Cooking teacher will christen your shiny new kitchen, give appliance tips The Capital Times - Mary Bergin - 12/27/2007 ELLISON BAY -- Janice Thomas will christen your new baby, but it will be done in the kitchen, not in a church. The co-owner of Savory Spoon cooking school, open seasonally and by private arrangement, also travels nationwide to help new homeowners feel more at ease with their appliances. These kitchen christenings began eight years ago, in an old adobe house in Tucson, Ariz., where Thomas used to live. The kitchen was tiny, and an interior designer had recommended that Thomas help acclimate the homeowners to their revamped space. Today Thomas tends to work with high-end appliances, such as lines produced by Madison's Sub-Zero/Wolf. She typically arrives when construction or remodeling has finished, the movers have left and it's time for a housewarming. There's just one problem: You don't know how to use the stove. Or maybe that's the first of several technical challenges. "A $2 million house needs the right level of equipment to go with it, for resale value, if no other reason," Thomas says. What do you place in the kitchen's cold drawers? (Try ingredients that you need for a meal but are not quite ready to chop or shred.) How about the warming drawer? (Heat plates, before adding food, or keep one component of a meal warm while waiting for another to get finished.)
Timing isn't everything, but it is important. This often is a part of the lesson plan when Thomas is the teacher. She owned her own catering company for 14 years, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and has conducted classes at Savory Spoon for four years. Heat the oven grill 15 minutes before adding steaks, she advises. Turn on the oven fan 10 minutes before broiling. Result: The meat will sear nicely, and the air will remain clear enough to see it. "Sealed burners, open burners and stoves can have all kinds of different grills on top," Thomas notes. Each feature can come off as an added complication or intimidation factor for the novice cook. It is the teacher's job to demonstrate the convenience. Her kitchen christenings often are camouflaged as a family gathering, girls' night out or couples' dinner party. The event is personalized and may begin with an Irish blessing, toast or family anecdote. Making pizza might be appropriate if the homeowner wants to learn more about cooking with a convection oven, which enhances air and heat circulation. It also helps grab the attention of children. "It's so important for the younger generation to get involved," Thomas says, a reference to getting children interested in how food is prepared. An overall goal is to help people succeed with their first big social event at home, "without having the stress of whether or how the equipment works" in the kitchen. The cost to hire Thomas for a kitchen christening is travel expenses and $100-$125 per person, which results in a five-course meal. Private cooking classes at Savory Spoon, an 1877 schoolhouse, are $75 per person. Co-owner of the business and largely responsible for the building restoration and remodeling is her husband, Michael Thomas. For more: www.savoryspoon.com, 920-854-6600. A new season of classes soon will be posted online. mbergin@madison.com
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