Robert Wemischner

I have recently returned from two days in the desert, that is, tin the Convention Center located in Las Vegas at the World Tea Expo, where I presented a seminar/demo  on cooking with tea, to a packed and enthusiastic audience. During the class, I opened people’s eyes to the culinary potential of premium whole leaf tea in dishes as diverse as tea-smoked chicken wraps with arugula, and jasmine tea cured salmon on dark bread with jicama, dill, pickled ginger and thick Greek yogurt at the base, to white chocolate matcha tea truffles.

Also just returned from a whirlwind trip to the Chefs of the World 2010 conference at the University of Massachusettes at Amherst where I proved that rustic and homestyle do not necessarily equate with unsophisticated, particularly in the dessert sphere. The audience  consisted of food and beverage professionals who work mostly as exec chefs in large and small college campus dining progams….more than 150 attendees in all convened at the college for a few days of hands-on workshops, lectures, meals and the final banquet all themed around “Home Cooking around the world” which featured my stone fruit crumble with vanilla bean custard sauce. During the conference, I had lots of fun meeting a diverse group of food and beverage professionals. But what was the most fun was working in the kitchen of the campus bakeshop under the leadership of Chef Simon Stevenson and Assistant Pastry Chef Pamela Adams, both incredibly cordial, generous, accommodating and fun to be around. Hope to plan out a return visit for next year’s conference when hopefully I can present a workshop on the basics of baking, from decorating tortes to confections to multicomponent plated desserts.

Stay tuned for my next events locally and elsewhere!