Les Petits Chefs welcomed Adell Shneer, from the Canadian Living Test Kitchen into the kitchen science lab this week where she showed them how to make Pad Thai (well, a kinda sorta Pad Thai given my inability to find the correct noodles). Recently promoted to Test Kitchen Manager, Adell has been with the magazine as a Food Specialist, then a Senior Food Specialist since 2005. Her role as Manager capitalizes on her amazing cooking and people skills evident in the way she calmly arrived in the science lab and guided the boys through making Pad Thai in under an hour. Adell came before to work with a different group of boys so I was happy she wanted to come back 🙂
We divided the tasks up as the recipe involves a lot of chopping…
Cilantro (kudos to Michael who doesn’t even eat cilantro but attacked this task with great gusto)
Nicholas took charge of the sauce (ewwwww – fish sauce, smells like stinky feet apparently!), Ronin, Will and Wil cut up some green onions…
Ben and Will meticulously sliced the red and green peppers….
And Marcel – who looks as though he is well on the way to becoming a real chef one day – didn’t complain once as he minced 12 cloves of garlic…
Charles and Jeremy dealt with the chicken. Ronin and Wil enjoyed cutting the shrimps in half.
And later on, Charles and Jeremy battled with the shallots (with some help from Adell) – which “burned their eyes so badly” that they had to continually run their hands under the taps for relief. Even Adell and I found these challenging to chop without crying….
Once all the mise en place was finished, we got cooking. Lacking a wok in the lab, we settled for two frying pans and a saucepan. Not ideal but we do what we can with what we have.
It all came together pretty quickly and before we knew it, we had some “Pad Thai-style” noodles to take home for dinner. Apparently they were a hit 🙂
Adell wrote up her visit on the Canadian Living site here – head on over and take a peek!
Thanks Adell for coming in to share your expertise with the boys. We are so lucky to benefit from your generosity at this very busy time of year. (PS: We hope you will come again soon!)
They mastered a classic! Impressive.
Nearly, yes!
It never gets old to watch kiddies cook.
That it does not!
Mmmm….thanks LPF for another fine Mr. Neil meal. I think I may have to make an honourary appearance to thank you all in person some day. Alas – I’m no celebrity chef! 🙂
(Hmmmm…but we could start a nice bacon cure Week One, then – voila! – Mlle Michels can give you all some of the bacon to take home the next week!) 😉
Okay, so if Mardi did not TELL me it was “Pad Thai with wrong noodles”, I would have simply decided it was a very nice stir-fry. I like a bit of spice, so added some hot sauce from last week’s celebrity chef. Even reheated in a microwave at the end of a busy work-day, this was incredibly tasty.
Was dashing out to a concert, so no wine pairing…but something off-dry would be my bet.
I am glad you enjoyed this one!
Wow, looks delicious! 🙂 I love rice noodles, and shrimp are always a great ingredient, especially with Asian flavors!
Yeah, it’s a quick and tasty dish!
Les Petit Chefs were not only super talented with a knife and spatula, but so polite and their enthusiasm is infectious!
Can’t wait to come back and do another Canadian Living recipe with them!
Best,
Adell Shener
Us too Adell – we’d love to have you back!
Love hearing about all your adventures, especially seeing the awesome work the boys are doing in the cooking club. Fish sauce, yes very pungent but oh so good & add so much flavor to meals, still baffles me on how something so stinky can make dishes taste so good!
I know – they were absolutely disgusted at the smell but loved the finished product!
Mr Neil does quite well out of these LPC ventures doesn’t he? Half your luck.
He does but soe things are more successful than others!
I absolutely adore pad thai! This looks fantastic! They did a great job!
They really did!
So nice to have all Les Petits Chefs named in this post. The Pad Thai sound wonderful and even though you couldn’t find the right noodles, it does not seem to have made one bit of difference in the taste. Heading over to read Adell’s write-up.
No they tasted great!
Just read Adell’s post. So sweet her comment about Les Petits Chefs enthusiasm (due in no small part to your dedicated efforts with this class) and honesty LOL.
I think my enthusiasm rubs off, for sure! Oh, and my honesty!
Nice looking pad thai! awesome experience
They did a great job!
Another amazing job by Les Petits Chefs! I have to admit that I have always been afraid of Pad Thai… So, I’m super impressed! 🙂
It’s pretty easy Jen – if they can do it so can you!