back. Apparently, Elle showed up at the
school one day and decided it was her new home.
She has been by Andrea’s side ever since.
Picture taken from the Mugnaini Facebook page
We also received our first introduction to Chef Louis
Maldonado, Mugnaini’s Culinary Director.
Andrea recently hired Chef Maldonado from the Spoonbar in downtown
Healdsburg. Louis, while unassuming, has
very impressive credentials. Some of his many accomplishments include having
been a contestant on the television show Top Chef, having worked at a Michelin
Star restaurant, and having been a contributor to at least one cookbook.
Jacque and Chef Louis Moldonado
Located in a renovated farm house surrounded by a beautiful vineyard,
the Mugnaini Wood Oven Cooking School is located in a setting which
simultaneously inspires and energizes its students. It has a large kitchen allowing for plenty of
room to spread out, and not surprisingly, has a large Mugnaini Oven as the
centerpiece. Out by the pool and in the backyard are an additional five wood
ovens. Inside the house you will find
two guest bedrooms, a formal dining room, and a living room adorned with
trophies from Ed, the driver’s, hunting expeditions. (Note: In addition to being
the “driver”, Ed is also chief school comedian responsible for comic relief,
vineyard manager, winemaker, generally cool guy, and Andrea’s husband.)
Andrea and Elle greeted us all with champagne and graciously
welcomed us with a brief tour before sitting down for a gourmet wood oven meal
prepared by Chef Maldonado. We enjoyed
several delightful dishes, but a brief survey in the car on the way home
indicated that the mushroom lasagna
was soundly the favorite. My close
second was the lamb that was served alongside beef… (I must apologize at this
point. One of the difficulties I have
with blogging is trying to decide do I pull out my I-phone and start taking
notes in the middle of a meal, or do I depend on my memory? Then add my time constraints and trying to
write a blog two or three weeks later…) Result? I can’t tell you at this point
the preparation or the cuts of lamb and beef…but they sure were awesome!
As a special treat, Andrea arranged for a local winemaker to
pair the night’s courses with hand-selected wines. I love wine pairings and it was really
special having the winemaker himself share his passion for the fruits of his
labor.
Before our return home, Andrea gave us a brief rundown on
the next two days of hands on cooking and use of the wood ovens. With just about everyone in the class having
some - but not the same - experience with wood oven cooking, she explained that
she was going to start from the basis that we all knew nothing, and Friday
morning’s first class was going to be on the proper firing of the wood
oven. (Again, note that I have been
firing my oven incorrectly up until
now, and thus not getting maximum efficiency from it.)
The most exciting part of our wood oven firing lessons was
that Jacque also learned how to fire the oven. Ever since our return from class,
she has taken charge of “pre-heating” the oven for me. (Unlike a normal kitchen oven you don’t
simply turn a knob and wait for it to reach temperature.) In this case you start off with kindling in
the center, build a fire until the center turns to ash white, and then move to
a perimeter burn. Sounds pretty simple,
but when done correctly you will have more even heat, be able to regulate your
heat better, maintain the heat, and have an oven at temperature to do cinnamon
rolls in the morning without having to light a new fire. We learned this first hand when we arrived at
class on Saturday morning. Such a treat! Louis had arrived well before the
students, in time to get the famous cinnamon rolls in the oven.
Our firing lesson also taught us the importance of using a
log grate (which I now own), and using a palino to place additional logs into
the flame. Palinoless up until now, I
for one had instead been using the signature Doug Sklar “tossing” method –
always just hoping the logs would land where I wanted them to!
Until now I had also been measuring my oven temp
incorrectly. We learned that it is the
floor temp that really counts, and that the oven door can be used to regulate
heat and flame. We also learned that the
door makes a great heat shield for those gathered around the oven. All in all, the initial firing and heat
maintenance lessons were very thorough and helpful, not to mention delicious in
the foods they produced.
Chef Louis Moldonado, myslef, and Andrea Mugnaini
