Imagine standing outside in 100 degree sun. You are hot, hot, hot when you enter  this huge stone building. No air conditioning was necessary. It was just naturally lovely and cool. I was grateful, to say the least. St. Helena was having a heat wave, and the Culinary Institute of America was the place to be. There are young people wearing chefs ‘whites’ all around. They are talking on cell phones, attending classrooms that are fitted out with kitchens in the front with raised seating like a stadium. The Institute has a resturant, cooking demos on Mondays and Fridays, bummer, it was a Thursday, and a Culinary Kitchen Store with appliances and cooking stuff you wouldn’t believe. I had to keep remembering, I don’t really cook any more. The halls were varied and many with collections of corkscrews, and old wine presses and lots of wooden wine barrels of all sizes. There was a Narsi and wife wine cellar dated 1998. The Institute still makes small lots of four different wines from local grapes. You may want to pass on the resturant unless your very rich great aunt is with you.

I don’t know what this chest was doing there by the wine caskets, but it sure is a beauty.

wine barrels for show line the hallway to the store and cooking demos

St. Helena resturant recommendation: Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen. The food is delicious, but the service is serious. Everyone from the excellent manager, Phil, down to the bus boys are diligent and industrious. The Neiman ranch hamburger with avacado, bacon and fries were wonderful! I enjoyed personal attention from the hostess to the manager who personally greeted me and judiciously oversaw my meal, releasing me “back into the wild” promising to follow my tumble log.