BARN studio caters to the epicurious

Published 11:53 am Monday, February 8, 2016

In one corner, two women discuss the merits of bulgur.

“I’ve never cooked with it before. Have you?”

“Yes, I put a bunch of condiments on it and it’s fabulous.”

Christine Chapman overhears their conversation, which has now turned to the worst dish they’ve ever prepared, per a prompt scrawled in green Crayola.

“Lutefisk,” she jumps in.

Dawn McNamara and Diana Riddle grin, pondering their own answers.

“Perhaps this is a question for my kids,” McNamara says.

Next thing you know, the gang, which numbers 15, is oohing and aahing over “Modernist Cuisine at Home.” At 459 pages, it’s a volume, not a book; its lusty photographs — “Food porn!” one person exclaims — are not meant to be soiled by spills and splatters.

Thankfully, the trophy wife comes with a practical partner: a squeezed-down, spiral-bound “Kitchen Manual” that’s impervious to destruction.

As the chatter settles, Kate McDill, BARN’s Kitchen Arts studio head, and other members of the “Kitchen Cabinet,” as the studio’s steering committee calls itself, give a bit of a history lesson.

BARN’s Kitchen Arts group has been gathering in various forms since its founding — four years ago, at least, McDill guesses. They’ve hosted classes at St. Barnabas (how to make ricotta) and a collaboration with the glass arts studio (how to make fused glass platters and smoked salmon chowder) but this is the first time they’ve got a monthly meeting going.

When BARN’s permanent artisan center opens next year, the epicures will have a full commercial kitchen at their disposal, ideal for hands-on instruction and community gatherings.

“If neighbors want to come together and learn to make applesauce, they can do that there,” said Anne Willhoit, who’s helping McDill organize the meetings. “Or if there’s a need and people want to come together to can soups to donate, we can do that there.”

For now, though, while Kitchen Arts is relegated to the round table of BARN’s temporary digs, the emphasis is on connecting.

“I hope we’ll build a core group that has a lot of enthusiasm for food and eating and cooking,” Willhoit explains.

A food writer and former teacher, Willhoit is enthusiastic about connecting people to farmers and local food sources.

“If you want to feed your family or yourself from the place you live, you’re going to have to learn how to do things,” she said. “You have to learn how to pickle because you’re going to have too many cucumbers. You have to learn to make jam because you can go out there and pick as many blackberries as you want. That abundance we have, you have to figure out what to do with it.”

Kitchen Arts is a “come one, come all” kind of thing.

“We want to bring people in, whether they’re seeking peers in the industry and they want to talk about what they know or whether they’re just starting out and they want to learn to do something hands-on,” Willhoit explained. Non-BARN members or those who want to help cover overhead can drop a donation in the lady pig cookie jar on their way in.

This week, Chapman, the self-taught baker behind Crumbs, is leading a 15-minute demonstration.

“I’m known for doing weird cakes,” she confessed, while circulating printouts of a vanilla-flavored fire truck, complete with fire pup, and a bluebird wrapping a present. Clearly, “weird” means something else — “impressive” or “ambitious” or “lifelike” — in Chapman’s home country of Austria.

She launched into a story about a customer who wanted “the smallest cake possible” — that would be six inches — with a whole paragraph inscription printed daintily on top. Chapman didn’t balk — really, does Chapman ever balk? — because she had royal icing transfers, she said.

While she demonstrates, tracing adult coloring pages with intricate peacock motifs, her pupils stick to hearts, and they still look a little lopsided.

“That’s a David Bowie kind of scary heart,” one woman joked.

“It looks like we’re drunk,” another laughed.

But over red velvet, lemon and salted caramel cupcakes, sorry squiggles start to look less sad. Taste buds prove: Chapman’s the pro and everyone else is just here to practice.

Kitchen Arts’ next monthly meeting will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18 at 11272 Sunrise Drive NE. Several members will provide leek-themed snacks and Dr. Britt Gonsoulin will teach the group to make bone broth. In addition to an appetite, participants are asked to bring their newest cookbook, whether it’s a gift that hasn’t yet been tested or a highly-anticipated acquisition, for a brief recipe chat.

For information, visit www.facebook.com/groups/BARNkitchenarts.

BARN raisin’

Construction on Bainbridge Artisan Resource

Network’s (BARN) permanent center began this past month at Three Tree Lane, the former site of Grandma’s Tree Farm.

The 25,000-square-foot facility, which is expected to be completed by early 2017, will house studios for electronic and technical arts, fiber arts, glass arts, metal machining and more, plus a commercial kitchen and instructional space for the kitchen arts program.