Take the leap! From tentative to talented cooking

I feel it is a small leap from tentative to talented cooking. An open mind and commitment to the process is all it takes to have home cooking reward you in spades!

This is why I continue to teach cooking* after many years at Tree House Kitchen. My students range from ages nine to 91 years old. My life as a chef and instructor never gets old as I am in constant inquisitive pursuit of the next best meal and I love being a part of lightbulb moments with students.

For your best meals, recipes and food experiences remember to:

Explore cuisine up close and far and wide with great curiosity. Try new foods when travelling, experiment with ingredients and combinations and ask questions.

Grow your cooking repertoire with essential culinary life skills. How about growing your own vegetable/herb garden or making your garden bee-friendly?

Nourish mind and body by incorporating all senses when cooking – always choose the best ingredients for your body. Read about food and understand food labels.

Connect with your inner foodie and gift yourself with the time to cook! Trust your own instincts when playing in the kitchen. Share your experiences with friends and family and connect whenever you can to local hardworking farmers, food purveyors and kitchenware suppliers.

That is ALL it takes to leap from tentative to talented cooking.

Pictured here, nine-year-old Olivia is fanning the smells of a minestrone soup toward her. There are delicious organic and farm-fresh ingredients, spices, herbs, pasta and even a Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind stewing away together in the pot. In this children’s hands-on cooking class I explained that we need not only our taste buds but our ears, sense of touch, eyes and noses in the kitchen to get a true sense of what is going on in the pot.

*Update: We’re so proud of the work we’ve done in our hands-on teaching and dinner party classes. Working with you, our clients has played such an important part in the new direction of Tree House Kitchen as a food literacy company, specializing in problem-solving skills and resources for busy families, and community members – like you! We hope you enjoy reading about our past classes, and also where we’re headed moving forward.