Interest in cooking classes continues to spiral upward throughout the region, in part because the economy has driven families to eat dinner at home more often and to carry their lunches to school and work. As a result, people who are new to home cooking are eager to learn the basics, and experienced cooks want to stretch their repertoires.
Cooking need not be a lost art.
In addition to a full range of classes offered at Kitchen Kapers Culinary Academy, there are classes at area high schools; in shops such as Foster's and Fante's; at the Chinese Cultural and Community Center on North 10th Street; in restaurants such as Normandy Farm in Blue Bell and La Campagne in Cherry Hill; in supermarkets such as Giant and Whole Foods; and at long-established cooking schools such as Albertson's Wynnewood and the Viking school in Bryn Mawr.
There are classes for kids at the Newtown Township Parks and Recreation Department; and training for future chefs at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in West Philadelphia and at the OIC's Hospitality Training Institute in North Philadelphia.
Kristy Kreizinger of Marlton said her busy travel schedule motivated her to take Henry's recent class titled "Cook Once, Eat All Week."
Kreizinger is a flight attendant who is traveling much of the time.
"So I want to have real meals ready for my fiance when I'm gone," she said.
Henry's students ate all night, tasting the dozen dishes she prepared in just two hours.
