Chef
Tom Ashwell is the owner and chef of T. Ashwell's in
Ellison Bay, Wisconsin. Ashwell was his mother's maiden
name and the restaurant is named in her honor. Tom spent
all his summers in Door County along with his father,
enjoying the beauty. He received his formal training
at Kendell College in Evanston, graduating in 1991 with
an Associates Degree in Culinary Arts. He worked for
Bernard Cretier, owner of La Vichyssoise in Chicago
as an apprentice and then moved up the North Shore to
the world of catering events. His dream of owning his
own restaurant was realized on May 16th 1999 when T.
Ashwell's opened. Tom takes care of client's special
needs with attention to all the details including catering.
Ashwell's is a warm and beautiful
setting for dinner and celebrations.
Sarah
Basch
Sarah Basch, a Door County
native, grew up watching her mother and grandmother make delicious
desserts, always from scratch. Originally pursuing a career
in business, she found herself spending much of her free time
baking for family and friends. She finally decided to turn her
passion into a career. Her first position was at a bakery café
in Steamboat Spr ings, Colorado. Following that, she was the
pastry chef at Merenda Restaurant and then the French-inspired
Sparrow Bakery, both in Bend, Oregon. Sarah is currently the
pastry chef at Alexander's in Fish Creek. She also owns FlourGirl
Patissier, specializing in made-to-order pastries and wedding
cakes. www.flourgirlpatissier.com
George Crave
George
Crave is President of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, LLC.
He oversees the plant management and cheese production. George
is a licensed cheesemaker and has traveled to Italy, France
and Switzerland to study cheesemaking and affinage. Debbie
Crave is Vice President of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese,
LLC.
George and his three brothers
own Crave Brothers Dairy Farm. For over 20 years George was
in charge of the dairy herd and milk quality at Crave Brothers
Dairy Farm. In 2001 he began managing the building and development
of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese. In 2002 the farmstead cheese
factory was completed and the first cheese production began.
George is a 1978 graduate
of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Farm & Industry Shortcourse.
George recently served on the Council for Agricultural Research,
Extension & Teaching (CARET) for the UW-Madison College
of Agriculture & Life Sciences. He is a founding member
of the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin. George is
a member of the Wisconsin Cheesemaker's Association and the
Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute.
Debbie presently serves on
the World Dairy Expo Board, the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute
Board, and is an advisor on the Professional Dairy Producers
of Wisconsin Board. She and her husband, George, reside on the
Crave Brothers Dairy Farm in Waterloo, Wisconsin. They have
three children.
Laurie Conrad
Originally
from Northeast Wisconsin, Laurie Conrad now resides in Madison
with her husband and two children.
Gifted with dual talents
of being a great chef and entertaining people, Laurie has been
teaching cooking classes for years both privately and with culinary
venues; Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods, The Savory Spoon, Orange
Tree Imports, The Willy Street Coop, All Through The House and
is a guest instructor at the Madison Food & Wine Show. Laurie
prides herself in using both the freshest ingredients, along
with organic and locally grown foods.
She is a culinary expert
when it comes to knifes and the science and anatomy of cuisine.
Her special traits lie in baking, desserts, comfort foods, vegetarian
and eclectic dishes.
Jesse Johnson
Jesse
Johnson is the Chef and part owner of the Waterfront Restaurant
in Sister Bay. Jesse graduated with a communications degree
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then traveled extensively
before attending and graduating from the Rocky Mountain Culinary
School in Colorado.
Jesse travels each winter,
in the off season and returns to the Waterfront with great new
menu ideas inspired by his travels. Traveling, working and hands-on
experience in restaurants in Italy, France, Thailand and the
Caribbean fuel his culinary fire.
The traveling, the wine and
how other countries eat, helps Jesse recreate that experience
for his guests. Locals and visitors flock to the Savory Spoon
Cooking School to get a taste of Thai cuisine or the culinary
pleasures of any of the countries he is featuring for that season's
cooking class.
Kathy (Cocoa) McCarthy
Cocoa
can be found extolling the virtues of dark chocolate during
her weekly handcrafted batches of gourmet chocolate at the Sweet
Spot in the Savory Spoon Marketplace. McCarthy traces her love
of making candy to her girlhood, growing up on a mink ranch
20 minutes west of Oshkosh. It was over 30 years ago that she
and her mother began the tradition of making candy together,
delighting in discovering recipes to satisfy the sweet tooth
for special family events. The caramel recipe she uses today
brings back the memories of those mother-daughter cooking sessions.
This love of chocolate making
led Cocoa to opening her own chocolate business in Scottsdale,
Arizona in 2001, Kathy's Gourmet Chocolates. Today, Kathy begins
her third season at the Savory Spoon Cooking School as our in-house
chocolatier. Kathy balances her career with the Savory Spoon
and the hospitality industry. This season, you will experience
Kathy's passion for candy making where she will share her knowledge
and expertise to students of all ages. Cocoa's classes will
feature "Sweet Saturdays" confection classes, a special soup
making class, a first ever "Salts for all Seasons" class, and
a variety of pasta workshops.
You will enjoy Kathy's enthusiasm
and love of great food, chocolate and sharing with other "foodies"
and friends.
Mike
Mead
Mike Mead is the Chef and owner of the Shoreline Restaurant
in Gills Rock, Door Counties most northern restaurant. Mike
and his wife Mary have owned the restaurant for 18 years and
he is the primary Chef. Mikes passion for salmon and whitefish
dishes have visitors coming from all over the country to their
restaurant in Gills Rock. Their slogan is "Eat The Whitefish"
The dining room has a most spectacular view and makes one think
they could actually see a salmon jump in the picturesque bay.
Mike is a great teacher and with his contagious smile, students
flock to his informative and entertaining classes.
John Raymond
Home
life growing up consisted of gardens, fishing and hunting. My
mother came from a large farming family of twelve brothers and
sisters. I have fond memories of peach trees, cherry trees,
pear trees, and all the other goodies a garden has to offer.
I began working in a kitchen at the age of fifteen as a dishwasher
and progressively worked up the ladder. Ironically, my wife
of ten years and sweetheart of eighteen, worked at the same
restaurant at the age of fifteen. We would not get together
for another two. I cooked my way through college at University
of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1994, after stints at five or six restaurants,
I decided to pursue cooking at a professional level. I left
school with ten credits left towards a political science degree
to join an apprenticeship program offered by the ACF of Milwaukee.
I continued to excel in the culinary field. The majority of
my training came from self-passion to understand cultures and
cuisines of the entire world. I never limited myself to one
philosophy or another. At the age of twenty-five, I took my
first head chef job. From there I continued to pursue greater
challenges in the Milwaukee area such as Café Marche,
Vinifera, and Red Rock Café. Opportunity arose from coast
to coast. With my wife's support, we agreed to stay in the area
instead of fleeing towards greener pastures and began comprising
the idea of Roots. My long time friend Joe Schmidt, an organic
farmer, and I opened Roots in 2004 as the only farmer-chef owned
restaurant in the state. It was and is a success. God Bless
Passion. Roots practices sustainable agriculture and aquaculture.
We utilize 20 to 30 local farms as well as our sister company
(Cedar Creek Farm). We use local pork, lamb, duck, and chicken.
We are members of the Chef's collaborative, as well as Slow
Food. Our menus represent the season as well as a Global Diversity.
There are artisan producers in other countries that are resourced
for our menus.
Our
Farm sustains a 12 month season, we use hoop houses as well
as greenhouses, and lights in the deep of winter.
Betsy Titterington
Betsy
Titterington moved to Ellison Bay, WI with her husband Michael
Brecke in 2001. Her passion for the culinary world started in
Kansas City in the the mid 1990's when she left her career as
a running events director to go to The Culinary Institute of
America in Napa Valley for a 3 month foundation course in cooking.
Following that inspired experience she started an informal catering
company cooking for family & friends shortly followed by
founding and opening The Culinary Center of Kansas City. Betsy
and her co-partner restored a turn of the century buggy barn
into a state of the art kitchen, school and event space. After
moving to Door County she has been involved in a variety of
Culinary related jobs. She had a catering business called Door
to Door Catering, owned and ran Village Pizzeria along with
her husband and 2 step children, cooked the evening meals at
an adult folk art camp - The Clearing and now since it's opening
in 2004 she has found a wonderful "culinary fit" at The Savory
Spoon Cooking School and Marketplace in Ellison Bay. Since Savory
Spoon's move to it's current location in downtown Ellison Bay
she has been involved in the development and management of the
marketplace as well as teaching and assisting in the school.
Savory Spoon Cooking School, All
Rights Reserved
12042 Highway 42 • Ellison Bay,
WI 54210 • Phone: (920) 854-6600
Sarah
Basch
George
Crave is President of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, LLC.
He oversees the plant management and cheese production. George
is a licensed cheesemaker and has traveled to Italy, France
and Switzerland to study cheesemaking and affinage. 
Cocoa
can be found extolling the virtues of dark chocolate during
her weekly handcrafted batches of gourmet chocolate at the Sweet
Spot in the Savory Spoon Marketplace. McCarthy traces her love
of making candy to her girlhood, growing up on a mink ranch
20 minutes west of Oshkosh. It was over 30 years ago that she
and her mother began the tradition of making candy together,
delighting in discovering recipes to satisfy the sweet tooth
for special family events. The caramel recipe she uses today
brings back the memories of those mother-daughter cooking sessions.
Mike
Mead
Home
life growing up consisted of gardens, fishing and hunting. My
mother came from a large farming family of twelve brothers and
sisters. I have fond memories of peach trees, cherry trees,
pear trees, and all the other goodies a garden has to offer.
I began working in a kitchen at the age of fifteen as a dishwasher
and progressively worked up the ladder. Ironically, my wife
of ten years and sweetheart of eighteen, worked at the same
restaurant at the age of fifteen. We would not get together
for another two. I cooked my way through college at University
of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1994, after stints at five or six restaurants,
I decided to pursue cooking at a professional level. I left
school with ten credits left towards a political science degree
to join an apprenticeship program offered by the ACF of Milwaukee.
I continued to excel in the culinary field. The majority of
my training came from self-passion to understand cultures and
cuisines of the entire world. I never limited myself to one
philosophy or another. At the age of twenty-five, I took my
first head chef job. From there I continued to pursue greater
challenges in the Milwaukee area such as Café Marche,
Vinifera, and Red Rock Café. Opportunity arose from coast
to coast. With my wife's support, we agreed to stay in the area
instead of fleeing towards greener pastures and began comprising
the idea of Roots. My long time friend Joe Schmidt, an organic
farmer, and I opened Roots in 2004 as the only farmer-chef owned
restaurant in the state. It was and is a success. God Bless
Passion. Roots practices sustainable agriculture and aquaculture.
We utilize 20 to 30 local farms as well as our sister company
(Cedar Creek Farm). We use local pork, lamb, duck, and chicken.
We are members of the Chef's collaborative, as well as Slow
Food. Our menus represent the season as well as a Global Diversity.
There are artisan producers in other countries that are resourced
for our menus. 
Betsy
Titterington moved to Ellison Bay, WI with her husband Michael
Brecke in 2001. Her passion for the culinary world started in
Kansas City in the the mid 1990's when she left her career as
a running events director to go to The Culinary Institute of
America in Napa Valley for a 3 month foundation course in cooking.
Following that inspired experience she started an informal catering
company cooking for family & friends shortly followed by
founding and opening The Culinary Center of Kansas City. Betsy
and her co-partner restored a turn of the century buggy barn
into a state of the art kitchen, school and event space. After
moving to Door County she has been involved in a variety of
Culinary related jobs. She had a catering business called Door
to Door Catering, owned and ran Village Pizzeria along with
her husband and 2 step children, cooked the evening meals at
an adult folk art camp - The Clearing and now since it's opening
in 2004 she has found a wonderful "culinary fit" at The Savory
Spoon Cooking School and Marketplace in Ellison Bay. Since Savory
Spoon's move to it's current location in downtown Ellison Bay
she has been involved in the development and management of the
marketplace as well as teaching and assisting in the school.