Georgia Magazine - September 2019 - 54

GEORGIA Cooks

By Laura Raines

Class in session
Sharpen your culinary skills
in a cooking class

SUR LA TABLE

DARIN SEHNERT

hen it comes to culinary classes,
Georgia offers a veritable buffet-from
down-home to gourmet, basic to advanced and regional to international. People come
to them for different reasons: to learn the basics, to
advance their skills, to be more adept at entertaining or just to have fun in the kitchen with family and
friends.
"Everyone has to eat," says Chef Darin Sehnert, founder of
Chef Darin's Kitchen Table, chefdarin.com, in Savannah. "And
you can eat more cheaply and better at home if you understand
what you are doing and why you are doing it. So why not improve and enhance your skills?"
Sehnert teaches students how to make low-country favorites like shrimp and grits as well as how to cook Italian, Thai
and French dishes in his fully equipped kitchen at the back of
his kitchen store.
"I focus on understanding the equipment, the ingredients
and the techniques," he says. "We all cook, learn, laugh and eat
together. More than a great meal, I want to give them a great

Students learn to make watercress and aspargus pizza at Sur La Table in Atlanta.
Sur La Table offers multiple baking and cooking classes each week.

Georgia Magazine

September 2019

time. I want them to leave not being afraid to get in
the kitchen and try things, to be inquisitive."
Young working friends kept telling Chef Jake
Rothschild that they didn't have time to cook and
were tired of delivery. They begged him to open a
restaurant. Instead, he opened The Cooking School
at Irwin Street, irwinstreetcooks.com, in Atlanta in
2011, believing in the old adage that it's better to
teach a man to fish than to give him one.
"Cooking is entertainment. It's about enjoying
the food and one another," Rothschild says.
He says he loves teaching how to make Southern comfort foods-fried or baked chicken, collard
greens, corn on the cob-in a healthy way. In his
classes, whole families get involved in making pasta
and meatballs from scratch and get to re-create the
spaghetti-strand scene from the classic Disney movie
"Lady and the Tramp."
"Everyone gets involved. They put down their
phones and talk to each other. Preparing food breaks
the ice. My mission is to build bridges, and I love seeing the joy on their faces," he says.
"Often people don't know each other when they
start a class here, but by the time they leave they're
like family," says Lindy Singleton, culinary studio
chef and food and beverage coordinator at Château
Élan Winery & Resort, bit.ly/chatelancook, in Braselton. "They're taking pictures together, exchanging
phone numbers, making plans. It's amazing how
close people get when they cook together."
Château Élan chefs teach corporate and private
groups in their culinary studio on the second floor of
the winery.

http://www.chefdarin.com http://www.irwinstreetcooks.com http://www.bit.ly/chatelancook

Georgia Magazine - September 2019

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