Mediterranean Tour with Chef Emily Swantner

Take a Mediterranean Tour with chef Emily Swantner as she demonstrates recipes from Greece, North Africa and the south of France. The dishes include green olive and almond tapenade and marinated lamb loin with spicy eggplant salad. She’ll also prepare chilled golden beet and orange soup with iced yogurt cubes, halloumi topped with red peppers, olives and capers, and fragrant lemon and rosemary cake.

Participants get copies of each recipe, most of which Swantner has created or “tweaked.” “I have a library of about a thousand cookbooks,” she says. “And I’m famous for tweaking recipes. You never really reinvent the wheel, but you can alter it just a bit.”

Swantner recently visited Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. “Food and travel are my passion,” she says, “and that’s kinda how I put this [class] together. My specialty is world food. My husband and I have lived all over the world, and I have traveled all over learning about food from different cultures. That’s where I’ve gotten lots of my recipes as well. I really love southeast Asia and north Africa, so you’ll find those influences in a lot of my food.”

The best part of the workshop comes after the demonstration, when participants get to eat all the scrumptious food. 6:30 to 9 p.m. Central Market, 3815 Westheimer. For information, call 713-993-9860 or visit www.centralmarket.com. $65.
Fri., June 27, 6:30-9 p.m., 2008