Our courses are intended for the home cook or any cook that is looking to add to his or her own knowledge of plant based, whole foods cooking with the added bonus of learning to be able to cook like a chef, utilizing ones own intuitive senses. The Basic series of classes are based on The School of Natural Cookery’s (Boulder,CO) trademark Intuitive Cooking teachings and are offered in several packages.
Organic, sustainable and local foods are used exclusively (whenever possible) and have been a mainstay in Wendy’s cooking life for the last 25 years. Personal experience, an insatiable desire to learn and a passion for all things “food and health ” have led to associations with group organic foods “buying clubs”, local coop memberships, raw food, CSA shareholds, Slow Food membership, Traditional Foods membership, working as a Kitchen Window events food assistant, food equity charitable donations, MN Herb Society affiliation, The School of Natural Cookery in Boulder and the use of superfoods to enhance health and energy. At the heart of our cooking school is our goal to make your cooking and eating experience as health-giving and enjoyable as possible through the utilization of the best nutritionally dense foods available to us.
In the News
Bold Cooking in Boulder
By Laurel Kallenbach
Experience Life / July/August 2011
A fitness and food capital at the foot of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Boulder is a town where café diners clad in bike shorts and helmets regularly nosh on free-range buffalo burgers and organic heirloom tomatoes with local goat cheese.
That health-conscious vibe was a natural fit for Wendy Pilhofer, 61, a Minnesota-based TV-commercial location scout, who enrolled in a weeklong vegan, whole-foods class at Boulder’s School of Natural Cookery in the spring of 2010. After an additional extended training session, Pilhofer is now a certified instructor of the Main Course classes at the school’s Minneapolis location.
Held in a sunny house surrounded by vegetable gardens, the Boulder school has the easygoing energy typical of this mountain town. Students eat meals outside and take walks on nearby paths during breaks. The courses teach them to cook intuitively, rather than depending on recipes. “I learned to trust my senses when deciding what ingredients to blend,” says Pilhofer. “The herb and spice bottles aren’t even labeled; you taste your dish, smell the spices, and decide what works.”
In the Main Course class, Pilhofer learned how to properly pressure- cook beans, utilize baking ratios, and cook with vegetable proteins like tofu and seitan. Plus, she picked up some handy Japanese knife skills. “Our schedule was jam-packed, but there was still time for browsing the mostly organic farmers’ market and for hiking in Chautauqua Park,” she says. “With so many bike paths, parks and trails, Boulder’s great for getting out and about. I laced up my hiking boots before or after each day’s class.”
Pilhofer’s favorite new skill: creating healthy meals from a well-stocked fridge and pantry. “I can now improvise wholesome — and very tasty — soups, whole-grain and bean dishes, and cookies, if I do say so myself.”