CULINARY EDUCATION
DEVELOP CLIENTS’
COOKING SKILLS
By Chef Michelle Dudash, RDN
Dietitians enthusiastically don many hats, with an exper-
tise in cooking growing in popularity. Since most RDs—and
their patients—aren’t blessed with personal or private chefs or
meal delivery services, knowing how to make a home-cooked
meal plays a major role in supporting RDs’ mantra that eating
healthfully doesn’t have to be expensive and can be delicious.
Get inspired by the following RDs’ efforts to increase their cli-
ents’ and their own culinary prowess.
Making Vegetables Delectable
Ann Kent, MS, RDN, CDE, owner of Peas & Hoppiness in
the Fort Collins, Colorado, area, grew up on a farm while
helping her mother cook for five to 10 people at every meal,
so her passion for culinary education doesn’t come as a sur-
prise. She began teaching cooking classes at an endocrinol-
ogy clinic, where she still counsels patients, using equipment
such as an electric skillet, hot plate, or blender in a room that
included only a sink.
Now, Kent’s cooking demonstrations have moved into the
great outdoors; in collaboration with a local farm, she runs
sessions at a nearby farmers’ market to educate people in the
community on how to choose and cook produce, which she
hopes will unveil to the community a different—and delicious—
side of veggies.
“People are intimidated by cooking and have had bad experi-
ences eating vegetables or think they’ll have to eat ‘rabbit food’
their whole life in order to eat healthfully,” Kent says. She loves
witnessing “ah-ha” moments, such as when someone can’t
believe broccoli can taste so good, after showing them how to
roast and season it. Kent acknowledges the stepping stones
some clients and community members might have to cross to
enjoy vegetables, such as those who tell her they cook Brussels
sprouts with bacon. “I call those training wheels,” she says.Taste Workshops
“I didn’t actually cook until I was a poor grad school
student,” explains Michele Redmond, MS, RDN, FAND, chef
dietitian and food enjoyment activist at The Taste Workshop in
Scottsdale, Arizona. “While working on my Masters in Health
Economics [the RD came later], I began catering for nonprofits
on the side.” That planted the culinary seed, but it wasn’t until
years later when, encouraged by her husband, she moved to
Paris and cooked her way to a Cordon Bleu Grand Diplôme.
After returning stateside to Scottsdale, Redmond founded
The Taste Workshop, where she hosts intimate classes in her
home, such as Friday night cooking parties, and for onsite
corporate wellness programs.
Redmond observed that consumers tend to “fear basic
things” in the kitchen, as well as failures—”People are dis-
mayed by recipes that don’t work,” she says. Redmond loves
empowering clients with culinary skills; her goal is to build cli-
ents’ confidence in the kitchen by teaching them how to make
a single recipe eight different ways. Redmond’s most popu-
lar classes include The Mediterranean Pantry, Kitchen Knife
Skills, and From-Scratch Pasta Making, but her plant-focused
classes fill up the fastest, mostly with meat eaters who want to
learn how to make vegetables taste good.Go Big or Go Home
Indianapolis-based Tara Rochford, RDN, owner of Tara
Rochford Nutrition and a dietitian at Butler University, has
found a simple but effective—and fun—way to engage students
on Butler’s campus: create-your-own overnight oats nights.
“I’ve always been one of those curious people in the kitchen,”
she says. “I’d help my mom bake cookies for the holidays and
was intrigued by food.”
Rochford’s inquisitiveness has led her to organize these
large overnight oat events to spark the same curiosity in
young adults. Each event typically attracts about 60 students
and always focuses on overnight oats, a simple but popu-
lar recipe especially fit for college students, many of whom
eat on a tight budget and/or have limited cooking experience
or tools. Rochford talks the students through the written
recipe with measurements, while encouraging them to add
“a bit of this or that” from the large spread of ingredients
to let their creativity shine through. “They had so much fun
having free reign on the recipe,” she says. At the end of the
event, attendees go home with their jar of customized oats to
refrigerate and enjoy the next day.Personal Culinary Coaching
When she’s not teaching recreational cooking classes at
the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, Jackie
Newgent, RDN, a culinary nutritionist, coaches clients one
on one in her and their homes. Many private clients seek out14 today’s dietitian august 2019