Q&A with Chef Les Kincaid

Chef Les Kincaid has been teaching for UNLV Continuing Education for about 25 years. His classes have been so popular that Chef Kincaid has built quite a dedicated following. We talked with chef to get his thoughts on how to entice and motivate students to take his food & beverage classes.

How do you select a class to teach?

By questions, suggestions, and input from the students and other food loving acquaintances.

What do you want your students to learn when they leave your class…the one thing to walk away with?

That they take away new ideas, thoughts and techniques that I teach in class as well as the handouts I give them. Because having meatloaf every Thursday gets boring.

Why do you like to teach the classes that you teach?

The students. They bring the uniqueness and a je ne sais quoi to the class and have a sincere interest in upgrading their culinary prowess.

If you had one ingredient to choose from, what would be your favorite to cook with?

I can’t answer that question (laughing), because you can’t just cook with just one ingredient in a recipe.

Chef Kincaid’s cooking classes are held at Ferguson Enterprises. Other classes are offered at the UNLV Paradise Campus when appropriate.

Click here for a full list of Chef Kincaid's spring and summer class offerings.

The Thrill of the Grill

It’s summertime again. While it brings the heat, it also ignites my love of grilling. I grill just about everything I can get my hands on almost every day during the summer to keep my house cool. I had been thinking about taking a course in the Barbecuing Series offered by UNLV Continuing Education. The first class is Sauces, Rubs & Marinades, followed by Grilling, then Barbecuing—all taught by Chef Les Kincaid.

When I signed up for Sauces, Rubs & Marinades, I was really looking forward to the technical side of this class. How long do you marinade different types of proteins and why? What is the base of all rubs and how much do you use per pound? Do you really only put sauces on at the last few minutes? Which of these can be used on vegetables, or is there another base for those? Well I went to the class and had my questions answered.

The featured meats were pulled pork, chicken, and salmon. Chef Kincaid made a sauce for the pulled pork and marinades for the chicken and salmon. I learned a lot of in-depth details to distinguish between grilling and barbecuing, and that different meats are marinated by the density of the meat. Since fish is flaky, the marinade permeates faster than a pork roast. If you marinate too long, the meat becomes mushy. There is no standard base for rubs, as they vary from region to region, just like the sauces. Speaking of sauces, most barbecue sauces are tomato based. Since tomatoes burn quickly, the sauce should be put onto the protein half an hour before it is done.

One of the most versatile kinds of food to be cooked on the grill is vegetables. I learned to always use a light coating of olive oil so the vegetables don’t stick to the rack; you can season them with just salt and pepper or a little bit of rub. 

As usual, Chef Kincaid was generous with the recipes he handed out, so I can’t wait to experiment. Please check out the other classes Chef Kincaid is offering through UNLV Continuing Education this summer and fall.

Wine & Cheese, What a Pairing!

I recently took a wine & cheese class through UNLV Continuing Education, Wine & Cheese of Italy & Spain. To start this off, I’m not a big red wine drinker, and I thought to myself “what have you gotten yourself into?” But I love cheese, all kinds of cheese, from soft to stinky. I’ve been to classes before where Chef Les Kincaid is the instructor. He is very generous with his portions, so I knew I would get my fill of cheese and wine.

This two-week course was held at Total Wine & More in Summerlin, with the first week focused on French wines & cheese and the second week on the Spanish ones. Chef Kincaid brought four wines and four cheeses each week. He kept the price point on the wines at $7-$12. Surprisingly they were all good, although I was fondest of the French Muscat we had. I could go on about the cheeses for hours (but I won’t). We tried everything from a French Brie by Mon Pere to a 12-month aged Manchego by El Trigal. My favorite of all was a French goat cheese that had three distinct flavors as you bit into the rind, outer edge and center cut of the cheese. The name of that one is Bucherondin by Serva Bella.

Chef Kincaid is very knowledgeable about winemaking and speaks extensively about how the landscape and weather affect the grapes along with why cheeses and wines from the same region complement each other so well. He talks about the proper temperature both red and white wines should be served at and that all cheeses should be served at room temperature. With the attention to detail that Chef Kincaid provides, I definitely got my money’s worth out of this class.

Here is the link to Chef Kincaid's upcoming classes with UNLV Continuing Education.


Post by April Reckling