Cooking School: travels with joanne

A certain brio energizes Joanne's classes. Her first instructions are, "Engage all five senses. Learn about food by its look, touch, and smell. You'll know what it sounds like sizzling in the pan and reap its ultimate reward -- taste." Her goal is to give students confidence. "I'll be right here with you," she assures everyone.

"I love anywhere there's olive oil and wine," Joanne quips. Not surprisingly, her classes focus on the rustic, hearty food traditions of these locales. In Provence, for example, Stone Fruit and Goat Cheese Salad, chicken roasted with 40 cloves of garlic, and bouillabaisse typify what will be prepared in class. The salad is tossed with a late-harvest Riesling dressing: Its concentrated fruit flavor pairs beautifully with peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries at their ripest peak.

Recipes are at the end of this story.