Cooking Classes? We Got You!
I was a culinary school instructor at Art Institute of Seattle for seven years in the early part of my career. I learned so much about food doing that job that it truly built the foundation of who I am as a cook today. I absolutely loved it. What I also learned was how to teach! Setting up a culinary class is just second nature to me now. I pre-measure all of the ingredients, get all of the equipment ready to go, print the recipes, and take care of all the little things that can get in the way of the instruction. You only need to focus on learning the subject matter!
I love teaching so much that I’m actually still doing it. I teach part time at Sur La Table in Kirkland, mostly for fun. I love watching people light up as they learn new things. The best part of learning from me is, there are no secrets!! The last thing I would ever do is withhold information from students a member of some sort of fictitious chef cabal. :) I love to give away all of the techniques and tricks that we use in the industry to make that restaurant food so delicious. Cooking is supposed to be convivial, folksy, and about community. I get extremely frustrated with chefs who think that their job is at risk if they “give away their secrets”. You’re a busy professional. I’m not worried that you’re coming to steal my job! In fact, I am most successful as an instructor if you eventually master a dish and make it even better than me. My goal is that we are all eating better food, all the time.
Some classes that I have taught in the past include:
Classical French
Bistro French
Country-Style Italian
Pasta-Making
Spanish Tapas
Dim Sum
Chinese Regional Cooking
Vietnamese Cuisine
Thai Cuisine
Moroccan Cuisine
Lebanese Cuisine
Pizza
Foccacia
Greek Cooking
Food and Wine Pairing
Knife Skills
Grilling
Sauces
Soups
The sky is the limit! If you want to learn something, I can create a class for you and teach it, with one exception: Pastry! I’ll admit it right now, I suck at pastry. I love bread and bread baking, but piping, laminated dough, cakes and the like really mystify me. The beauty is that I know a ton of pastry chefs who would be happy to teach a class too, so we can get you some pastry instruction if that’s what you’re after.
Looking forward to teaching and learning together one day soon! Just ask me about how it all works.
