St. Martin’s cooking classes give Houston chefs, budding culinary stars a chance to learn together

All talent concentrations are welcome. Immediately after the lesson, the group will appreciate their kitchen area creations and assemble with the chef for a food.

Cuclis focuses on Greek food. For the class, she will make chicken stifado, a stew she prepares with tomatoes and carob powder. A seasonal salad and pita stuffed with cheese are also on the menu.

The sequence is the brainchild of the Rev. Dr. Russell Jones Levenson Jr., rector at St. Martin’s.

He was inspired by a cooking class he took with his wife Laura Levenson at Sur La Table, as properly as by his friendship with expert cooks.

Couple that with his desire in presenting a large wide range of functions for the congregation — and his interest in fully applying room on campus — and the strategy for cooking lessons was born.

“We have these two good industrial kitchens with every little thing you could probably want,” Levenson mentioned.

The month-to-month lessons at St. Martin’s premiered in the slide, and every single has been led by a qualified chef.

Cuclis introduced in September and January. For previous functions, she ready chicken souvlaki and keftedes, or Greek meatballs with new herbs, food items from her family’s region of origin. She also led participants in whipping up orzo and flatbread.

“I appreciate doing cooking classes,” she explained. “It’s fun to display individuals strategies they may possibly not know or making an attempt flavors that may possibly be new. I was incredibly happy to do it.”

In Oct, Kate McLean, government chef at Tony’s, instructed 14 college students in getting ready roasted branzino. “Everyone experienced to clear a fish and put together it,” she stated.

Just after cooking the dish, the team headed exterior for an al fresco supper.

“We all sat down at a desk and liked a meal alongside one another,” McLean reported. “It was a fun night time.”

She jumped at the prospect to educate the hands-on workshop, even however a cooking course at a church was a new principle to her.

“I experienced in no way listened to of it before, but it does make perception,” she explained. “Cooking and feeding people is these a huge element of non secular existence.”

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Chef Julio Flores, who serves as food director at St. Martin’s, also led the training course in November and February. He reported that the courses will be provided once again in the tumble.

At Flores’ very last function, individuals learned to get ready rooster cordon bleu.

“I taught them how to pound the breast of the rooster and make it flat, place in the ham and cheese, bread it and fry it,” Flores claimed.

For dessert, he geared up bananas foster. Afterward, a number of learners advised him it was the most effective they at any time had.

“There was some particular pride for me,” Flores stated.

Persons are previously becoming regulars at the cooking classes, he extra.

“We provide everything — the applications, the aprons,” Flores stated. “They really do not have to bring just about anything. Just be completely ready to cook.”

Flores runs a cafe on campus, serving lunch Monday by way of Thursday, total with salad bar, soup, baked potatoes, wraps and very hot meals.

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“People from all over the neighborhood occur,” Levenson stated.

He envisioned achieving out to people very same foodie neighbors — for a whole various practical experience at church.

Levenson stated he is guided by Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

“It’s a reminder to me that there are all kinds of techniques we can encounter the appreciate of God,” he stated. “One of individuals is foodstuff, sharing a table and acquiring a very good time.”

He compares the kitchen to the gardens on St. Martin’s grounds.

“Those are, in quite a few ways, living chapels — and they’re open all of the time, with areas to sit, meditate and pray,” Levenson stated. “The kitchen is just a distinct type of chapel.”

The courses offer an chance for fellowship, the rector claimed.

“People hunger to be collectively,” he mentioned. “What superior way to do that?”

In addition, the cooking class is an evangelical tool.

“People are on campus, walking into the kitchen area, and they may possibly say, ‘Tell me a little bit about what else goes on listed here?” Levenson explained. “Hopefully, they will want to occur back.”

He thinks a equivalent phenomenon is at operate in Sterling’s Industry, held each and every Saturday on campus. More than 40 suppliers set up for the market place at 717 Sage Highway. “It’s everything from tub bombs to pasta to cutting boards, refreshing vegetables and incredibly hot sauce,” Levenson said.

A meals truck and a musician are often included to the combine.

“It’s comprehensive of daily life and men and women from our neighborhood,” Levenson explained. “It’s an more way to get individuals on campus, an opportunity to join outside the house of worship.”

The industry is named for the late Sterling Reckling, who died in February 2021.

Reckling begun St. Hubertus, a dog foodstuff and treats enterprise. He sold his product or service in marketplaces about the state and 1st recommended the notion to Levenson all through COVID saying, “Have y’all ever considered an open-air marketplace?”

Levenson reported the market place, which started out in September 2021, brings folks together to share in God’s glory, as they working experience fellowship in the church parking large amount. The identical is real of the cooking lessons.

“You’re on holy floor,” he claimed.

And, Levenson extra, God is not minimal to keeping within church walls. His existence can be felt at the outside sector — and even in a cooking class.

“You do not need to have a prayer ebook in hand,” he claimed.