GetOut Magazine

Culinary classes taught in Mesa home
By ADRIENNE FRANK
Get Out
Nov. 22, 2002

To some people, cooking comes naturally. Cooking for Pleasure, a new Mesa-based culinary school, isnt aimed at those people, though.

It seems like most moms just dont teach their kids to cook anymore, says Janis Normoyle, who, along with friend and fellow Scottsdale Culinary Institute graduate Linda Miritello, founded the school. And thats who the classes are aimed at the beginners.

Cooking for Pleasure, which debuted at the end of October, offers classes four to five times per month. Courses, which cover a variety of tasty territory, from dinner party favorites to Italian comfort food to brunch basics, are held at Miritellos Mesa home, located on Val Vista Drive between McKellips and McDowell roads.

Linda and her husband remodeled a home on 5 acres, and she designed the kitchen especially for teaching classes, Normoyle says. As you can tell, weve dreamed of opening this school for a long time.

The open kitchen which, along with the dining room, seats 16 features a warm, relaxed atmosphere that many other cooking schools lack. And that, Normoyle says, is what sets Cooking for Pleasure apart.

We get all different kinds of people, but they all seem to be really comfortable in a home atmosphere. I have a friend who opened a cooking school in a mall, but not all people are comfortable in that setting. At one of our classes we had some really shy young mothers, and by the time they left, they had a real sense of ease, whereas they might not have been so at ease in a bigger, more impersonal venue.

Normoyle, who also owns Proof of the Pudding cooking school based in Paradise Valley, says she and Miritello have dreamed of starting their own school since they first met in 1990 at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute.

When we became friends, we always vowed that when the time was right in our lives, wed just do it, says Normoyle, who, like her partner, graduated with honors from the culinary school. I had just quit my job (as an administrator at the Institute), and I just didnt want to work for anyone else anymore. Linda had the kitchen, and we just knew it was time. She just looked at me and said, Im ready, and here we are!

During the three-hour classes, which Normoyle says are equally popular with both sexes, the two women give students a basic culinary foundation, for example, discussing everything from how to select a good knife to what sort of vinegar to use. While Normoyle and Miritello are preparing the food, students are invited to peak into pots and peer into pans.

Its not exactly hands-on, but its very interactive, Normoyle says.

At the conclusion of the class, which also includes wine education and information about where to purchase featured ingredients, students gather around Miritellos dining room table with their instructors and enjoy the dishes that were prepared before them. Theyre sent home with all the recipes, along with informational packets on basic knife cuts, for instance designed to help students feel more at home in their own kitchens.

If anything, we probably overload them with information, Normoyle says, laughing. But we really want students to build on the fundamental skills we give them. We want them to walk away loving to cook as much as we do. Because, you know, we wouldnt be doing this if we werent having fun too.

Cooking for Pleasure

Where: 2575 N. Val Vista Drive, Mesa
When: Three-hour classes are held once or twice per week
How much: $45 per person
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