Coastal Cooking with Chef Michael Hutchings

SBMM Maritime Tastings by AIWF and Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

SBMM Maritime Tastings

 

Where: Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, 113 Harbor Way, Santa Barbara, California

What: Enjoy presentations by Fishermen and Scientists, as well as tastings by local Chefs.

When: Wednesdays, October 16, and 23, 2013     Time: 7 pm 

Why: To celebrate local seafood, fishermen and local chefs

Cost: $20 (members), $30 (non-members)

RSVP: (805) 962-8404 x115
Visit: www.sbmm.org

The museum will be hosting two more nights of fresh seafood presentations and cooking demonstrations during the month of October. Local fishermen and seafood producers will give a short presentation on how they harvest fresh seafood, followed by a presentation by scientists/experts on the catch, and a demonstration by local chefs on how to prepare each item.

 

Chef Michael Hutchings

Uni will be featured on October 16^th, with presentations by local uni diver Bill Hooten; marine biologist Dr. Pauline Yu of UCSB’s Hofmann Laboratory; and Chef Michael Hutchings of Michael's Catering in Santa Barbara.

Mussels will be featured on October 23^rd, with presentations by local mariculturalists Bernard Friedman of Santa Barbara Mariculture and Doug Bush of Cultured Abalone; marine biologists Dr. Gretchen Hofmann and Dr. Morgan Kelly of UCSB’s Hofmann Laboratory; and once again, Chef Michael Hutchings of Michael’s Catering.

Each presentation will also feature tastings from local wineries and businesses.  Guest appearances will be made by SBMM’s partner organizations, the Ty Warner Sea Center and Community Seafood, to discuss sustainable seafood events and efforts. Tickets are $20 for Santa Barbara Maritime Museum and American Institute of Wine and Food members, and $30 for non-members.  For ticket information please contact the Museum Store at (805) 962-8404 x115.

This series is being held in collaboration with the American Institute of Wine and Seafood and the Ty Warner Sea Center, and these events are part of Visit Santa Barbara’s Epicure promotion.

The 7,825 square-foot Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, located at the Santa Barbara Harbor, opened to the public in July 2000.  Today, the museum is a vital part of the community, offering educational programs, interactive displays, and both temporary and permanent exhibits, attracting thousands of visitors each year. To date, more than 81,000 schoolchildren from 140 area schools have participated in the Maritime Museum’s educational programs.

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is located at 113 Harbor Way, Suite 190, Santa Barbara, California 93109 or sbmm.org. 

 

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Food and Wine Event

We are delighted to be participating in the launch party of the Foley Food and Wine Society

Paring Delicious Wines With Gourmet Food at the Launch Party

The folks e Foley Food & Wine Society are looking forward to their launch party on Saturday, September 28th with great anticipation!

Bill Foley's vision of a society that will share the experiences available in his portfolio of wineries, restaurants and accommodations is blossoming! The launch party at the Bacara Resort & Spa promises to be a culinary highlight of the year, in addition to being a oenophile's dream. Besides nearly 40 different wines, including a limited quantity of premium cellar selections not available anywhere outside the tasting rooms, a group of top notch chefs will be preparing delectable nibbles to pair with the wines. 

The launch party benefits the Santa Barbara Culinary Arts Scholarship in Honor of Julia Child at Santa Barbara City College. Santa Barbara Culinary Arts (SBCC) is proud to be represented at the gala launch party by two of the top caterersin town—both of them members of SBCC: Chef Diana Cuttrell ofDining With Di and Chef Michael Hutchings of Michael's Catering. They will be joining several other caterers to provide decadent small bites for pairing with the wines.

Chef Michael Hutching's career began in the kitchen of Disneyland's fabled private Club 33 where he was trained by the Master Chef Rudolph Stoy. Michael's impressive resume includes working in London at Le Gavroche where the Roux brothers were so taken by his work that they offered to provide financial backing for his own restaurant. For 10 years, his Santa Barbara institution, Michael's Waterside, was recognized as a leader in contemporary California-French cuisine. Now, Chef Michael oversees his catering service and creates a diverse range of cuisines and styles. For more information about Chef Michael's background, visitwww.michaelscateringsb.com/.

Rock and Roar Cake

 

Recently, we were asked to create a showpiece cake for a fundraiser. The Theme was Rock and Roar and the design needed to be a flaming dessert. We decided on a Fender Stratocaster Guitar as the model. The most tedious task was to build a structure to hold and present the dessert. So...we built a six foot oval plywood base surrounded by LED lighting and an armature to support a guitar shaped cake platter. The base was actually more work than the cake itself.

The cake was a vanilla chiffon cake layered with roasted pineapple and passion fruit curd. The body of the guitar was glazed with a coating ganache and decorated with fondant, gum paste knobs, brass "Strings" and a gold leafed neck. Surrounding all this were cake musical notes loaded with 25 food grade Roman candles. It took 5 people 10 seconds to ignite the Roman candles and parade the spectacle in front of the guests. It was a great success.

Thanks to Christine Dahl of Christine Dahl Pastries and Chef James Sly of Sly's for the assist in putting it all together.

 

Chef Michael