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Kitchen Classroom will offer hands-on culinary classes starting May 5, with registration available online.
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Kitchen Classroom is located at 9018 W. Broad St.
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Warren Haskell, owner and instructor at Kitchen Classroom
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A cooking station inside Kitchen Classroom
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The Kitchen Classroom has four cooking stations throughout the space.
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Another cooking station in the learning space
Once a teacher, always a teacher — for those who possess that mix of patience, charisma and knowledge, the connection to sharing wisdom is hard to shake, and the end result can be rewarding for all parties involved.
Warren Haskell is such a teacher. After a lifetime spent in the food and beverage industry, concentrating on beer and biscuits and everything in between, he plans to debut a hands-on cooking school dubbed Kitchen Classroom at 9018 W. Broad St. on May 5.
“I’ve taught [cooking classes] on and off for 15-plus years,” Haskell says. “After my last adventure, I took a few months off and decided what I wanted to do.”
For Haskell, being at the helm of his own project has been a natural progression. Growing up, he could be found in the kitchen gleaning tips and recipes from his grandmother, and by 13, the Gloucester native had begun working at his parents’ gourmet food shop stocking shelves, eventually cooking on the line during summer breaks from Virginia Tech.
Haskell’s resume includes event management for Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company, which put him on the road and exposed him to new cities and their edible delights, as well as educational training for Bell’s Brewery across multiple states and running the cheese counter at Whole Foods Market.
In the last decade, teaching has been closer to the forefront, with stints at Sur la Table and the now shuttered Southern Kitchen at Libbie Mill-Midtown before his most recent position in operations for Hatch Packaging and Butchery. His diverse experiences have led him to Kitchen Classroom, where he serves as coach, instructor and leader.
Offering a more action-oriented approach at the school, Haskell prefers a setting where students are more involved, chopping the onions and searing the steak rather than a more passive, demo-led instruction.
“I really like the hands-on approach; I want people to learn how to cook and to offer more than an entertainment experience,” he says. “Cooking is also great for your health and mental well-being, and there’s some loss in those passed-on cooking skills from my grandparents' generation to this generation.”
On the class calendar, students can expect offerings such as pasta-making and a Spanish steakhouse dinner — Haskell says Spanish cuisine sparked his culinary awakening — and basic knife skills, which will be offered at least once a month; cast-iron cooking; exploring the flavors of spring; and biscuits and gravy — the latter recipes Haskell has spent years perfecting. Classes will average around $75 per person, depending on the topic.
“The way we’re doing instruction, students will do the vast majority of the work and cooking, and the chef is there mainly to guide through the recipes, hint suggestions, critique and make sure they don’t burn things,” Haskell says with a chuckle.
Formerly home to Bawarchi Indian restaurant, the Kitchen Classroom space is bright and open, with a back wall dedicated to pots and pans, and four four-person cooking stations are bedecked with knives, a cutting board and classic kitchen tools. Haskell hopes to feature guest instructors, from restaurant owners to local purveyors and experts in their field.
“It’s going to be a pretty diverse selection of classes, and I want to be able to give people other outlets, too, not just on the learning side, but the professional side,” he says.
Other classes on the idea board include meal prep, lobster, paella, an intro to Chinese cooking and a date-night option. He plans to offer about 40 sessions a month, with various time slots available. The space can also be used for private events, classes and corporate luncheons.
“I feel like I can make this business successful and run it for a long time, and it will not get stale or old,” Haskell says. “There’s always something new to do and ways to develop the business. I just love working with the food and beverage industry.”
