Cooking with a Flair
Every Thursday night a group of local folks meet in a second floor classroom at J. Taylor Finley Middle School for one of the most interesting and popular courses on the Huntington School District’s adult education schedule. “Cooking with a Flair” has become a raging success as current and former students continue to recommend it to their friends and relatives.
“Each week we prepare, present and enjoy a different meal,” instructor John Gurrieri said. “We focus on traditional Southern Italian (Sicilian) dishes and expand to a New Orleans style meal for our final class. Each student receives a copy of my cookbook, ‘Simplyicious’. This cookbook includes all the recipes for the course plus some personal anecdotes about cooking and me. The students also have been able to see some of their accomplishments on my website Simplyicious.com.”
The course is hands-on and requires the active participation of students. “They do the actual preparing, cutting and dicing,” Mr. Gurrieri explained. “They also cook the meal while receiving hints and techniques on how I do it. Throughout each session there is also a detailed lecture on how to cook the meal. The students are also able to have a continuous question and answer session with me.”
Mr. Gurrieri said he has two “favorite parts” to the class. “The first is when the students talk about previous meals that we have made in class, which they later prepared for their friends and family and how much it was enjoyed. The second is at the end of every class seeing the smiles on their faces and them telling me how much they enjoyed the meal. They have all said they were planning on making it again themselves.”
The beauty of the course is that it shows how just about anyone can be a successful cook. “These are simple recipes that produce delicious results,” Mr. Gurrieri said. “Several students have even compared our meals to the food served in several restaurants in the area.” Mr. Gurrieri said the class can be summed up in one word: “Simplyicious!”
For more information contact Kenneth A Card, Jr. at adulted@hufsd.edu or 673-2010. Dr. Card directs the adult and continuing education program and is looking to add courses and build community participation.
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