Lessons in Cooking: Cramped quarters a recipe for comraderie

By JANET K. KEELER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 27, 2002

First in an ongoing series of reports on cooking classes in the Tampa Bay area.

[Times photos: Fred Victorin] Separating eggs for the first time is a laughing matter for Denver Stutler, right, getting advice from instructor Diane VanEpps, left, at a cooking class at Azalea Adult Recreation Center in St. Petersburg. Giggling along are Mary Cay Wood, second from left, Roland Milalik and Fred Lang.

ST. PETERSBURG -- The ceramics students at the Azalea Adult Recreation Center will tell you the cooking class next door sounds like a lot of fun. (Plus, sauteed garlic smells better than wet clay.)

Really, you'd think Ellen DeGeneres was the instructor, what with the belly laughs coming from the kitchen.

That's because instructor Diane VanEpps loves to laugh -- at herself, at our mistakes, at the nutmeg she forgot to bring for the Crab, Leek and Gorgonzola Bisque. All this laughing is contagious, and before we know it, we've forgotten the frustration of having to root around for mixing bowls, measuring spoons and green onions.

The facilities and equipment at the rec center are more high school home economics than Culinary Institute of America.

The stove is temperamental. The knives are not the sharpest, and if the huge orange Gatorade container teetering atop the cabinets doesn't kill us, the claustrophobia might. Ten students plus the teacher work apron-to-apron in the tiniest of spaces.

Now, you're cooking Classes are springing up in the Tampa Bay area and nationwide as we get burned out on takeout and pumped up by the TV Food Network.

Still, there are valuable lessons to be learned here for both novice and seasoned cooks.

When I took the four-week series that began in January, I was reminded of something I often forget when obligations crowd my day: Cooking is fun. It's especially pleasurable when working with friendly people who enjoy the camaraderie as much as learning how to make eggrolls.

"On the first night everyone is kind of shy," says VanEpps, whose "Dinners to Die" For Inc. provides personal chef and catering services. "By the second night, it's like they've been together for years."

She's high on a low-stress experience and hopes students come away from her classes with knowledge of gadgets and techniques, plus learning about new stores at which to buy ingredients.

The Azalea class, like others at public facilities, is good value for the money. St. Petersburg residents pay $53 for the four-week course, which includes the $5.25 per class food fee. For noncity residents the total is $72.20, including the food fee.

That bigger price doesn't stop Denver Stutler, 58, of Tampa from traveling across the bay to learn how to separate eggs, peel garlic and devein shrimp. Stutler, a commercial real estate salesman who also owns a hauling company, vowed that he would learn to cook in 2002. VanEpps' classes are just the first step in his journey toward culinary achievement. He enjoyed the first series so much he signed up for the next, and in March he will take a six-week basic skills class at Apron's Cooking School at Publix on Gunn Highway in Hillsborough County's Citrus Park.

"I'm a beginner, and the class is great for me because it's handson," he says. "You actually get to do things like chopping and mincing. I didn't even know what those words meant two months ago."

Stutler isn't VanEpps' first repeat student. Fred Lang, 66, a winter resident of Redington Shores from Ontario, has taken four classes at Azalea. When Lang retired as a vice president of Jim Beam's Alberta Distillery, he took up cooking at the prodding of his wife. She cooked for the family for 40 years; now it's his turn.

Lang is an accomplished cook but says he still comes away from VanEpps' classes with useful tips.

Besides bringing her engaging personality and culinary acumen to the classes, VanEpps is confident enough to let her students set the menus.

"What do you want to make next week?" she asks at the end of each two-hour class. Her democratic approach leads us to an incongruous menu of Olive Garden's Toscana Soup, burritos and baklava. No matter, we eat up every bit.

On our last night, we make Roasted Pear and Beet Salad with Watercress and Blue Cheese, Essence of Emeril Crab Cakes and miniversions of Joe's Stone Crab Key Lime Pie. We can hardly congratulate ourselves enough. The fabulous food is a fitting way to say good-bye . . . until we cook (maybe together) again.

-- For more information about cooking classes at Azalea Adult Recreation Center, 72nd St. N, St. Petersburg, call (727) 893-7150.

After class, dinner is served and students give thumbs up or thumbs down on the evening’s creations.

- Diane VanEpps, who also teaches classes at Capa Italian Deli in Largo, can be reached at (727) 584-0473. Capa's number is (727) 518-6222. Check city recreation departments in your area for cooking class opportunities.

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