Charles Hunter of The Salted Table
Even as COVID restrictions are loosening, University School of Nashville has stood by its decision to cut back a bit on its always popular roster of culinary classes as part of the annual Evening Classes offering. This is primarily because many of these classes have traditionally been hosted in volunteers’ homes, and when the year’s planning took place in the middle of the Omicron surge, not everyone was comfortable about inviting strangers into parents’ houses. Good for them for staying safe!
But USN did manage to arrange for at least a few culinary experiences, either hosted at restaurants or at the school at 2000 Edgehill Ave. Some of them have sold out already, but if you’re still game to learn, below are a few for your consideration.
The first is a Chocolate & Inclusions class taught by Evane Stoner and Kristy Fogle on Thursday, Feb. 24. Stoner is one of the founders of Poppy and Peep, a local chocolate company, and Fogle studied chocolate-making in France prior to her stint as chef de partie at JW Marriott and current chocolatier at Poppy and Peep.
During the class, the instructors will teach about how they source and make chocolate at their shop and lead a hands-on demo of how to make Mendiants, small disk-shaped dark chocolate treats topped with fruits and nuts. Even better, you’ll be able to take the demos home with you! Register here.
Charles Hunter of The Salted Table has been one of my favorite local chefs for a long time, and he has parlayed his talents and hard work into a career as a personal chef, recipe developer and culinary social media star. He even got a callout on the Today show earlier this month.
He’s teaching two classes for USN this year, starting with Cooking With Scraps on Monday, March 28. I don’t know about you, but a depressing amount of scraps from my kitchen end up in the trash, down the disposal or in the compost bucket. (It’s not my fault that you can’t buy just one stalk of celery!)
Hunter aims to help out with that problem by teaching students how to scavenge the crisper drawer for ingredients and inspiration and how to turn leftovers into something exciting and new. I’d go so far as to say that this class could pay for itself pretty quickly in the form of food you don’t waste. Register for that one here.
I’m such a big fan of Charles that I specifically chose him to help make me look good in a class we’re teaching together on Thursday, March 24. We’re calling it How to Turn Your Love of Food into a Side Hustle, and we’ll teach you the secrets of actually getting paid to cook and eat. (I know! I can’t believe they pay me either!)
We’ll share our personal stories of how we broke into the business and ended up with cookbooks on our résumés, thousands of Instagram followers and a life of traveling to cook and eat. I’ll lead students through some brief and fun writing exercises to help hone your food vocabulary. I’m guessing there might be some debate over the use of the word “moist.”
Charles will prepare two dishes that will not only send you home with some delicious food and the recipes, but will also teach you the proper way to develop an ingredients list and write cooking procedures, and how to style your food for the most click-attracting online photos.
Even if you never make a penny from your work in the kitchen, we promise it will be a fun look behind the door of a professional kitchen, so come join us. Register here.
