Overview
The Seasonal School of Culinary Arts offers week-long hands-on immersion in a variety of culinary experiences designed to awaken and broaden the palate, lead you closer to the source of the food you prepare, and provide you with a panoply of skills that will help you celebrate the ordinary in extraordinary fashion.
Our Mission
To inspire a new--and encourage an older--generation of home chefs and professionals to gather food consciously, treat it with skill and respect, and share it with passion, furthering the notion that the most important moments we spend are those partaken with friends and family around the table.
Our Chefs
Chefs are messengers, teachers, artists, gatekeepers, with the power to make a difference in the world through educating the tastes of those they feed. The Seasonal School of Culinary Arts unites a multitude of chefs and beverage experts, each one with a different yet common approach to feeding the body and soul. You will be as infused with the enthusiasm of these chefs as you are with the wealth of recipes and culinary tips they will pass on to you as you work side by side. The spring, summer, autumn and winter weeks will be hosted by numerous experts in the wine, produce, and cuisine of each unique region.
Our Locations
This year, as we celebrate 20 years of making a difference, we are delighted to announce that we will be centering our summer session at Highland Lake, with our hands-on and dining segments to be held on the welcoming wrap-around porch of Treska’s Café, with its old-world European feel enfolded in the magic of the mountains with mist wafting up from the lake and an organic garden nearby. Register or see our schedule.
Ithaca, Sonoma and Paris (ah! Paris!) are all known for their wondrous wines and cuisines, each with its own very different terroir. These sessions are held upon demand, and sell out once a comfortable number is reached. This year we will be adding Portland, New Orleans and Provence to the list of options for culinary travels. Reserve early to save your spot!
You
The most important ingredient of all is you! In choosing to participate in a week (or multiple weeks) of gastronomical exploration, you will be adding to the well-being of our planet. Food is a universal language and, in the words of Vandana Shiva, "the highest karma is the producing of food in abundance and the giving of food in generosity". May we all help nourish the future!
Asheville
Consistently voted one of the top ten places in the world to live, Asheville boasts more than 140 specialty restaurants, myriad farmers' markets, and a burgeoning art scene to rival any in New York or Paris, without the traffic challenges. At 3000 feet, surrounded by the spectacular Blue Ridge, it is cool in summer, wonderful in winter, and at all times an amazing place to visit.
Ithaca
The Finger Lakes region of New York is swiftly becoming one of THE places to be if food and wine and farming is your passion. With more than 90 wineries flanking the shores of glacially-carved lakes, and the delightfully quaint college town of Ithaca which has more restaurants per capita than New York City, if you haven't yet discovered this pocket of the country, it's time you joined us. And if you have, and just want more of a good thing in the company of other enthusiasts during the height of fall coloring, you're on the right track as well!
Sonoma
Ah, Sonoma! The rolling hills which range from reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands to redolent of the South of France...only footsteps away from San Francisco, through a corridor of redwoods, there are wines, cheeses, oysters, and olives a-plenty, all cultivated in the space of one of the most diverse counties on the globe.
Wine lovers who have already discovered Napa or who seek a more personal introduction to California's wines must visit the richness of Sonoma's terroirs before their time is up. We'll explore vineyards, creameries, markets, and oyster farms, and we'll enter wine-makers' domains, indulge in hands-on sessions with local chefs, savor pinot until we can tell the difference between grapes grown on the coast and those grown further inland, and marvel at all this country has to offer if only we are ready to taste!
Paris
Paris at any time of year is magic. In June, the poppies are in full blossom, silhouetted against fields of wheat from which the baguettes whose fragrance reels you in at every street corner are fashioned. Come join us for 4 days of discovery, with market strolls, wine tastings, hands-on culinary sessions, bistro jaunts, and exploration of one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, with a token expedition into the countryside as well.
To register for any of the above sessions, please contact Susi at sgseguret@gmail.com.