Cooking with Eileen
Guadalajara Reporter
La Manzanilla Memo by Jane Gorby
November 19-25, 2016
Instead of raiding your fridge or going to a restaurant for a variation on the same old lunch, take a cooking class with Eileen Zack while you’re in La Manzanilla. It’s guaranteed to be totally unique, different from untying you’ll find on any local menu. And you get to help create it!
Classes accommodate 6-8 students, and are held in Eileen’s spacious, well-appointed home kitchen. She offers a range of global cuisines- Indian, Mediterranean, Asian, Mexican and more- with seasonings from Asafetida to Za’atar.
Aside from knowing which end of a knife to hold, and a blender from a skillet, you need not be cooking adept to participate. “No one ever fails in Eileen’s classes,” declared one satisfied student. (Not even those us of who can’t manage to separate an egg.) Eileen herself says the goal is the “learn, have fun, and eat well.” And that you do!
Take-with recipes for the day’s feast are handed out, for you to choose your portion of the menu. Work stations are assembled with pre-measured ingredients and all the implements you need. Follow your directions, and savor the mouth-watering aromas as the various dishes near completion. Then sample everyone’s efforts, served buffet style, in Eileen’s private front-porch dining room overlooking the garden.
Each approximately three-hour class cost 300 pesos. Classes in individual cuisines are offered in two-week segments, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, whine 6 or more cookers are enrolled. Visit her website, eileenslamanzanilla.com, for a schedule of classes and how to reserve your spot.
You can’t spend every day on the beach. And you have to eat. Sign up for one of Eileen’s classes. They’re great fun. You can practice playing well with others. (No running with sharp knives!) And you’ll get a one-of-a-kind lunch.