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10/31/2023 12:06 PMVolunteering has always been a part of Mary Amter’s life, and food was a fixture in that work. Even during her involvement with the Parent Teacher Organization or with toy drives, Mary enjoyed making cookies and chocolate-based snacks to give people a sweet treat. She has also taken her helping hands to the Community Dining Room in Branford and has recently brought her classes to Essex.
Bringing people together over food has now taken shape under her own leadership as the instructor of the shoreline-wide Mary’s Culinary Classes. Mary started the courses right as the coronavirus pandemic struck, but she kept the uniting spirit of cooking alive virtually.
“We started doing free virtual classes on Facebook. And we did that for over a year. So there’s over 100 free videos on there,” says Mary. “I love volunteering. When I started this, I wanted to make sure I kept that up because it’s just something that is close to my heart.”
Now, Mary has expanded her cooking classes for children and adults in East Haven, Madison, North Branford, Branford, Essex, and her hometown of Guilford. She’s even seen people from Milford and West Haven participate in her classes, which offer a variety of creative, savory, and sweet recipes. With the holiday season approaching, students across the shoreline will learn to cook Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed foods such as pumpkin fettuccine alfredo, reindeer cupcakes, and turkey pizza.
Among the people learning how to create and eventually consume these and many other creative recipes are young people from different cliques and “genres of life,” says Mary. At her culinary courses, kids with varying interests can put their trivial differences aside and learn a valuable skill that transcends those differences.
“You don’t have to be good at lacrosse to cook. You don’t have to be the star cheerleader, you don’t have to play the best instrument—everybody can do it,” says Mary.
By bringing kids of varying interests and hobbies together, Mary’s courses teach them important life lessons that cooking can help foster. They include teamwork and “working with people that you wouldn’t normally, you know, be friends with in school,” she says. “It’s not just because they’re not on the same team as you.”
The virtue of patience is another important lesson her students learn through cooking, and they also gain the confidence to create something with a supportive instructor behind them.
“The more you do anything, the more confident you’re gonna become,” Mary says. “I’m very encouraging in the classes, so I hope that that translates into them being confident.”
Their confidence has certainly translated to becoming more interested in making unique recipes of their own and enjoying new foods they may not have initially touched.
“Now they’re learning that they created it, which is good, and then also they’re trying different things that before they thought they didn’t like and they actually do,” says Mary.
Mary has seen her students become confident enough with their newfound culinary skills that they bring it home to their families to learn, as well. She remembers cooking a “creepy peppers” pasta dish in a springform pan that amazed the students with how well it turned out and then seeing their excitement about bringing it back home.
“They loved it; they all wanted more, which is the best part because then I send them home with a recipe, and I’m like, ‘You guys can make this for your family now.’” Mary says. “I always tell the parents if you cook the pasta ahead of time, the kids can do the rest of these steps on their own. They’ve done it in class.”
One of the other most exciting parts of Mary’s culinary classes is that they have become a family affair. Her husband Gregg and her daughter and grandmother assist her at her classes, and her sons help take care of “the technical aspect of things.”
“I’m so grateful for that because family...it’s the most important thing, and I love being around them and having that support,” says Mary.
To learn more about Mary’s Culinary Classes, registering for classes, and what’s on the menu in December, visit www.marysculinaryclassesllc.com.