People who like to cook will love living here.
A community of fine chefs who also teach class have gravitated to our area, as well as specialty grocers, farmers markets and cooking venues.
Manatee County boasts one of just four Publix Supermarkets in Florida that have an Apron's Cooking School with guest celebrity chefs, such as Joan Nathan, Paul Prudhomme and Sheila Lukins. Giuliano Hazan, cookbook author named 2007 Cooking Teacher by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, regularly teaches at Apron's. He teaches as well in Tuscany and at Casa Italia, an Italian-Indian grocery in Sarasota, where he lives with his wife and daughters.
Indian cooking is also taught at Casa Italia by owners Raj and Nita Mathur.
Publix Apron's Cooking School features award-winning owner-chefs of area restaurants who prepare their signature dishes. The school offers classes in basic and intermediate knife skills, techniques and specialty items such as gingerbread houses.
Paul Mattison, chef-owner of four restaurants in Manatee and Sarasota counties, offers cooking demonstrations in his restaurants. A recent offering was a fall menu of pumpkin soup served in a mini-pumpkin shell, pan-seared skate with lemon-caper butter, Parmesan grits and roasted beets, and a plum Tarte Tatin. Mattison's Riverside also regularly gives sushi class with chef Neal Carter.
Ritz-Carlton Sarasota has a large staff of chefs who give cooking demonstrations at the hotel. Last month, the class schedule included stone crab dishes with Chef Greg Howe, and another on winter squash preparation with Chef Fredric Morineau.
The Chef's Table in University Park, a culinary equipment shop, also has a full demonstration kitchen and dining tables. Events there include demonstrating international dishes, such as a French Bistro menu or Moroccan dishes, as well as classes for children and teens.
Meal preparation franchises also help with cooking skills, although the ingredients are sliced, chopped or otherwise prepped for you. Let's Eat, located in East Manatee, and Thyme for Dinner in Northwest Bradenton each operate a little differently, but basically clients choose from a menu selection and go to the commercial kitchen to prepare food for their families. The meal preparation centers are a great way to prepare dishes for allergic family members, picky eaters, busy cooks, or to get together with friends or other cooks.
Many chefs from local restaurants, such as Phil Mancini and Michael Klauber of Michael's on East, or Tommy Klauber of Pattigeorge's, regularly donate their cooking talents to give demonstrations at charity events. The Herald regularly runs notices of cooking demonstrations, wine tastings and pairings, cooking classes and other items of interest in our Culinary Calendar published Wednesdays in our Taste section.
