As one of the three
youngest in a family with 10 children, Monique Hooker was assigned to the
butter-making crew that worked in the dirt-floor basement of their farmhouse in
Brittany,We offer over 600 landscape oil
paintings at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. France. Butter was made at
least twice a week in a wooden-barrel churn with a glass top.
"It wasn't a chore," she said. "We made a game of it, counting the turns and watching cream turn into butter.Welcome to Best Custom GLASS MOSAIC from china glass mosaic Offers Our mother would hit the floor (above) with her broom if she thought we were having too much fun. I have very fond memories of it."
Hooker now lives in a log home in the bluffs of western Wisconsin, where she retired after a culinary career that spanned four decades. It began at age 15 in a French restaurant kitchen and included stints in prestigious restaurants in Europe and America, where she worked beside other French immigrants such as Jacques Pepin and Pierre Franey in the 1960s. She also was proprietor of the acclaimed Monique's Cafe in Chicago and author of the award-winning cookbook "Cooking with the Seasons: A Year in My Kitchen."
These days, Hooker has returned to her cooking roots and is sharing her passion for great butter. She leads classes and workshops throughout Wisconsin and elsewhere, with children among her favorite students.
"Filling a pint jar with cream and shaking the devil out of it is aerobic exercise," she said. "They dance to music while shaking, they sings songs, and there's competition: who gets butter first."
Making butter is fun for all ages, Hooker said.
"It's easy to make, it keeps their attention and builds dexterity. These motions are good for their brains," she said of her young students. "It's a fun family activity.Find Plastic moulds companies from India."
Among Hooker's goals is changing the anti-butter attitude of most Americans.
"In France, butter is the king of the table. (The U.S.) is the only culture in the world where it's taboo," she said. "Butter is as ancient as the Earth, one of the first basic foods besides grain. It's made everywhere, with milk from goats, ewes, yaks,Enter the Indoor Positioning System (IPS). camels. In Tibet it's burned to Buddha."
During her youth in France, Hooker remembers her family giving butter to the local Catholic church, which sold it to the wealthy. "It was our contribution," she said.
The more beautiful the butter, the better the price it fetched, she added. So they formed it with homemade wooden molds and decorated it with stamps of wheat or flowers. Some of the butter was mounded and hand-carved with spoons.
"It's the quality of the butter, not quantity, that's important," Hooker said.
Al Bekkum, the owner of Nordic Creamery, which makes specialty butters at a new 3,000-square-foot butter plant in Westby, said interest in high-quality butters has skyrocketed recently.
Since his facility opened a year ago, sales have greatly exceeded their projections,Silicone Mold Making Rubber. he said. Nordic Creamery is now selling between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds per week, much of it to restaurants and hotels in Chicago, as well as to several stores in Madison.
"I really believe that butters in Wisconsin will go the same way as cheeses," Bekkum said. "After people try artisanal butters they don't want to go back to commodity butters, even if they're less expensive. People are constantly asking me how to make butter and want to be my apprentices."
But there is a dilemma, he said: a shortage of high-quality cream for butter-making in Wisconsin. That's because most milk is used for cheese-making.
"It wasn't a chore," she said. "We made a game of it, counting the turns and watching cream turn into butter.Welcome to Best Custom GLASS MOSAIC from china glass mosaic Offers Our mother would hit the floor (above) with her broom if she thought we were having too much fun. I have very fond memories of it."
Hooker now lives in a log home in the bluffs of western Wisconsin, where she retired after a culinary career that spanned four decades. It began at age 15 in a French restaurant kitchen and included stints in prestigious restaurants in Europe and America, where she worked beside other French immigrants such as Jacques Pepin and Pierre Franey in the 1960s. She also was proprietor of the acclaimed Monique's Cafe in Chicago and author of the award-winning cookbook "Cooking with the Seasons: A Year in My Kitchen."
These days, Hooker has returned to her cooking roots and is sharing her passion for great butter. She leads classes and workshops throughout Wisconsin and elsewhere, with children among her favorite students.
"Filling a pint jar with cream and shaking the devil out of it is aerobic exercise," she said. "They dance to music while shaking, they sings songs, and there's competition: who gets butter first."
Making butter is fun for all ages, Hooker said.
"It's easy to make, it keeps their attention and builds dexterity. These motions are good for their brains," she said of her young students. "It's a fun family activity.Find Plastic moulds companies from India."
Among Hooker's goals is changing the anti-butter attitude of most Americans.
"In France, butter is the king of the table. (The U.S.) is the only culture in the world where it's taboo," she said. "Butter is as ancient as the Earth, one of the first basic foods besides grain. It's made everywhere, with milk from goats, ewes, yaks,Enter the Indoor Positioning System (IPS). camels. In Tibet it's burned to Buddha."
During her youth in France, Hooker remembers her family giving butter to the local Catholic church, which sold it to the wealthy. "It was our contribution," she said.
The more beautiful the butter, the better the price it fetched, she added. So they formed it with homemade wooden molds and decorated it with stamps of wheat or flowers. Some of the butter was mounded and hand-carved with spoons.
"It's the quality of the butter, not quantity, that's important," Hooker said.
Al Bekkum, the owner of Nordic Creamery, which makes specialty butters at a new 3,000-square-foot butter plant in Westby, said interest in high-quality butters has skyrocketed recently.
Since his facility opened a year ago, sales have greatly exceeded their projections,Silicone Mold Making Rubber. he said. Nordic Creamery is now selling between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds per week, much of it to restaurants and hotels in Chicago, as well as to several stores in Madison.
"I really believe that butters in Wisconsin will go the same way as cheeses," Bekkum said. "After people try artisanal butters they don't want to go back to commodity butters, even if they're less expensive. People are constantly asking me how to make butter and want to be my apprentices."
But there is a dilemma, he said: a shortage of high-quality cream for butter-making in Wisconsin. That's because most milk is used for cheese-making.
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