In a season of socially distanced running and virtual competition, it seemed that a real Monta Vista Cross Country pasta party was impossible. But on Friday October 2, against all odds, MVXC held a pasta party–and learned how to cook risotto, too!
Hosted by Truffle Shuffle, a company created by chefs trained at elite Michelin-starred restaurants, MVXC athletes cooked truffle risotto in their own homes. Ingredients arrived at the athlete’s doors the day before, together with instructions on what needed to be refrigerated and what equipment would be used during the cooking class. On the day of the class, everyone got a link to a welcome video to get us in the mood for cooking.
At 6pm, we got together on Zoom and started cooking with Jason McKinney, the president of Truffle Shuffle. Chef Jason (who had been a chef at the French Laundry, one of the top restaurants on the planet, before co-founding Truffle Shuffle with his wife and best friend) took us through the way a professional chef would prepare risotto: How to arrange our mise-en-place, and why mise-en-place is important, basic knife skills, temperature control and how to cook with all our senses. Along the way, we watched a video that introduced us to Truffle Shuffles’ suppliers–truffle hunters from Italy and Australia who used trained dogs to find these sought after underground mushrooms; and another video from Jason and his wife Sarah’s honeymoon, when they found a salt supplier in Bali.
All along the way, Jason happily stopped to help answer questions or solve problems (such as shallot in the eye!). At the finish, each of us had a wonderful plate of risotto that could be proudly served in a Michelin-starred restaurant! More importantly (in your coach’s opinion) we had improved our basic cooking skills. Risotto is endlessly adaptable; you can use the same techniques we learned with Chef Jason to make mushroom risotto, risotto with asparagus and spring vegetables, broccoli risotto, spinach, with seafood or meat…whatever you are in the mood for or happen to have in your refrigerator, if you have the proper rice, some stock, an onion and some butter and olive oil you can be well on your way to a plate of goodness!
Knowing how to cook matters. What you cook for yourself can be healthier, more cost effective–and much more tasty!–than a fast food or prepared food option.
And, cooking for other people is important. People get lonely, people want to be part of something, even if they don’t really realize that connection is missing. Invite people to your house or apartment. People show up. Then, feed them something good that you make. It’s as simple as that. You have shown these people, your friends, that you care about them. You have made them part of something. Cook a group of people a plate of risotto now and then, and you make the world a little happier and a little kinder place.
You know this is true. That’s part of why you keep coming and training with our cross-country team during the pandemic and the forest fires and…everything. Through all the hard things that are happening, all the things that keep us separate, we want to be part of something. Being part of a team feels good and makes us stronger. We can all do our part to help build personal connections–and I feel like cooking can be part of how we build those connections and strong groups. I know cooking has been part of my skill set. Cooking for other people makes me feel good, and seeing you all cook on Friday night made me happy.
I hope that you had a good time on Friday, that you learned something, and that this class helps you down the road to being a skilled home chef.
A Few Other Notes
- Thank you so much to Jason and Sarah McKinney of Truffle Shuffle, along with support from Leah and David! If you like this class, Truffle Shuffle has regular public classes every Sunday…on October 11, you can learn how to make a French omelet, one of the milestones for any young professional chef (and if you can make a proper omelet, I guarantee friends will show up at your house on Sunday mornings when you invite them!).
- More than 30 meals will be cooked and donated to Alameda County front line healthcare workers as part of our own dinner with Truffle Shuffle.
- After we cooked and while we ate, we watched a marvelous 17 minute video on the Dark Peak Fell Runners. If you missed it, you need to watch this! Or watch it again. I want to be 25 years old again so I can move to Sheffield and join up. Thank you to friend of MVXC Kate Niehaus who recommended this video!
- MVXC guests at pasta night included: Des Linden (Boston Marathon champion, 2012 and 2016 US Olympic team), Erica McLain (2008 Olympic team and Coach Flatow’s daughter), Ben Rosario, coach of HOKA Northern Arizona Elite, friend of the MVXC program Josh Cox (2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic marathon trials) and Carrie Cox, MVXC speaker and Coach Flatow’s running partner Mary O’Grady (Johns Hopkins University XC/TF), and MVXC alumni Paru Meyyappan (Carnegie-Mellon University XC/TF) and Triya Roy (Johns Hopkins University XC/TF).
