Renoites’ search for cooking schools of yore.
We’re bombarded daily by videos showing how to prepare food. Through television, YouTube, and endless online posts, we can learn how to tackle basics such as boiling eggs, elaborate preparations such as crème brûlée, or exotic dishes such as chicken jalfrezi. Food-preparation tips are right at our fingertips.
Before the explosion of telecommunications and digital media, culinary education was scarce in Northern Nevada. At the beginning of the 1900s, Nevada State University (which eventually became the University of Nevada, Reno) trained women in food preparation. The Century Club offered a series of culinary classes for members. But cooking schools with hands-on classes were almost 100 years away.
Cooking Demos Hype New Gadgets
Cooking demonstrations were the trend for most of the last century. In the early 1900s, Miss Suzanne Tracey made the circuit from Tonopah to the Century Club in Reno, offering a series of what she called “lectures/cooking classes.” There was an ulterior motive to this and countless other similar presentations: They doubled as promotions for the latest appliances. First up were classes hyping gas ranges, sponsored by Reno Power, Light & Water Co. Attendees witnessed preparation of baking powder biscuits, Welsh rarebit, and cheese soufflé and were told, “Send your maid if you cannot come yourself.”
Miss Tracey was part of a string of demonstration cooks, including Miss Stanland, Miss Galvin, Mrs. Gardner, and Mrs. Trombly. The classes were free and women filled auditoriums, drawn by the social occasion, the chance to learn new recipes, and the opportunity to hear about the latest kitchen innovations. By 1924, electric stoves were the exciting new kitchen addition, and an article in the Nevada State Journal stated, “Dozens of the fine cars parked outside proclaim the fact that it was drawing the ‘carriage trade’ as well as the woman who rolls her own rolling pin.”
The progression of gadgets, appliances, and new food items continued. Homemakers learned about pressure cookers, modern sinks, Crisco, Magic Chef Oven, and more. These sessions were sponsored by the products’ manufacturers or by local stores. Local media sources such as newspapers and, later, radio became sponsors. Nevada State Journal hosted a cooking school in 1939, for which 1,000 women packed into the Granada Theater. Microwaves landed in the mid-1970s, creating a whole new market for consumer-driven cooking demonstrations. In Reno, the “free winter cooking school,” held in January 1982 for the Radarange microwave, was co-sponsored by Amana and Broili’s (started in 1910 as Nevada Machinery & Electric Company, a pioneering electrical company and operated by the Broili family until 1983).
Radio and television brought virtual cooking shows into people’s homes, a trend still evident today. Local stations KOLO Channel 8 and KCRN Channel 4 scheduled on-air cooking schools as early as 1966. The groundbreaking show The French Chef, starring Julia Child, was broadcast in 1970 on KUNL, a community antenna station that was a precursor to PBS Reno. Popular shows The Galloping Gourmet and The Frugal Gourmet appeared in Reno around 1973.
Reno Welcomes Gourmet Cooking School
Despite the popularity of televised cooking programs, Reno still was lacking a hands-on cooking school. In the mid-1970s, Reno Evening Gazette columnist Corey Farley wrote, “Reno is not exactly cooking school heaven. The only two places listed under that heading in the Yellow Pages are Truffles … and a job-oriented community services agency that trains cooks’ helpers.”
He continued, “There is an enthusiastic subculture of amateur gourmet cooks in Reno. A group of them assembled last week at Truffles … headquarters for those who know the difference between remoulade and ragout…”
Farley may have been overselling Truffles. When it appeared on the scene, owner Anne Kenny described it as “Nevada’s first gourmet cookware shop and cooking school,” with a schedule of international classes. Still, Truffles remained a demonstration kitchen. The business was sold in 1982 to Natalie Sellers — yes, of West Reno’s 4th St. Bistro — who operated it through 1987. Andrea’s Kitchen Conspiracy stepped into the void during the 1990s, but, again, it was demonstration-only cooking.
Hands-On Cooking Finally Appears
This column emphasizes food history, but one recent development is worthy of mention. In 1995, there was cause for celebration when the Nothing To It! Culinary Center was opened by Jennifer Bushman, with Lara Ritchie as culinary director.
Finally, Reno had a hands-on kitchen with multiple cooking stations and a full array of classes taught by professionals. Ritchie is now co-owner with husband, Jay Bushman, and typically more than 500 students take its cooking classes per month. It may have taken 100 years, but in a world that is increasingly digital, it’s nice to know you can get your hands dirty turning out the perfect crème brûlée.
Sharon Honig-Bear was the longtime restaurant writer for the Reno Gazette-Journal. She is a tour leader with Historic Reno Preservation Society and a supporter of all things cultural and historic. She can be reached at Sharonbear@sbcglobal.net.
