Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Get Stuffed

Back to School

New opportunities mean a return to the old ways for one teaching chef

Back in the Big Apple – the city that never sleeps – Chef Lauren Piper rarely slept. For 10 years she had a successful catering business that served New York and Connecticut, and she spent countless hours in the kitchen putting appetizers and meals together for discerning clients.

If you do anything long enough, you tend to have your fill. The hours were long, the job was difficult, and after a while it started to get repetitive. The opportunity for creativity and innovation that attracted her to the chef business in the first place began to wear off.

An avid skier and lover of the mountains, Piper made the move to Whistler three years ago. She wanted to get back into the food industry in some capacity, preferably not in catering.

Last winter she opened up the Whistler Cooking School, modelled after other famous cooking schools in Vail and New York. Anyone can sign up for a course led by a famous, or at least well-known, chef, and take part in preparing a multi-course gourmet meal.

The chef tells stories, opens bottles of wine, and walks the class through the preparation of the meal. Everyone takes part, either making the meal themselves or contributing a course. When everything’s ready, the class sits down to a candlelight dinner and socializes over a meal that they helped to prepare.

Everything was going fine until this spring when an opportunity came about that was too good to pass up –Richard Auer of the Grass Roots Café, which is located in the same building as the cooking school was putting the café up for sale, and taking the summer off to cook at a fishing lodge and play around on his paraglider.

"We (Piper and her husband) heard Grass Roots was for sale and we loved the place and thought that it was a great business that could coexist with this one," says Piper. "We started out by wanting to do more takeout gourmet stuff and having Grass Roots was a good place to do that.

"That’s how it all started. I really didn’t realize that they did as much catering as they do, and since we took over the business two weeks ago, the phone has just been ringing off the hook."

Not that she really minds – "There are times when you miss it, and times when you don’t."

The small kitchen of Grass Roots made it difficult to put together large catering jobs, but now Piper can use the space in the cooking school to put everything together. Conversely, one of the cooking school’s businesses is selling takeout gourmet food to the general public – more people come into Grass Roots on a daily basis looking for food, and the location is far better for attracting foot traffic in the village.

"The two places together make everything work that much better," says Piper. "Initially we heard it was going up for sale and we spent a few months thinking about it. (Auer) wanted to go on vacation and get out of here, so it just had to get done."

Now, with the summer here, school out and the shoulder season officially over Piper has her hands full with the cooking school, gourmet takeout, Grass Roots’ day to day operations and a thriving catering business she never knew existed.

"Am I overwhelmed? No, but after a little while I will be looking forward to October and a vacation somewhere."

The cooking school has started to take off, attracting corporate groups and private parties that are looking for a different kind of dining experience. She has already attracted some of the top chefs and cookbook authors from Vancouver and Seattle.

Past and future chefs include California’s John Ash, the culinary director of Fetzer Vineyards and the author of From the Earth to the Table: John Ash’s Wine Country Cuisine; Greg Atkinson, the executive chef of the Canlis Restaurant in Seattle and the author of several cookbooks including Northwest Essentials Cookbook . Matt Costello, the executive chef of the Dahlia Lounge – Zagat’s highest rated restaurant in Seattle – is also a regular instructor. Chef Nick Musser of Seattle’s Icon Grill, another Seattle favourite, also spends time at the school.

From Whistler, executive chef Brock Windsor of the Bearfoot Bistro is a regular feature, but a rarity all the same.

"It’s harder to get chefs from Whistler than it is to bring someone in from Seattle, especially on a Saturday night," Piper says. "They’re all too busy. My season starts the same time as theirs, when it slows down they’re either away or we don’t have enough people to run a class. Hopefully we’ll get co-ordinated after a while, and we can start to feature more Whistler Chef’s."

Piper attributes the growth in popularity of her cooking school and others of its kind to the same growing interest in cookbooks and cooking shows – the Food Network is one of the most popular extended cable channels going.

Through initiatives like the international slow food movement, and with the new generation of chefs concentrating more and more on traditional cooking and utilizing organic and regional foods, people are starting to more of an interest in their food.

"One of the cooking school owners that I talk to a lot describes cooking as ‘the new golf’ and I think that might be true. People are getting into it. They like doing it and watching it. I put a TV in my shop so we can watch the Food Network while we work," jokes Piper.

"We get a lot of people in here who watch that network all the time, and it’s funny but half of them are men. Men also seem to be the most interested, which is kind of funny because some of them haven’t cooked in 20 years. They’re eager to learn though – most of them find it fascinating as well as a lot of fun."

The Saturday night sessions will continue through the summer, and during the week the school will host regular features. Wednesdays will showcase Asian cuisine, including introductory sushi classes and Thai food.

Thursdays are reserved for a grilling series, with classes like "Where’s the Beef," "Island Barbecue" and "Secrets of the Rib Cookery."

On Fridays, the courses will alternate between authentic Mexican and vegetarian meals.

Room is available for most courses, although many classes do fill up. It’s gratifying for Piper, who wasn’t sure whether a cooking school would be successful in Whistler.

"Really it’s just getting people in once to try it, and they come back and spread the word," says Piper. "It’s been great, and the Web site has been really helpful in bringing people in and raising awareness."

Chef Richard Auer will be back in Whistler, and will help out with catering jobs during the busy winter months, which will allow Piper to spend more time with the cooking school. And less time catering.

You can visit the Web site at www.whistlercookingschool.com.