Mark on the Shore

Mark’s Score   9.2

Food is not just a spectator sport. You can go through life eating prepared foods of dubious quality and nutritional value or you can learn to cook nutritious wholesome foods from scratch. Now that I am retired, I have set a goal to become a better cook. Now I have time to learn to be a better cook, and a great place to learn is 411 Kitchen in Cambridge. They call themselves a “foodpreneur hub,” their mission is to provide shared industrial kitchen capacity to people who have a dream of starting their own food service business. 

I met the founder of 411, Amanda Kidd, through my blog. Never discount the power of serendipity and never fail to take advantage of that serendipity. Amanda, who did not have experience in the food business, nevertheless recognized a market need. She started 411 two years ago to help budding food entrepreneurs realize their dream by providing shared industrial kitchen facilities. In addition to providing shared kitchen facilities, as a community outreach program, 411 also offers cooking classes. 

I signed up for the “Around the World in A Day” class the purpose of which was to teach participants how to make three different noodle dishes from scratch, including the noodles.  We were a group of five people and Amanda divided us into two groups. The ramen group would make two noodle dishes, one Latin and one Asian and the Italian group was assigned the task to make Fettuccini Alfredo. Everyone wanted to make the ramen so I joined the alfredo group. Though the ramen dishes were delicious (we got to share), I focused on the Alfredo, so I can only talk about that.  

We started by making the noodles, which is surprisingly simple. It is just all-purpose flour, one egg, a touch of salt and a touch of water. You want to mix the dough thoroughly, but you have to be careful. You can overwork the dough (which I did) and the resulting noodles can be glutenous. But I did do an excellent job in rolling out the dough and cutting the noodles evenly (if I do say so myself). We won’t mention the fact that I dropped them on the floor on the way to heating them in hot water. 

Alfredo sauce is also surprisingly easy, heavy cream, butter, and lots of parmesan, an incredible amount of parmesan. You have to be careful, though not to burn the cream. Constant stirring is required. 

Amanda was an excellent teacher and the experience had the added benefit of building camaraderie and team spirit. If you own a business, you might consider the 411 cooking class as a team building exercise. 

Ok so maybe my noodles were glutenous and covered in dirt from the floor. But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and a had a lot of fun doing it, and I did go home and do it right (see photo).  I am looking forward to the baking class.