Almost as soon as I started working in restaurants in the 1990’s, I started teaching. My teaching adventures began with working with the students in the professional chef training program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health. I taught in that program for years before I switched to teaching primarily public classes, where I could focus on topics I was most excited by. I gravitated toward ethnic cuisines (Moroccan, Turkish, Mexican, Ethiopian, Indian, etc), food for entertaining, ingredient-based workshops, and traditional food. Whatever the topic, I’m a big fan of bold flavors and excellent ingredients.
I also taught vocational classes at the Institute of Culinary Education, Sur la Table in Virginia, and at numerous other locations and schools around the country. One of my favorite teaching gigs was teaching cooking fundamental cooking skills in weeklong workshops at retreat centers in the southwest. Some of these workshops took place in challenging venues: A retreat in Aspen was located 9,000 feet above sea level in a small kitchen with an electric stove that tilted precipitously forward. The ensuing headache was not simply from the altitude change!
Even in local venues, the kitchens were often less than optimal. I once had a sizable Learning Annex class at the back of a bakery with nothing more than an electric burner and a convection oven for my demo. While it was taxing, in retrospect I found that there was nothing like an extra tough challenge to keep the improvisational muscles flexed. It also showed me and my students that when there’s a will, there’s always a way to get a nourishing, home-cooked meal prepared.
For 4 years, I trekked to Maryland six weekends a year to teach at the graduate program of the Maryland Institute of Integrative Health: The graduate students in nutrition had cooking modules as part of their training. I taught them Cooking for People with Food Intolerances as well as Traditional Cooking Techniques (ferments, bone broths, and organ meats) and Improvisational Cooking.
One of my favorite teaching stints was a lecture and demo to students at a chiropractic school in California with the theme of “Fat is where it’s at”.
My students range from omnivores to vegans, folks who could eat everything to folks who were limited by allergies, sensitivities, and proclivities. While the particular foods they eat varied, all had in common that they wanted to eat well.
Cooking is a lifelong journey, and the path is fascinating and unpredictable. I have observed that at some point or another in the course of life, one’s eating habits will alter. What worked at one point in one’s life may no longer serve. What one chooses to eat is an individual decision based on a myriad of factors. It is best to be honest, and if one way of eating no longer serves, perhaps a dietary reassessment is in order.
Private Cooking and Classes:
Along the way, I catered parties, had interesting—as well as some wacky–culinary adventures, and grew as a person. I catered events where the attendees had different eating preferences. At one party the bride and groom were vegan, but the rest of the group wanted chicken, but everyone’s meal needed to look similar so that no one would feel uncomfortable.
One of my private students that I had for years started when he was 10 years old. By the time he was 14, he had won a championship round on the television show “Chopped,” where he was complimented for his fine knife skills. I cooked privately for a family who had a child who was in process of healing her gut. I taught and catered holidays in kosher homes, where dietary restrictions prohibited attendees from taking classes at non-kosher venues. I once had a week-long cooking gig for a man who traced his ancestors back to Charlemagne, had photos with every president to date, but who could barely dress himself without a staff to do it for him.
The classes and catered meals included folks with all kinds of dietary needs and restrictions, ranging from nut-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free, to vegan, vegetarian, paleo, and kosher. Private theme-based workshops included bone broths, kombucha brewing, and kraut making.
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