Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Judith Etshokin demonstrates a step in food preparation.

Cooking enthusiast turns a passion into a business

By Suzanne Cristallo

While her three children napped, single parent Judith Etshokin turned a love of cooking into a home business. Using her own kitchen, she taught friends and neighbors the concepts and techniques behind fine cooking, eventually selling them cookware and hard-to-find ingredients. By word-of-mouth, her business grew. She has just opened her fourth HOMECHEF cooking school in Westgate mall (next to Barnes and Noble Bookstore) and just published her fourth book, Great Cooking in Minutes.

What started as a school for young mothers who pooled their children with Etshokin's for babysitting purposes so they might serve interesting meals to their families has evolved into an educational tradition.

HOMECHEF has a philosophy that emphasizes concepts over recipes--the how and why behind cooking. It is strictly for home cooks, not for professional chefs and caters to people with other demands in their lives. Besides Westgate, the schools that are "cooking schools with kitchen stores wrapped around them," also operate in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Corte Madera.

Up to 50 students in a class observe demonstrations of cooking techniques, such as braising, poaching and browning, methods that suit various kinds of foods. For hands-on experience, they may attend single-focus workshops that include pasta, bread or pizza-making.

Etshokin emphasizes that the quality of home cooking can be as good as that in any restaurant. It is a matter of choosing the freshest ingredients and knowing that revered restaurants get their results by using the best quality goods available, such as cultured European-style butter, aborio rice and extra-virgin olive oil.

Classes in a 13-week series, which begin the week of Sept. 10, are two hours each, and may be taken on any of four days each week to accommodate the schedules of students. Taken as a package, the cost is $392 (or $39 for classes attended individually). More than 40 single classes above the basic series are $49 each and cover subjects like food processing, holiday menus, cocktail parties, and vegetarian or quick-and-easy cooking. Some involve several sessions at a special rate.

HOMECHEF Cooking School, 600 Saratoga Ave., San Jose. For information on enrollment and schedules, call 374-3191.