Decadent Vegan Breakfasts Class with Adam Sobel of The Cinnamon Snail!

I had the privilege to take a cooking class about Decadent Vegan Breakfasts with Chef Adam Sobel of the Cinnamon Snail last week, and what a privilege it was!

I have loved finding the Snail out and about for the last couple of years, and it was really exciting to be able to learn to make some of that style of food. This was also the first time that I took a class at the Institute of Culinary Education. Other than this one class (and others Chef Adam might offer in the future) I haven’t really seen much in the way of vegan classes at ICE, as opposed to Natural Gourmet Institute. Both ICE and NGI have their strengths, but if you’re interested in other vegan cooking classes in NYC, NGI is definitely where you should start. Except for these classes with Adam Sobel!

We got to start the class off with a little chat with Chef Adam and eating some award-winning Vanilla Bourbon Creme Brulée donuts. I was glad for this, because I overslept and didn’t get to eat breakfast. Which is weird, because I was going to a class to make breakfast…

Mmm… tasty. Would you believe that Chef Adam doesn’t eat them very often?

Rather than each team working on a seperate dish, tasks were divided up so that each team did some work on each dish. We got the share the fun that way!

Everyone should get to work with Bourbon in the morning. And pecans. And maple syrup. And eat them…

Look at how thick the syrup is!

The seitan making was up next! Definitely different than any other seitan I’ve made before.

The maple-mustard glaze for the seitan- except we should have chopped the herbs. Oops!

Me starting to kneed the seitan!

The seitan before it gets fried. Yes, you heard me- fried, not simmered!

Despite the fact that there’s healthy things added into the seitan, you kind of have to accept the fact that if you’re frying, there’s no way to make it health food, no matter what it’s fried in. Tasty, though! I got stuck on fry duty though, and missed out on the greens and potato prep.

We made enough seitan to feed an army. For realz.

The pecans, whole and chopped, some for the middle of the pancakes, and some for the top. All of them equally delicious!

I may not have been able to help with the greens, but I did get to see them. 🙂 It’s all good, I know how to wash greens!

The sauce for the potatoes and greens.

We learned a really neat trick for making garlic paste by smushing it up with salt. I will definitely be using that trick in the future!

The pancakes are finally getting cooked! You can really sprinkle anything on top before you flip a pancake- this gives you the chance to take one basic pancake recipe and adapt it a lot of different ways.

The whole menu! This was a dish of deliciousness. I cannot stress how good it was! Biggest surprise? I liked the dandelion greens!

I didn’t get to help with making the sesame milk. I love the concept and I plan to try it at home, but it was a little underwhelming, probably because of the not-so-great sesame seeds. I have high hopes for it in the future!

I didn’t get to take any pictures of the “butter” being made, but that was pretty cool. It was basically made with refined coconut oil, and was a technique that I plan to try with some other flavors!

I really enjoyed this class. I would absolutely take another class with Chef Adam! The class was entertaining and informative, and it was the kind of class that not only gave me a menu to use, it gave me ideas for other things to try, and I think that’s one of the biggest values in taking a cooking class.

Were there any drawbacks?

• A little. This was the first time Chef Adam had taught a class at ICE, so there were a couple of little technical blips. The class also ran too long, which was fine if you had nothing else to do (like me), but some people had to skip out before they really got to eat.
• ICE doesn’t seem to recycle/compost which is a little disappointing, but didn’t really have anything to do with the class itself.

Extra good things?

• ICE provides to-go containers for leftovers, which was really, really nice. I meant to bring a couple of containers with me, but forgot. I really appreciated this, because those leftovers were awesome! We made tons of food, so there was plenty for us to take home.

I haven’t taken enough classes at ICE to give them a thorough review, but it was nice. I hope to still take classes at NGI though-they’re awesome too. Even if they don’t provide to-go containers. 🙂

It looks like the next class is already sold out, but if I were you, I might jump at the chance to enroll in the next next one!