The Akaka Falls Inn Cooking School...

 

For some reason, I've had the Akaka Falls Inn on my mind quite a bit lately...specially the cooking school part of it...maybe because I've been trying to get the recipes we tested, shared and taught in the many cooking classes we offered and put them together into a possible cookbook with bits of stories and anecdotes about the Inn and the classes.

Image - The Akaka Falls Inn, B&B and Cooking School façade - watercolor by Wanda Boyer, circa 1998.

All one summer, our cooking school hosted a series of keiki (children's) cooking classes, designed as a trip around the world. Food from a different country was chosen for each class. Countries covered were, if I remember correctly, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Greece, China, India and Japan.

The menu for each class consisted of a salad, entree, dessert and an appropriate beverage. We gave the students the name of the country we were going to cover a week ahead and they were to learn all they could about that country during the week - since our classes were all during the summer, they were out of school and their research did not interrupt their regular schooling homework.

The backyard at the Inn was quite large and housed over 30 varieties of fruit trees and plants (bananas, papayas, pineapples, mango, macadamia, mountain apples, vee apples, coconuts, figs, plus several different citrus), as well as an herb and small veggie garden (lettuces, mesclun mixes, spinach, cherry tomatos, basil, assorted peppers, rosemary, dill, chives, garden onions, etc) and quite a few tropical and exotic flowering trees and plant.

The kitchen and dining room used for the keiki cooking classes were the smaller and more intimate B&B kitchen and dining areas, with a homier feeling than the larger kitchen used for our regular cooking classes.

During the class, we would discuss the recipes, prep the ingredients, cook the food and while the food was cooking, the kids took turns going into the backyard in separate groups (some foraged and others cooked) to pick the garden stuff for the salad and to pick flowers and greenery for the table centerpieces.

Photo: Stacy and Melanie

The girls expressed an interest in making the table arrangements and learning complex napkin foldings from the many books on the subject in our Inn library.

When the food was served and we sat at table, after the young gentlemen pulled the chairs for the ladies, we would discusss all they had learned during the week about the country we were featuring.  It made for very interesting table conversations.

Besides the recipes, cooking and the learning of the different countries, the keiki also were 'gently' instructed on table and dinner time  etiquette.

Photo: Daniel & Asa admiring and serving the Spanish Paella they had just helped cook.  Salad in the foreground.

For one of my favorite Spanish Paella recipes click HERE

For my favorite Flan recipe click HERE

For the Spanish Paella class, we started with a mixed salad, the paella and ended with flan.  The beverage was a mock (virgin) sangria.

Virgin Sangria

 

1 quart pomegranate juice

2 cups orange juice

1 cup white grape juice

1/2 sugar

1 orange sliced thinly - rind on

2 lemons liced thinly - rind on

2 limes sliced thinly - rind on

2 kiwis, peeled and sliced thinly

Any other fruit you wish to add

Just before serving add a liter of Sprite for fizz.

 

In a large glass or ceramic pitcher, mix juices and sugar until sugar dissolves. Wash orange, lemons, limes and slice into thin slices.

Remove kiwi skin and cut into thick slices.

Place all fruit into juice and let flavors meld in refrigerator.

My friend Georgia Banyon used to help me with these Saturday morning classes.  I think we enjoyed them as much as the keiki seemed to.

 

On the morning of July 23, 2000 a fire destroyed the Akaka Falls Inn.  The photos above were collected from family, friends, previous Inn guests and neighbors after the fire destroyed all of ours.  The quality is not as good as I would want because they had been saved to floppy discs, but we are very happy to have these and many more that were sent to us from everywhere afterwards.

 

 

Comments

[Sonia]

Aloha, Sunserene...I would love to open a cooking school again and yes, have a garden associated with it. We have talked about it (my son and I) many times...there are many reasons why we jsut can't do it at this time... Looking forward to seeing you at the Kino'ole market and buy your microgreens next time I'm there!

[sunserene quevedo]

have you ever thought of making another cooking school. i would love to help do it. you could even do a little gardening with the children. they could use the food they grow to make their recipes. btw this is sunserene quevedo the girl that won the taste of puna. and thanks for the interesting articles and pictures. i am pleased to be to announce that i will be selling my homegrown microgreens at the kinoole farmers market.

[Edward]

Thankyou for this blog - love it, love it. I have tried everything from the eggs to the ptelnoa and look forward to the new recipes when they come out!!

[Sonia]

Thank you, Portia! I do have a lot of memories and a few funny stories (some not sure I will tell...;-)
There is a lot of material that needs to be tamed before I can even think about how I'm going to go about putting it together!

[Portia Little]

Sonia, i think your wonderful memories of the inn and cooking classes would make a truly memorable cookbook. Good luck putting it together, and of course i want one!
Portia