Spanish Cooking Workshop

This past week API organized a cooking workshop at a hotel for all of the exchange students to come and learn how to make traditional Spanish meals. We learned how to cook Paella, Tortilla (which is like a french omelet with potatoes in it... NOT like the Mexican tortilla lol), Pan Con Tomate (traditional appetizer type of food only served in Catalunya, Sangria, and Creme Catalan (like caramel flan).

We had our own seating area for approximately 60 students in an outdoor tent, with a chef and some of his assistants. We started with the paella, as that would take the longest to cook. There was a HUGEEE (emphasis on HUGEEE) paella pan in the middle of the room, the biggest thing ive ever seen, which is where we'd be cooking the paella to feed 60 people. The chef began to explain how to make the paella and asked for volunteers to start help to cook the meat in the pan. I volunteered with a couple of my friends and we started cooking the chicken. Then he added the rice, then came the chicken/seafood broth, then we let it boil a bit, then put in mini lobsters and mussels, and to finish it offer placed lemons on the top. The chef then put a large white sheet over the entire pan to let it cook and let the steam seep through the sheet while the paella cooked. After it was done cooking we naturally started eating it.

This is what the paella dish looked when it as complete:
This is what the paella dish looked like when it was demolished by 60 people:

Then the chef explained how to make Tortilla, which afterwards we tried. It wasnt the best tortilla ive had here, but it was still good. Marta said it's very important that Tortilla is made with love or else it doesnt taste good, obviously the chef didnt put much love into it when he was making it. lol

After the tortilla and paella, Marta asked for a volunteer to make the sangria, so I volunteered my mom. She wasnt too impressed but i figured it would be good to expand her education on wine and sangria. So she demonstrated how to make it with the help of the head chef infront of about 60 people. :) hehe. For dessert we had Creme Catalan which was delicious, but i wasnt really paying attention while the chef was explaining how to make it, I was more focused on eating it... whoops my bad. good thing they sent us home with the recipes.