This is a French fable for foodies…

The Queen of Gascony packs her Fat Duck in a vintage Louis Vuitton knockoff market basket to meet Podchef on his island kingdom in Washington’s Puget Sound. Clad in her Woad Bleu crown, arriving for the end of one decade and the beginning of another, she steps ashore with a three centuries of French cooking savoir-faire to share with New World gastronomes.

A festive start to the New Year with a weekend of good food and fat ducks as I join Neal Foley (le podchef!) at his  Shaw Island farm for three days and two nights of good food, conviviality, duck butchery and confit-making. Learn the little secrets taught by French farmwives and their time-honored traditional recipes for preparing and preserving confit de canard, terrine de foie naturale and le Grand Cassoulet, of course!

Jan 1 Friday is New Year’s Day.

• Arrive on Shaw Island by Ferry, enjoy the gentle hospitality of the good Benedictine Sisters’ organic farm and monastic lodging and then join me at Neal Foley’s Kitchen Garden headquarters for a traditional French, super-authentique, Camp Cassoulet class & feast. Pairing red wine and armagnac with cassoulet is a perfect way to start a new decade!

Jan 2 Saturday-

• Morning: Duck Butchery- Podchef leads the how-to workshop on Duck Butchery. A primer for the professional or home chef, come to the farm to learn humane slaughter methods, plucking, eviscerating & processing. This course is for beginners, chefs & cooks who want to know where their food comes from and how to make intelligent food choices.
• Lunch: Neal shares the diversity of his Island farm and Kitchen Garden headquarters as he and Kate orchestrate a winter pique-nique of found and foraged foods.
• Afternoon: Traditional French Confit Making Part 1- The importance of proximity becomes apparent as we work with the fresh carcasses, removing the natural fat livers, learning the meat cuts, then trimming and rendering the fat while learning the nuances of salting and seasoning. Our Rouen ducks, special raised for this workshop are larger and meatier than roasting ducks. Preserving meat by poaching in fat (confit) is the perfect way to showcase that flavor as well as preserve and store them canned at room temperature.
• Dinner-  In Gascony we grill the duck carcasses and eat with our fingers- a Gascon version of BBQ ribs called a carcassade! Let me show you how.

Jan. 3 Sunday-

• Morning: Cooking and preserving Confit Part 2- We begin the confit process à la ancienne over an open fire and in a large marmite over the gas tripod. Steam and sizzling sounds permeate the air. Cooking the duck confit to perfection is a slow and patient process. No rushing allowed: stir, stir, rest. When cooked, the tender meat is preserved for pantry storage in its translucent golden fat in glass jars then sterilized.
• Podchef Island Lunch Feast of rillettes, pates, terrines and sausage.
• Afternoon: departure for the mainland with a basket of Duck Delices in hand.

Cost:

Duckfest 2010- $495 per person- 3 days/2 nights (accommodation available- request information)

If you cannot attend the whole 3 days, consider just coming for the special New Year’s Day Camp Cassoulet feast & dinner–only $125 (accomodation extra).

For more information and reservations write us here!