— andrea fein

So, I grew up in the restaurant of my grandparents. I never once ever saw them use a recipe. So, I don't use recipes a lot. If I'm making something new and someone gives me a cookbook, I might try that recipe. And then while I'm making it, something doesn't quite click with my own brain or my own method, but whenever I test a recipe or try a recipe for the first time, I follow it to the letter. So the answer to the question is, Andrea, I do not use a recipe. And this is what I learned at Rouxbe. You want to have a mirepoix of mostly either carrots, celery, and onions, the three aromatics. Of course, you want to have an aromatic flavor in whatever it is that you're making. So, there's that. And then I like to prepare my garlic in slivers. And I know not to put it in first, because you might remember the garlic assignment where you actually had to burn some cloves of garlic to become that blackened water that was so bitter that it was very difficult to drink. So, I always like to start with that. And I do make a lot of Italian food, so I might use fennel, oregano, Italian seasoning, of course, fresh basil, and things like that. And then I might take a step back and say: How can I make this taste a little different? And in my brain lives three types of cuisine. One is Italian, one is Mexican, and the other is Asian. So, go back to think about the tofu recipe, where you make that dreamy sauce that has ginger, and it has smoked sauce and a couple of other things. I might adapt it a little bit, but I'll go very heavy on the grated ginger because I love ginger. So those three domains are my main, and I can cook tofu in 87 different ways. Crumbled, air-fried, baked, raw, freeze it first, then grate it and put it on top of a pizza. So to me, it's sort of like Jenga, where you just kind of connect the dots and go on and enjoy making what it is that you love the best. And Andrea, on near Cinco de Mayo, she had a very successful taco event at a local restaurant in Philadelphia. And she made all of the food and the sauces and everything else from scratch. And from what I understand, it was very successful. In parentheses, this gives me just something to tell because students always say to me, "What should I do when I graduate?" When I finished Rouxbe, I went to a vegan restaurant, and I introduced myself to the owner, who was really nice. And he was from Brazil, and I lived in Brazil for two years when I was in the Peace Corps, and we hit it off automatically. And I said to him one day, "Hey, maybe we should do pop-up dinners." And he said, "Pop-up dinners? What do you mean?" And for about a year plus, we did pop-up dinners once a month at his restaurant, and we featured different ethnic cuisines. We made Brazilian food. We made pão de queijo without any cheese in it, and they were totally delicious. So, get the confidence to go to a local restaurant and say, "Hey, I want to do a vegan pop-up at your restaurant." And this is what Andrea has done for two very successful events that she's had. One was Italian, and then this last one, of course, was Mexican. So, there's a lot that you can do once you finish with Rouxbe. And I will say this, and I say it to anyone I meet, that for me personally, Rouxbe was the trajectory for me as a plant-based chef to do all of the really wonderful things that I have done. And I'm always really grateful and fortunate to everyone at Rouxbe. Andrea, I promise to come to your next event. Oh, I forgot, Andrea and I co-taught a class several years ago at the Free Library of Philadelphia because she makes a killer oatmeal that's totally delicious.