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I always felt the need to share my cooking skills with people who are passionate about food and cooking. I came across Thalia, a sweet Brazilian girl at Williams Sonoma.

She came with her brother and mom to buy something at the store. I was at the store conducting a cooking demo when they walked in and her brother immediately stopped to pick one of my creations and stood there enjoying every bite of it. I clearly remember him looking at his sister and saying to her” You should learn to cook like this”

I was very humbled by their kind words and appreciation and they picked one of my business cards and left. The week after my cooking demo at Williams Sonoma was the week of destruction by “Hurricane Sandy”. As we were all recovering from the aftermath of the hurricane, I receive an email from Thalia saying she wanted to take a cooking class from me and wasnt able to contact me because of power outages during the hurricane.

I knew immediately that this girl was truly and genuinely passionate about learning how to cook. I figured a simple menu for about 3 hours is the way to go. So planned a simple menu plan of:

Chickpea salad with grated coconut

Quinoa with onions, tomatoes and bell peppers

Baked Cauliflower with pecans, caramelized onions in a yogurt cilantro sauce.

When she received the menu plan she was so thrilled and said to me” Honestly, I dont care just teach me to cook well”

According to Thalia, all they ate was rice, beans, potatoes and chicken!!!! She was so bored of eating the same thing that she wanted to step up and start making new dishes. Thalia mentioned that her brother was also very interested in cooking and would try a few new recipes from television whenever he found time.

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photo 2photo 3I give private lessons from my home kitchen so Thalia came home and I had all the ingredients and recipes printed out. I asked her to read all the ingredients and organize everything so its easier when we start cooking.

We started with chickpeas salad and Thalia was so excited to use grated coconut. She loved coconut. She tasted the salad and loved it so I put it in a box so she could share with her family.

Then came the interesting part, when we started to make the quinoa with veggies! Thalia said “we use butter knife to chop everything up”!!!!!

So I showed her how to chop using a PROPER KNIFE:) and I must say she’s a fast learner and picked it quickly.

We had so much fun while cooking- laughing and joking! I got to know her and her family a little bit and so did she- she met with my kids 🙂

I packed her some quinoa with the veggies and the baked cauliflower dish. She was very happy to go back and share with everyone back home. She called me recently to thank me and said that her brother was amazed that she could make all these dishes.

She hopes to come back for few more cooking lessons but I felt so happy that I was able to teach her a few of my favorite absolutely healthy dishes!