Gill St. Bernard’s School: The Taste-and-Talk Project
POPCORN, SPICE AND FINDING FLAVOR
Two dozen students in the Upper School of Gill St. Bernard’s School, Gladstone, spent the days of their annual year-end unit exploring new foods, learning the art and science of tasting, and talking about how to accurately convey their experiences. In this four-part series in The Peasant Wife, the student food critics speak out about flavor as well as what foods they tasted and favored during their wide-ranging week of eating.
In this, the final installment in our series, the students talk about pinpointing flavor by tasting popcorn seasoned with various spices. Three of the seasonings were purchased from Adventure Kitchen, Montclair. Founded and operated by Lynley Jones, spice merchant and culinary teacher (who also runs a summer culinary camp for kids), Adventure Kitchen is exactly what its name states: a source for curious cooks of all ages to have adventures in food. Lynley recommended the Gill students season their tasting vehicle – the popcorn – with something smoky and somewhat hot (AK’s Ground Chipotle Chiles); something tart-acidic and citrusy-sour (AK’s Staghorn Sumac, a ground bush berry popular in the Eastern Mediterranean); and something that leans sweet, but definitely is not one-dimensional (AK’s Mexican Piloncillo, a raw form of pure cane sugar often referred to as Mexican brown sugar). For more on Adventure Kitchen, visit www.adventurekitchen.com. – Andy Clurfeld
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This is the last of the four-part series about The Taste-and-Talk Project, an end-of-year unit at the Gill St. Bernard’s School. The Peasant Wife founder/editor Andy Clurfeld served on its teaching team.