January 7, 2003

BELOW ARE SOME local opportunities to learn the secrets of gourmet cooking, baking, wine appreciation, and gardening, from small kitchens teeming with sweet chutney aromas to a field station in Richmond where giant "vermitopias" transform vegetable matter into healthy topsoil.

Cooking and baking

Kids come home from Apron Strings knowing how to hold a knife properly, rattle off the components in flour, and explain how yeast works. Better yet, at Apron Strings boys and girls learn to cook and bake a variety of seasonal, healthful dishes, from truffles to Jewish swirl bread. Chief chef Roberta DesBouillons tailors her classes to suit clients' needs, and she's proud to say that more than 75 percent of her clients are returning customers. Although DesBouillons mostly teaches classes for kids, she will teach adults on an as-needed basis. Kids' classes are offered as an after-school series in two- ($120), three- ($145), and four- ($190) week segments; single-class Saturday-morning workshops ($65) are another option. DesBouillons also offers private lessons for groups of up to five children and four- to five-day culinary cooking camps ($285 for a five-class series) during summer and other school breaks. Prices for adults are negotiable, and all prices for kids include a materials fee. (415) 550-7976.

For those moving toward a career in the culinary arts, California Culinary Academy provides several rigorous programs that prepare students for positions in various food-related professions in restaurants, hotels, resorts, private clubs, and culinary schools. The 60-week Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Program emphasizes kitchen management, combining classical and modern culinary techniques. Alternatively, amateur chefs seeking positions in pastry shops or supermarket bakeries may opt for the 30-week Baking and Pastry Arts Program. 1-800-229-2433, www.baychef.com.

After many years spent moonlighting at Ramekins, Sur la Table, Drakers, and other California cooking schools, plus four years as the dean of the California Culinary Academy, Linda Carrucci is a professional-culinary-world insider. She teaches secret techniques from cooking schools in her Culinary Basics workshop at Ramekins Sonoma Valley Cooking School ($75 for an individual class, $65 each if you sign up for all four), as well as at her home in Oakland. Carrucci's specialty cuisines are Spanish and Italian – favorite dishes include paella and minestrone – and while she likes teaching at home, she also enjoys the ambience at Ramekins, where a bed-and-breakfast attached to the cooking school makes for a nice weekend retreat in the wine country. Apart from revealing chefs' secrets, on Jan. 30, Carrucci will offer a ricotta class at Sur la Table in Berkeley ($75; call 510-849-2252 for information or 1-866-328-5412 to register), where she will show avid cooks how to make cannoli from scratch, among other delicacies. Contact Ramekins at (707) 933-0450 or www.ramekins.com. To find out what Carrucci's cooking up in 2003, go to www.lckitchen.com.

An associate-in-science degree in culinary arts and hospitality management leads to many possibilities in the epicurean mecca of San Francisco. With a curriculum geared toward job placement in cooking, service, management, lodging, and institutions, City College of San Francisco's Hotel and Restaurant Department offers students the opportunity to earn an A.S. degree and an American Culinary Federation Certificate of Completion for a total cost of about $2,000 (including tuition, books, tools, and uniforms for two years). Whereas other schools narrow their focus to accuracy and technique, at City College students get experience in speed and volume, using the campus dining facilities – it's like having your first restaurant internship while you're still in school. The panoply of spring culinary classes includes specialty baking and decorating, hospitality marketing, meat analysis, and more. (415) 239-3152, hotelandrestaurant@ccsf.cc.ca.us.

Blending soy foods and a Mediterranean cooking style, Linda Hellel teaches folks how to expand their culinary horizons while eating healthfully. Part of Hellel's appeal is her penchant for cooking vegetarian, using locally grown produce, and creating her own recipes for each class based on what's in season. Though she'll cook an occasional fish dish, on a given evening most of what you smell in Hellel's kitchen are fresh fruits and leafy greens reaped from the local farmers' market. She's also fond of including a soy mousse recipe that's as rich-tasting as your standard fare but more healthful. In 2003, Hellel will teach four classes (three to four hours) at Piedmont Adult School's Cooking School, each one an in-depth exploration of a single subject, like grains or "super soups" (the latter will be offered at PAS Jan. 18; the $50 admission includes a $17 food fee). (510) 594-2655, www.piedmontadultschool.org. Hellel also gives private lessons; e-mail her at nochimps@webbnet.com.

Several nights a week, 12 students gather in Kasma Loha-unchit's East Bay home to grill fish with savory chili-tamarind sauce, grind herbs with a mortar and pestle, blend spices for hot-and-sour soup, fry bananas with coconut, and then sit down to eat a meal together. No wonder she was deemed the "Best Alternative to a Ticket to Bangkok" by the Bay Guardian in 1997. Since 1985, when she started teaching in the Bay Area, Kasma's Thai Cooking School has attracted a large following – some students have cooked with Loha-unchit since the late '80s. During the fall and spring Loha-unchit teaches four-session classes ($145) for beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels (all of which fill up well in advance). She also leads a weeklong intensive summer course. To get on Loha-unchit's notification list, e-mail her at kasma@foodandtravel.com. (510) 655-8900.

Although Ruta's Indian Kitchen is nestled in her Rockridge home (walking distance from BART), a cooking class with Ruta Kahate is a culinary expedition through India. The former pastry chef of Tiburon restaurant Tutto Mare mixes the knowledge she gained from growing up in Maharashta, an inland region of India, with Portuguese seafood influences garnered from her Goa-reared husband, as well as a wealth of travel experience. Blending California-grown ingredients and Indian cooking techniques, Kahate gives classes on a variety of fresh-tasting regional cuisines and flavorful chutneys, using organic ingredients and hormone-free meat. Most classes cost $65 each, or $165 for a series of three. (510) 655-RUTA, www.rutaruta.com, ruta1@hotmail.com.

Avid cooks interested in brushing up on a particular subject, be it quick bread, Asian dumplings, or Mediterranean-style braising, will enjoy the eclectic culinary influences at work in Tante Marie's Cooking School. Spring courses, open to any nonprofessional chef de haute cuisine, include Baking and Pastry Making 101 and the popular weeklong Cooking Vacation in San Francisco, the latter taught by Tante Marie herself. The faculty at Tante Marie's includes more than a dozen laudable chefs, each specializing in a particular regional cuisine. Students may opt for a weekend or one-day workshop, an evening series, or a one-week course; prices range from $375 to $950. For information on full-time professional culinary or pastry programs call (415) 788-6699 or go to www.tantemarie.com.

Wine appreciation

Boasting three and a half acres of organic gardens, several galleries, a theater, and three classrooms, Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts is a one-of-a-kind nonprofit organization and a veritable cornucopia for the unorthodox wine lover, herbal gardener, or epicure. Copia deviates from classical models and typical gourmet chichi-ness, rooting its classes in cultural topics such as control over the global food supply and ergonomics for gardeners in industrial settings. Some highlights from the 2003 program include a Wine and Spirit Education Trust course (beginning Jan. 16, with seven sessions and an exam; $500, including materials and a textbook) and Ergonomics for Gardeners, for which Copia partners with UC Davis Extension (March 7; $175, lunch and materials included). Copia members receive discounts on classes and events and many other benefits. (707) 259-1600, www.copia.org.

Is the commercialism of wine-making leaving a bitter taste in your mouth? At Pacific Rim Wine Education Center all classes are taught by wine writers and journalists, so nobody has an inventory to sell or a promotional ax to grind. Beginners are encouraged to take Basic Fundamentals of Taste and Smell for a background on the physiology of taste, the psychology of preference, serving, etiquette, and aging techniques. For the wine connoisseur, the center offers a regional series in which each class focuses on a particular part of the world where wine is produced. Classes are priced by the night or as a package deal (for example, you can take four classes on California wine, each taught by a different instructor). Contact Bruce Cass at (415) 512-9318 or www.pacrimwine.org.

Whether you're curious about the country wines of France or you need to know what caused the "off" flavor in last night's cabernet sauvignon, the classes offered in UC Extension's Wine Program will suit your wine-related musings. Dabblers will enjoy an introductory class, Wines of California and Europe, which teaches students how to purchase and serve wine; collectors and aficionados may opt for Greatest Wines in the World, in which students taste all the best recent vintages and participate in an intensive walk through a Russian River vineyard. The instructors at UC Extension are professionals in the industry, among them wine consultant Rebecca Chappa; Ray Johnson, a member of the San Francisco Chronicle wine-tasting panel; and Dwayne Cronin, owner of Cronin Vineyards. (510) 642-4124, explore.berkeley.edu.

To Chappa, wine appreciation isn't a synonym for snobbery: her Wine by the Class series has a casual, down-to-earth feel suited to regular consumers. Chappa covers a range of topics, including a novice's guide to wine tasting and an in-depth exploration of regional wines. During each class students sample 10 bottles, starting with the $5 brands and moving on to the more upscale, $90 bottles. Individual two-hour classes cost $75, and most are held Monday evenings at restaurant mc2. (415) 751-0247, winebytheclass.com.

Herb and vegetable gardening

Composting is no newfangled solution to your rotten-vegetable woes – people have been recycling their organics for millennia. Using "vermitopias" chock-full of insatiable red wrigglers, nonprofit, worker-run collective Berkeley Worms supplements the ancient practice of composting with modern technological innovations to decompose many tons of food waste every week. Berkeley Worms gives small facility tours and presentations to community groups; individuals interested in launching a composting system at home can get personalized consulting from a trained Berkeley Worms composter for $15 an hour. Contact Berkeley Worms at the University of California's Richmond field station at (510) 643-0440 or visit the group's table at the Berkeley Farmers' Market, Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., King and Center, Berk.

With an arboretum that's rapidly expanding its bandwidth to complement a 5,000-square-foot lath house and a 5,000-square-foot computerized greenhouse, the Merritt College Landscape Horticulture Program offers top-notch facilities designed to prepare students for careers in a variety of disciplines. Classes for the spring 2003 session include everything from plant taxonomy to urban community gardening, all taught by distinguished faculty members. Merritt graduates ascend to careers in greenhouse management, floral production, and landscape design, to name just a few, and are employed by city, county, and regional parks departments. Apply for an enrollment appointment at www.peralta.cc.ca.us/new-stud-enroll-online.html. For more information contact the department at (510)-436-2491 or go to www.merrittlandhort.com.

Indulge your green thumb at a workshop offered by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, a grassroots organization dedicated to transforming the community by promoting sustainable methods of gardening. SLUG "sows the seeds of social justice," employing more than 200 people every year, including 50 transitional employment workers at any given time and 100 youth interns. Additionally, SLUG leads free workshops the first Saturday of each month, as well as a three- to four-month Gardening and Composting Educator Training Program (suggested donation of $50 for materials), in which participants do 40 to 50 hours of service in schools and community gardens. GCETP (pronounced "get up") class begins Feb. 26; applications are due Feb. 15. SLUG's workshop series for January includes Worm Composting (Jan. 4, Garden for the Environment, Seventh St. and Lawton, S.F.), Urban Composting in English and Spanish (Jan. 18, Alioto Park Community Garden, 20th St. and Capp, S.F.), Sustainable Weight Management (Jan. 18, Garden for the Environment), in which participants will learn to identify weeds and eliminate them without using toxic herbicides, and Pruning of Winter Fruit Trees (Jan. 25, Garden for the Environment). Most workshops run 10 a.m. to noon and are open to the public. (415) 285-7584, www.slug-sf.org, info@slug-sf.org.