The best olive oil comes in bottles with shoulders — and other insights from great Knox cooking teacher

Barbara Tenney has personality plus!

The best thing about taking a cooking class from Barbara Tenney is the food, of course. But a close second is the chance to interact with the dynamic Knoxville personality who has taught more than 1,400 classes in the last few years. She offers her regular classes through Williams-Sonoma and Gourmet’s Market, but she also frequently donates classes to be auctioned off at charity events, which is how I came to be invited to one of her classes last week.

I’ll provide the recipes if anyone is interested, but first I want to share some of the “asides” she let us in on as she showed us how to prepare a great salmon dinner.

• Re: olive oil. “If the bottle has shoulders, that’s the best olive oil you can buy,” Tenney related. Her choice: Axienda Agricola dei conti Possenti Castelli, which costs $45 and is available at Williams-Sonoma.
• On asparagus: “You don’t want them any bigger than a pencil.”
• On Pam cooking spray: “Do not use it on your good non-stick pans. It will ruin them.” She said the gummy film that accumulates on some frying pans is caused by this.
• Re: salmon: “If it smells at all like fish, don’t buy it.” She is an advocate of always insisting on getting a smell of the fish before purchase. The only exception is when you buy your fish at Butler and Bailey Market. “If I buy it there, I don’t worry about it because I know it is good,” Tenney said.
• “I pick out the world’s best melons,” Tenney said confidently. “I bring it home and let it sit out three or four days to ripen. Then it is juicy and flavorful.” She said if you serve a melon right after bringing it home, it likely will be hard and  tasteless.
• “Let me tell you a secret about avocados,” she said. “If you put the seed back in it after you cut it open, it will stay green forever.”
• Here’s a new product we learned about: bamboo rice. It is a pale green color and cooks up creamy like risotto. It costs $7 per bag and is available only at Gourmet’s Market, according to Tenney. It looks pretty on a plate.

Tenney herself attended Indianapolis University with the intention of becoming a mortician! But her aunt and uncle ran a small restaurant near campus and she discovered that was “my favorite place to be.” She decided not to be a mortician. She has entered scores of cooking contests at county fairs and other places and has won more than 700 awards and ribbons.

I hope these photos demonstrate what an entertaining evening a cooking class with Barbara can be. This is my second. So, when you see one of her classes on a charity auction, snap it up! You won’t regret it.

Appetizers are on the way! Karen McKinney, right, hosted the party at her beautiful home in River Sound.

Cucumber cups were the appetizers.

Hmmm, which one should she choose? Donna Dempster ponders the question.

This awesome salad had fantastic mango cream dressing on it.

Diane Wilkes is a huge Barbara Tenney fan.

No fishy smell! Karen and Barbara double check just to be sure!

The salmon was coated with white and black sesame seeds for a dramatic presentation.

Michelle Hardin serves the entrees.

Black and white sesame encrusted salmon over bamboo rice topped with delicious Asian sauce, roasted asparagus with lemon.

Cheers! Let's eat!

Michelle, who purchased the dinner at a charity auction, poses with Barbara, who joined us at the table.

Susan Brown displays dessert: banana cream cheesecake, which Diane described as "kicked-up banana pudding!"

Michelle's mom, Dortha Hardin, joined us and was such a fun addition!

OK. Let me know if you’d like any of the recipes and I’ll either e-mail you or post them here.