Unlike many newlyweds who honeymoon in a tropical locale, Alex and Carly Salinas spent their post-wedding days close to home — stirring tomato sauce, stretching pasta dough, and stuffing tortellini at The Local Epicurean, a gourmet food emporium and cooking school in the Eastown district of Grand Rapids.
With a traveling honeymoon planned later, the couple jumped at the chance to participate in a private, hands-on cooking class, courtesy of a gift certificate they received at their wedding a few days before.
“It was so much fun and our chef, Fumi, was so welcoming,” recalls Carly, a supply chain manager at Steelcase in Grand Rapids and a self-described novice cook.
For starters, she and Alex tied on red aprons and sipped staff-prepared cucumber martinis as they began chopping tomatoes and kneading pasta dough at the back of the shop, surrounded by hanging salamis, baguettes, and gourmet goodies of all kinds.
“It was a great ‘date night,’ ” Carly says of the interactive cooking experience. “We did the Sicilian Scampi class and made a three-course meal that included a burrata caprese salad, which we now make at home all the time. We made a tomato basil sauce and handmade tortellini, and finished with a lemon basil gelato. It was all so good, and we got some great cooking tips!”
Alex, a high school athletic trainer and injury prevention specialist, does much of the cooking at home. His go-tos are often Mexican fare and America’s Test Kitchen recipes. He was pumped to make pasta from scratch for the first time, he says, and credits the class with improving his knife skills and boosting his confidence in the kitchen.
“We’ve cooked more adventurously since then,” he says, adding that he and Carly immediately used the discount extended by The Local Epicurean to graduates to buy a gift certificate for their next class. They chose the three-course Diver Scallops dinner, featuring pan-seared lemon scallops atop scissor noodles and spinach cream sauce, lemon goat cheese wedge salad, and house-made lemon mint gelato.
The couple also bought gourmet gifts for friends and family after browsing the shop’s wide assortment of sauces, wines, cheeses, oils, vinegars (notably a 25-year-old balsamic vinegar that stars in the school’s burrata caprese salad), and more than 120 handmade artisanal pastas, seasonally rotated and in myriad shapes and sizes.
Depending on the time of year, the fresh, dry pastas may include portobello or parmesan egg noodles; pumpkin chipotle pappardelle; mezzaluna, a stuffed crescent-shaped pasta with sealed, curved edges; a big, round tube pasta called paccheri; and a striped pasta that made a spring debut in the store. They make everything the old-fashioned way — every single noodle is cut by hand.
Ryan Raredon and his partner launched The Local Epicurean nearly 11 years ago. They began by selling fresh pasta at local farmers markets. “No one was making pasta when we started,” Raredon says, “and we soon learned why — it’s very labor-intensive, truly a labor of love.”
The demand was so great, he recalls, that they soon opened a storefront and grew over the decade to their current 20-employee shop and cooking school, which is open seven days per week and boasts more than 30,000 graduates. “The joke is that (I) had been in the concrete business, so had some mixing experience,” Raredon says.
The big news is that The Local Epicurean is now starting to offer franchise opportunities; the first franchisee is expected to open in East Lansing in late summer or early fall.
Fumi Kamarake, one of the school’s popular instructors, joined the team three years ago, after making a big impression on Raredon during a chance encounter at the shop. It’s a tale reminiscent of the classic Hollywood legend of how actress Lana Turner was discovered at the Schwab’s drugstore soda counter.
“She was in here shopping and we got into a conversation about black garlic,” Raredon says of Kamarake. “She’s definitely a foodie. She showed me some pictures of what she’d made and I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, you should come here and cook with us!’”
These days, he adds, Fumi is a customer favorite with many repeat students, and epitomizes the cooking school’s philosophy.
“Cooking is fun, it brings people together,” he says. “We want all our classes to be approachable for everyone, whatever their cooking skills might be. We see many people who have never cooked anything before, especially the guys coming into class.
“We showcase a lot of techniques and recipes, but that’s not the primary experience. It’s more about coming together, talking about food, and (sharing) food stories — the origins of food,” he adds. “Our goal is to make it fun and enjoyable, and less technical than maybe a more traditional cooking school would offer.”
Private two-hour classes start at $99 per person for two to 10 participants. Students choose their three-course menu from 18 selections, each of which is available any time of day. Up to 40 students can participate in team-building exercises or custom experiences such as showers and bachelorette parties.
Plan It!
The Local Epicurean
thelocalepicurean.com
Facebook Comments