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Lisa Graff of Oregon's cuisinternship
The Rogue Valley was all new to Lisa Graff. Last week. But then she completed her Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship and the Brooklyn children’s book author instantly became fluent in making artisan cheese, shaping exotic chocolate and pairing other edibles to wines that are all distinctly local, markedly Rogue.
Graff was checking out the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market in Ashland last Tuesday, looking over the fresh rabbit and dandelion wine for sale, before stopping at the Rogue Creamery’s booth. As part of her apprenticeship, sponsored by the Oregon Tourism Commission, she would sell cheese.
During the week, she would also have a chance to watch the award-winning cheese-making process at the Rogue Creamery’s Central Point facility, then hand pack cheese and taste limited-edition cheeses in the caves. Most exciting to Graff was that she was able to accomplish one of her top seven goals: She milked a cow at the Creamery’s dairy, where 200 cows spend their day on the banks of the Rogue River munching native grasses.
Also, the self-confessed chocoholic, who baked a cake shaped like Oregon on her winning video application, worked with Jeff Shepherd of Lillie Belle Farms (also in Central Point) to make fillings, ganache and caramels. She then poured organic, imported chocolate into molds and practiced (oh, the drudgery!) pairing foods with Southern Oregon wines.
At the farmers’ market, Graff confessed that she wanted the internship so much that she wrote, directed and starred in her first movie. She remembered there was an iMovie feature on her Mac computer. So she translated her desire to win the all-expense-paid trip across the country into a snappy, two-minute film. She says her boyfriend, who has a film school degree, didn’t lend a hand but was impressed with what she produced.
When Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man” song runs out (Do your thang honey), viewers see Graff’s Oregon cake with the frosting message: Ain’t no other woman but Lisa.
[You can view Lisa’s video at bounty.traveloregon.com/contest/chocolate-cheesemaker. See all the applicants’ videos at www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B0B09D41935768E4].
After submitting her video, Graff says she was “confident” she would win. But when she “obsessively” visited the Travel Oregon website as other contestants’ videos were posted, her confidence wobbled. Weeks, weeks, weeks later, when an email popped into her In Box letting her know that she’d won, she screamed.
Fast forward to the future: What will Graff do with her newfound knowledge of chocolate and cheese? As a children’s book author, she has plenty of choices. Perhaps she could update Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” masterpiece, which became the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Or she could be inspired by Jon Scieszka’s “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales” to collect cheese stories.
Or Graff may just reissue some of her own books with a twist: “Umbrella Summer” could become “Um-brie-la Summer.” While “The Thing About Georgie” could become “The Thing About Gouda.”
One thing Graff promises is that we will read more about her moooing adventures.
Graff was one of seven winners in the statewide Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship Contest, one of only two women to win and the only one to conduct her internship in Southern Oregon. The others were dispatched thus:
* The Chef to Greater Portland
* The Rancher to Baker County in Eastern Oregon
* The Fisherman to Depoe Bay on the Oregon Coast
* The Distiller to Bend in Central Oregon
* The Winemaker to Newberg in the Willamette Valley
* The Brewmaster to Hood River
For more info: Visit the Oregon Bounty website at bounty.traveloregon.com
MORE coverage of Oregon wine at www.janeteastman.com
Lisa Graff of Oregon's cuisinternship
The Rogue Valley was all new to Lisa Graff. Last week. But then she completed her Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship and the Brooklyn children’s book author instantly became fluent in making artisan cheese, shaping exotic chocolate and pairing other edibles to wines that are all distinctly local, markedly Rogue.
Graff was checking out the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market in Ashland last Tuesday, looking over the fresh rabbit and dandelion wine for sale, before stopping at the Rogue Creamery’s booth. As part of her apprenticeship, sponsored by the Oregon Tourism Commission, she would sell cheese.
During the week, she would also have a chance to watch the award-winning cheese-making process at the Rogue Creamery’s Central Point facility, then hand pack cheese and taste limited-edition cheeses in the caves. Most exciting to Graff was that she was able to accomplish one of her top seven goals: She milked a cow at the Creamery’s dairy, where 200 cows spend their day on the banks of the Rogue River munching native grasses.
Also, the self-confessed chocoholic, who baked a cake shaped like Oregon on her winning video application, worked with Jeff Shepherd of Lillie Belle Farms (also in Central Point) to make fillings, ganache and caramels. She then poured organic, imported chocolate into molds and practiced (oh, the drudgery!) pairing foods with Southern Oregon wines.
At the farmers’ market, Graff confessed that she wanted the internship so much that she wrote, directed and starred in her first movie. She remembered there was an iMovie feature on her Mac computer. So she translated her desire to win the all-expense-paid trip across the country into a snappy, two-minute film. She says her boyfriend, who has a film school degree, didn’t lend a hand but was impressed with what she produced.
When Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man” song runs out (Do your thang honey), viewers see Graff’s Oregon cake with the frosting message: Ain’t no other woman but Lisa.
[You can view Lisa’s video at bounty.traveloregon.com/contest/chocolate-cheesemaker. See all the applicants’ videos at www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B0B09D41935768E4].
After submitting her video, Graff says she was “confident” she would win. But when she “obsessively” visited the Travel Oregon website as other contestants’ videos were posted, her confidence wobbled. Weeks, weeks, weeks later, when an email popped into her In Box letting her know that she’d won, she screamed.
Fast forward to the future: What will Graff do with her newfound knowledge of chocolate and cheese? As a children’s book author, she has plenty of choices. Perhaps she could update Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” masterpiece, which became the movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Or she could be inspired by Jon Scieszka’s “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales” to collect cheese stories.
Or Graff may just reissue some of her own books with a twist: “Umbrella Summer” could become “Um-brie-la Summer.” While “The Thing About Georgie” could become “The Thing About Gouda.”
One thing Graff promises is that we will read more about her moooing adventures.
Graff was one of seven winners in the statewide Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship Contest, one of only two women to win and the only one to conduct her internship in Southern Oregon. The others were dispatched thus:
* The Chef to Greater Portland
* The Rancher to Baker County in Eastern Oregon
* The Fisherman to Depoe Bay on the Oregon Coast
* The Distiller to Bend in Central Oregon
* The Winemaker to Newberg in the Willamette Valley
* The Brewmaster to Hood River
For more info: Visit the Oregon Bounty website at bounty.traveloregon.com
MORE coverage of Oregon wine at www.janeteastman.com