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Tasting Table
Hogs and Hipsters
The Brooklyn Kitchen's Butchery classes are worth their weight in meat

Part anatomy lecture, part gonzo cooking show, Tom Mylan′s butchery classes at The Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg take Lord of the Flies imagery to the next level. While a pig′s head stares at a dozen hungry carnivores, Mylan (the meat-blogging in-house butcher for nearby Diner and Marlow & Sons restaurants) deftly dissects the whole hog while he speaks intently on the honor of buying heritage meats, suggests ways to prepare each cut-and gives tips on turning pig's ears into dog toys.

Mylan′s classes aren't for the faint of heart: His curmudgeonly spirit is what makes standing for two hours so entertaining, but be prepared for some major snarkiness on just about any topic, colorful language included. The cost of his class ($75), though, is a steal—if only for the amount of premium pork you take home (about eight pounds′ worth of any cut you want).

If a swine demo is none-too-kosher, Mylan teaches a chicken class in which he compares four types of fowl (store-bought, store-bought organic, farm-fresh organic and freshly killed)—and another on lamb butchery.

It′s worth arriving early to browse through the shop′s well-curated selection of kitchen stuff, from everyday useful items to the have-to-have obscure products. Mylan′s butchery classes are on Tuesday nights; other classes taught by local enthusiasts, such as pie-making and pickling, are also offered. Check the Brooklyn Kitchen′s web site for up-to-date class schedules.

Creative cooks use corner store to answer Bodega Challenge
By Rachel Wharton

Published: November 9, 2007

"It's amazing," says Sarah Gentile, "what a bodega can do for you."

She should know: The Greenpoint archivist took top honors for her "Pumpkin Gobble Gobble" in Wednesday night's first-ever Bodega Challenge, a cookoff to find the tastiest Thanksgiving side made from just $20 of corner store ingredients.

The late-night cooking contest, held in the back room of the Williamsburg, Brooklyn bar called Union Pool - kicked off the one-year anniversary of the Brooklyn Kitchen on Lorimer St., the neighborhood's sole kitchenware shop.

Owner Taylor Erkkinen had decided to celebrate her store's first birthday with a return to Williamsburg's culinary roots. Until recently, says Erkkinen of a dearth of local groceries in her nabe, "there was limited access to food after a certain hour."

Locals coming home after work often had to rely on their corner bodegas, she says, "improvising in response to food challenges."

This contest was a chance to see "how creative can people be," she suggests, "if they don't have truffle oil."

Pretty darn creative, it turns out, with entries like bacon-stuffed muffins, corn puddings, carrot and pumpkin soup, turkey shepherd's pie and a casserole made from broccoli, ham, cheese and Cajun spice instant ramen.

For just $15.18, Gentile found the ingredients at Buckley's corner store to make a pumpkin and marshmallow side dish decorated with a turkey made from cranberries (the body), apple slices (the tail feathers) and pistachios (the eyes).

The panel of judges - which included Erkkinen's husband and co-host Harry Rosenblum, the midtownlunch.com blogger Zach Brooks and Camille Becerra, a Greenpoint chef and a star on last season's "Top Chef" - pronounced it delicious, awarding Gentile the grand prize of a vintage casserole dish and a $75 gift certificate to the Brooklyn Kitchen.

But this was a bodega challenge, after all, and some contestants studded their dishes with processed cheese, potato chips and meat products that added plenty of kitsch factor and excess salt, rather than impressive flavor.

"Potato chips, Spam and beer," said Erkkinen, pointing to a table laden with bubbly cheese-topped casseroles, "is like the trifecta of bodega cuisine."

"This is food you want to buy drunk," joked emcee Matthew Carlin, "and food you want to eat drunk."

FOOD STUFF: Keeping Brooklyn in Pots and Pans
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

Published: November 22, 2006

Taylor Erkkinen, a former construction manager, and Harry C. Rosenblum, a lighting designer, like to cook. But in Greenpoint, where they live, and even in nearby Williamsburg, there were no shops selling high-quality cookware and other kitchen necessities.

''We wanted to do some canning and couldn't buy pectin or other stuff,'' Mr. Rosenblum said. ''We decided the neighborhood needed a cookware shop.''

So they opened the Brooklyn Kitchen, a no-frills place that is quite well stocked for now, and will have its racks and shelves filled with many more items as customers' requests are added to the cast-iron skillets, rolling pins, spatulas, baking dishes, cookie cutters, casseroles, electric appliances and assorted gadgets.

The store is set up to give cooking demonstrations:

Leave the Kitsch at Home
A Real Kitchen Store in Williamsburg
By CATHY ERWAY

Published: December 20, 2006

A red-faced Harry Rosenblum is wrangling fiercely with a turkey's leg. He grabs onto a bone and, with a pairing knife in his other hand, scrapes the flesh away, gently twisting the bone out of the carcass without disturbing its yellow elastic skin. A crowd of six to eight onlookers lean in over his shoulder to get a look, dodging the occasional microscopic spray of turkey.

While this scene may sound a bit like a high school biology lab, rejoice: the "students" are a motley crew of local Williamsburg friends, neighbors, and drop-in shoppers sipping from cups of wine and munching on small-batch pickles and cranberry relish as they "learn." Yep, it's just a free neighborhood event on how to de-bone a whole turkey.

"Where are you going to get your five-star anise and fresh nutmeg grater?" Taylor Erkkinen asks. Certainly not in Williamsburg, common sense would suggest-until now. Opened in October by the husband and wife team of Rosenblum and Erkkinen, Brooklyn Kitchen glows warmly from its non-retail Lorimer St. block in central Williamsburg. Its anterior gives way to a colorful array of merchandise, mostly cookware items and some specialty foods, such as Erkkinen's choice selection of fine teas. Further into the store, the atmosphere is undeniably that of a family kitchen.

"I didn't like how other kitchen stores in the city gave off this feeling of . . . unapproachable expertise," says Rosenblum. The cheery fully equipped kitchen inside represents the owners' goal: to become a truly neighborhood venue. Their class on de-boning a turkey was the first of what Rosenblum and Erkkinen hope will be many friendly community sessions and tastings, open to all. They also plan to bring more seasoned experts as well as integrate home recipes and family traditions into the agenda.

"We're amateurs, but we both love to cook," Rosenblum explains. "We wanted people to have a place to commune."

Indeed, both owners came into cooking and business owning late in their careers, fueled by their passion for quality neighborhood shopping, and, of course, food. Rosenblum still works in and teaches lighting designing while he operates the Brooklyn Kitchen. Erkkinen hails from a technical field as well: trained in engineering, she appreciates the science of cooking and the tools involved.

Only a few short weeks into the store's opening, Erkkinen and Rosenblum already see signs of their dream coming alive. The week that The New York Times released a story on bread making in the Dining & Wine section introducing a revelatory technique (by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery) of baking bread in a Dutch oven, customers flocked into the Brooklyn Kitchen to buy Dutch ovens. Rosenblum can't remember how many he sold that week. The most memorable part for him was a customer that came back the next day to share with the owners the bread he just baked in his new Dutch oven that he bought from them.

At the end of the turkey de-boning session, students fill their mouths with freshly roasted turkey with sage bread stuffing, and the entire store is filled with the aroma of Thanksgiving. If this sounds all too similar to a snapshot from one of your own holidays, then the Brooklyn Kitchen has succeeded. Now get cookin'!