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Andy Evangelista
first appeared 27 October 1999 Gourmet Cooking as Simple as A, B, C They call it "gourmet cooking for dummies," which is enough to intrigue someone whose tactic to quickly clear out the house for an entire evening is to announce "Dad’s cooking." Even the dogs leave. But last Friday’s dinner ordered online from "CookExpress.com" was not only easy to prepare for this culinary simpleton, it tasted very good and even impressed a suspicious suppermate – the better half who normally does the cooking. CookExpress offers the convenience of the web to people, particularly the too busy workforce, who want a fancy "homecooked" meal without the food prep and kitchen fuss. Since the beginning of October, it has had an arrangement with UCSF. Order online by 2 p.m. via the special website (www.cookexpress.com/ucsf/) for UCSF customers and pick up the "mealkit" between 4 and 7 p.m. at Palio’s in Millberry Union.
We found other campus members – who aren’t kitchen-challenged – but tried the service. Terry Dong, executive secretary in the Office of Research Affairs, had the "jerk chicken" and gave it good grades for taste and convenience. She’s a family person, but said it would be "perfect for someone trying to impress a first date." Georgianne Meade, a manager in the same office, and her husband Paul, a student at the SF Culinary Academy, also prepared and ate the salmon. These two qualified critics also gave it high marks. Dan Schumm, an MSO in the department of surgery, saw the CookExpress banner in front of Millberry Union, checked it out on the web and ordered the Omaha steak dinner for his wife’s birthday. "The food quality was much better than I though it would be." He took advantage of the current special for UCSF employees and students – 50% off the price of your first order (5% discount thereafter). The decision to bring CookExpress to campus was based on surveys of UCSF busy bees, who have expressed a desire for those types of conveniences, says Gail Mametsuka, manager of Empact! Presents. Empact and Campus Auxiliary Services are now trying to work out an arrangement with Kosmo.com, the web service that delivers rental videos and video games – and popcorn, drinks and ice cream if you want it. But where’s the website for getting someone to do the dishes? Perfect for Halloween UCSF dermatologist Vail C. Reese (Dr. VCR), whose "skinema" website analyzes the skin conditions of humans and others in the movies, has an "evil lobby" with a top ten of the "scariest skin conditions in the movies." He also has a new site showing a mixture of albinism and hair loss -- characters that are bald, pale and mean. Fall Classic The weather at the Monday afternoon/evening groundbreaking at Mission Bay was beautiful – little wind and a lot of warmth. Some in attendance, including Giants President Peter Magowan and VP Larry Baer, were probably dreaming of what could be at the nearby new Pac Bell Park – the Giants hosting the World Series in late October (and a bunch of UCSFers watching). Why It Was a Forgettable Decade Perusing the "This Day in History" websites, we found that in October of 1977, Debby Boone’s "You Light Up My Life," was starting a ten-week run as the country’s number-one tune. Readers: If you have any items or suggestions for this column, send us an email: aevangelista@pubaff.ucsf.edu . |
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We
tried the "Joanne Weir’s roasted salmon" dinner for two ($20.95
regular price), which included green herb-caper sauce, sliced picholine
olives, roasted red potatoes, and baby aragula with lemon vinaigrette.
It came in a neatly packaged box, smaller than that for a medium pizza
but bigger than two Big Mac containers. Inside, the items were labeled
by alphabet – the salmon fillet was in the "B" package, while
cooked diced-onion-herb mixture was "D," just in case us dumb
chefs don’t know the difference. There were some six steps to follow
– from "set the sauce in a warm place in the kitchen" to "when
the salmon is done, remove from the oven" and "gently spoon
the potato mixture on each plate at 10 o’clock." (But I wanted
to serve dinner at 7:30.)
You
do have to provide some of your own tools and items – pans, skillets,
mixing bowls and salt and pepper. However, using a scissors to open
a package, instead of a knife to cut up the fish and vegetables is a
major convenience. It all took less than 25 minutes. Lighting the candles
and uncorking the wine was all that was left to do. This column rates
CookExpress three-and three-fourths stars out of four, with only a slight
deduction for having to run to a neighbor and borrow olive oil. But
don’t take it from a rookie chef, whose usual idea of a great Saturday
meal is to heat up the leftover Friday pizza.