During a participation cooking class last week, a student opened the refrigerator and stared at the condiment bottles in the door.
“May I help you find something?” I asked.
“Where’s the lemon juice?” she asked.
I opened the vegetable drawer and pulled out a fresh lemon.
“You have GOT to be kidding!” she answered.
Some ingredients are significantly better when […]

To be an American is to love peanut butter (just as to be a European is to love Nutella). Although peanut butter is very nutritious, we love peanut butter because it is sweet and creamy and tastes more like dessert, especially when paired with jelly.
Peanut butter cookies have been successfully baked for generations, but they […]

When a soup is called a chowder, it is usually thick and chunky. Chowders may contain fish or shellfish or potato or cream or corn or tomatoes. One ingredient, though, is essential for making a chowder: bacon or cured pork. Since different styles of chowders can be made, it is a great soup for showcasing […]

I made these pecan bars for a party and a friend asked me for the recipe. Later, I asked her how they turned out. “I never made them.”
“Why not, they are so delicious!” I asked.
“The recipe was so strange that I was afraid to try them. It seemed like too much butter.”
Please, don’t be afraid; these mini pecan pies […]

Satisfy every cooking urge with our brand-new list of exciting cooking classes! We are offering more classes on more topics with more chefs than ever before.
Due to popular demand, we are offering again our Dine and Dance classes in conjunction with COCA (learn to dance, then learn to cook on October 2 and December 11). […]

Twenty years ago, one of my catering customers pulled me aside and said, “you must stop using butter, no one wants to eat saturated fat.” I thought about her advice, but my style of cooking is focused on taste and flavor. So I had a bumper sticker made for my car: It’s Better With Butter. […]

The tomatoes are fabulously delicious this year. We are growing red Jet Star and yellow Golden Girl, and pick of the crop is available for purchase at Kitchen Conservatory (to accompany our garlic and basil!).
A truly vine-ripened tomato falls into your hands when you cup the bottom of the fruit; no tugging necessary to pick it. […]

I vividly remember the first time I tasted rum-raisin ice cream. I was 12, at the ice cream parlor, and everyone else was getting some version of chocolate ice cream. I had to try the one I had never tasted before. And “rum raisin” sounded so sophisticated. I was sure I was an adult just because I […]

Joe Bonwich of “Let’s Eat” in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes today, “We’re usually uncomfortable proclaiming something “the best,” but in the case of the garlic grown at home by Anne and Tom Cori and sold at Kitchen Conservatory, we’ll make an exception. This is the best fresh garlic you can buy in St. Louis. […]

For four years, Kitchen Conservatory has offered a culinary book club. It is so much fun; I hope that you will consider joining us! We read, discuss, and eat.
The book club meets once a month on a Sunday afternoon at Kitchen Conservatory. We have read all kinds of books relating to food: memoirs, biographies, history, food […]