Article published Mar 24, 2008 Local artists hatch plan for a cooking school
By SHARON DETTMER Tribune Correspondent
MICHIGAN CITY — Once Helen Welsh and Dorothy Sheehan cracked the egg of creative thought, the inspiration for their cooking and art school puffed up nicely into a perfectly fluffy meringue-style peak. The Cracked Egg hatched from an idea that the duo had to start a cooking school where foodies can “roll up their sleeves, put on aprons and prepare to chop,” Welsh said.
With courses cleverly named, such as “Dixie Kicks,” where folks don aprons to cook Southern comfort food including fried chicken, grits casserole, pecan pie and citrus salad with poppy seed dressing, the quaint new cooking school is perhaps destined for success.
Welsh, who is a soft talking yet witty Southern belle, is a graduate of the prestigious Cordon Bleu in Paris. She grew up in Winston Salem, N.C., and at 24 years old she started her own French cooking school, The Stocked Pot.
These days, Welsh said, the approach to cooking is more laid-back and fun.
“We want to stress the differences in cooking styles from now to 25 years ago,” she explained. “Years ago, people focused on creating highly technical methods of cooking cuisine. But today, Dorothy and I are teaching techniques that are simple and that don’t require 17 ingredients.”
The school will tentatively open April 8 in a refurbished house located at 2613 E. U.S. 12 in Michigan City across the street from Karwick Plaza. The more than 1,000-square-foot facility will host adult cooking parties and classes, kids’ cooking classes, showers, art workshops, and in the summer, outdoor cooking camps.
Inside and out, The Cracked Egg has all of the bright ambience of an Easter egg hunt with walls painted in rich colors: tangerine, lemon yellow and melon green. The owners’ artistic flair for décor is evident throughout.
In fact, the two entrepreneurs, who first met at a tiny boutique in New Buffalo, enjoy creating works of art together — just about as much as they love cooking together.
“You know how it is when you meet someone who understands you. You can share ideas — we probably laugh more than anything else,” Welsh said.
Last summer, the two artists were at the Art Barn in Valparaiso painting outdoor scenes on canvas.
“We were there together all day,” Sheehan recalled. “We really connected that day. We knew that nothing could stop us from achieving our goal. It was the first day that we realized that we never wanted our friendship to end.”
And so, the idea for The Cracked Egg was born.
Sheehan is a Sawyer resident who enjoys inviting other artists like Welsh to her own art barn on her property to create tile mosaics, sew, or create paintings. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Northeastern Illinois University and has taught children’s art classes there, as well as at the Curious Kids Museum in St. Joseph and at Notre Dame Elementary School in Michigan City.
Sheehan will head up teaching her school's “little cracked egglettes” the ABCs of cooking classes, she said.
“Cooking should not be hard. Children love cooking classes and it’s fun for them to toss ingredients together.”
One of the first classes will be “After School Cooking,” three sessions for four different age groups (3-9, 10-14, 10-13, 13-16), that will teach kids how to make quick and easy breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack foods.
Sheehan also will teach what she considers to be a lost art form — social graces and table etiquette. The class is called “So, You Think You Have Manners?”
She found many of the etiquette ideas on the subject from around the 1920s.
Welsh, who resides in Duneland Beach, Ind., owned a manufacturing and design business called Cache Designs that was a Chicago-based company that fabricated women’s clothes.
She will surely charm folks with her sweet approach to cooking savory foods and her artistic style.
Her “Easy as Pie” courses will feature demonstrations and hands-on opportunities to make the all-American dessert: apple pie.
“You have to be able to feel the dough to make it well yourself,” Welsh insists.
Another course, “Mighty Big Bowls,” will teach people how to fill bowls with tasty soups, stews, chowders and bisques, including favorites such as French onion soup.
The key, Welsh proclaims, is to master preparing a mirepoix, a chopped and sautéed vegetable mixture that is used as a soup base.
For those interested in infusing a little extra time, wine and romance into their cooking, then “Saturday Night Live” classes may be in order.
“This is a good opportunity to mix, mingle and marinate together,” Welsh said. “It’s definitely a hands-on cooking class.” You can learn to prepare food New Orleans- or Tuscan-style.
The Cracked Egg also will hold classes for singles, as well.
Cooking classes will accommodate six to 10 participants and demonstrations from 15 to 18 people.
For further information about courses offered at The Cracked Egg, log onto the Web site at www.crackedeggcooking.com, or call the school at (219) 210-3920.
If you have an interest in a class we do not currently offer, please call us or email us to let us know! (219) 210-3920 info@crackedeggcooking.com