Specialty cooking

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 28

Specialty cooking

Such was the interest in the Microwave Cooking School run by Microwave Specialists that when Kitchen Appliance Specialists was formed it was decided to enlarge the classes beyond microwave cooking to specialty cooking classes.

The director of the Christchurch Cooking Academy, Deb Crosby, said that for some years they had received repeated requests for more cooking classes.

“Not so much from people wanting to be Cordon Bleu chefs but from a wide cross-section who were just looking for ways of adding a bit of variety and excitement to their cooking. “Not until recently have New Zealanders really started to experiment. For a long time many households would stick to a set repertoire of meals which would be repeated week after week.

“Now, however, there is a much greater awareness of food in our society and peole are learning how easy it is to vary their diets and meals. “We don’t have to have red meat every day of the week, there are many options,” she said. As well as showing people how to be more creative, the classes also show participants how they can save money and time when preparing certain dishes and different styles of meals. “Learning how to bone out a chicken can save a substantial amount of money because of the cost of fillet chicken.” For the cooking classes Kitchen Appliance Specialists has two magnificent demonstration rooms on the first floor of the two-floor complex and a staff of six cooking tutors to take the classes.

Deb Crosby, the director of the Christchurch Cooking Academy, founded Microwave Specialists in 1983 with Jon Mells. . She had a

background of Home Science at Otago followed by a year at teachers college before taking up a teaching position at Birkdale College in Auckland where she took home economics and clothing. During this time she also taught at night school.

After Auckland she was a cooking tutor in Wellington for six months before moving to Christchurch to establish Microwave Specialists. Glennys Raffills has written two cook books; Mary Harris was trained in England and has been a cooking tutor for four years; Jann Pasco was a dietician for eight years, and has been teaching for the last five years; Trudy Boult was a demonstrator for Toshiba before joining Microwave Specialists five years ago; and Pauline Maclaren has been a demonstrator for both Sharp and Amana and a tutor here for four years.

“Our courses are designed for gourmets, bachelors, entertaining on tight budgets and children, with microwave classes for those under 12 and over 12.” Classes are held both

during the day and in the evening with several due to be run between now and Christmas. These include:

© Time For A Party: This is spread over four lessons and covers champagne breakfast, barbecues, cocktail parties and suppers. All different aspects of these sections are covered so they can be economic both in time and money. ® Christmas Day Made Easy: Traditional and modern day Christmas cooking including the making of gifts and other small treats — three lessons.

© Seafood Course: Two lessons.

There is a limit of 40 people to each class with all lessons priced at $12.50 each. People interested should ring 790-360 now and book. Microwave classes are still free to purchasers of microwave ovens. The fee for microwave classes has been lowered to $44 for four classes while the comlete package of eight lessons covering beginners and advanced lessons is $75.