Learn to be a Chef at Portland’s Culinary Workshop

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Amelie Rousseau, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Portland’s Culinary Workshop is on a mission to turn all of Portland into chefs.

Owners Melinda Casady and Susanna Holloway met while teaching at Le Cordon Bleu.

“We were separated at birth,” says Casady of her friendship with Holloway. The dynamic duo tabled every street fair and food event in town, building a following before they moved into their NoPo location on Russell St. Now in its fourth year, business is booming.

What if you’ve been cooking dinner parties for years, and you’re worried about sharing counter space with someone who doesn’t even know how to boil water? All Portland’s Culinary Workshop instructors have taught in professional culinary schools, and thus have become expert at teaching to all skill levels at once.

Covering basic techniques first, each class also includes the chemistry of how ingredients come together. Casady explained, “We have people who have taken 30 classes from us.”

Need an engaging and healthy activity for your kids? Portland’s Culinary Workshop welcomes families and children. Child participants are encouraged at almost every regular cooking class, with a $20 discount thrown in.

“Cooking is a life skill. We teach them the same information that we teach adults,” said Casady. Every Saturday afternoon is the kids-only cooking class, while family cooking classes for all ages are periodically offered for groups of six. This spring break kids can make their favorite sweets during a weeklong pastry camp for both elementary and high schoolers.

This summer will bring another pastry camp as well as a general culinary skills camp. “We build on what they learn each day. Last year we learned about knives and different cutting methods. The mirepoix they cut was used in the soup stock for the next day.”

As if all those programs weren’t enough, Casady and Holloway are planning a culinary food tour to Spain in October. The trip features three cooking classes, a visit with a manchego cheese producer, a flamenco show, a castle stay, three gourmet dinners and plenty of cultural sightseeing.

Classes are filling up quickly, and a month in advance reservation is recommended. Visit portlandsculinaryworkshop.com or call 503-512-0447.

An urban farmer and master gardener, Amélie Rousseau writes for fellow explorers and eaters of the plant kingdom. It's a jungle out there.

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