Wise Ways Cooking School

What We Do

We offer comprehensive cooking instruction in traditional nutrient-dense foods, with accompanying lectures and special workshops.

At Wise Ways Cooking School, we teach principles of real food, traditional diets, and natural healing through cooking classes and lectures. You will learn how to:

• Transition to a traditional diet of real foods
• Use preparation methods that maximize nutritional value and digestibility
• Make lacto-fermented veggies, condiments, and beverages; bone broths; cultured dairy; and properly-prepared whole grains, nuts, and legumes
• Shop for local sustainable foods, “detox” your kitchen, and stock your pantry with all the traditional essentials
• Plan meals with a limited budget and busy schedule
• Naturally heal digestive disorders, food allergies, yeast overgrowth and Candida, and thyroid and adrenal issues
• Prepare foods to support fertility, pregnancy, and a healthy labor and birth
• Increase the nutritional quality and volume of breastmilk, and prepare a back-up whole foods formula
• Transition your baby to traditional solid foods that support healthy growth and development
• Nourish your children with nutrient-dense foods while preventing and addressing food allergies, frequent infections, digestive problems, and pickiness

Our classes

Cooking classes are held in midtown Manhattan in a professional kitchen space conveniently located near public transportation, Times Square, and Columbus Circle. Classes are kept small and limited to around 10-12 participants, with plenty of opportunities for questions, sampling, and participation. Depending on the topic, some of our classes include take-home items in the class fee. Each participant receives a comprehensive hand-out of recipes, sourcing recommendations, and health information in both hard copy and electronic format.

Lectures are offered for groups of 20-30 in locations around New York City. The format is a PowerPoint presentation followed by ample time for questions and answers.

Both cooking classes and lectures may be booked by private groups and organizations for locations within the five boroughs and within a few hours drive of New York City. Please see the Private classes page for more information.

 Our approach

Our unique approach is based in accessible, down-to-earth instruction in real foods and traditional preparation techniques for the modern family or novice/amateur cook. We combine a thorough knowledge of wellness and nutrition with a passion for traditional nutrient-dense foods from local family farms and the sea to create classes and workshops that will provide you with the skills and confidence you need to transform your family's diet and health.

We seek to teach families how to emphasize quality ingredients and budget-saving techniques to create meals that will be nourishing, sustaining, and affordable.

What to eat?

We know there’s a lot of confusing information out there about what’s “good” or “bad” for us to eat. It can get pretty contradictory and feel overwhelming at times, so we simply say eat REAL FOOD.

What is real food? Real food is fresh whole foods that are unprocessed and unrefined - basically as nature intended it. Real food doesn’t need an ingredient label. Real food includes vegetables, fruits, natural sweeteners, whole grains, legumes, nuts & seeds, fish, wild seafood, meat (from pasture-raised and humanely treated animals), unprocessed dairy products (from grass-fed cows), and eggs (from pastured-raised chickens). Real food is local, organic, sustainable, and mainly consumed when it’s in season. Real food is nutrient-dense and carefully prepared to maximize nutrition and flavor. Real food is traditional and old.  It’s food that has nourished humans for thousands of years before the invention of industrial and processed foods.

Eating real food is simple in theory, but often difficult in practice. In the hustle and bustle of our modern lives, it’s easier to grab food on the go, eat cheap fast food or expensive prepared foods, or consume “edible foodlike substances.”  These quick and easy convenience foods compromise our current health and well being and years down the road can lead to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer.

At Wise Ways Cooking School, we take the message of real food a few steps further to instruct our class participants in preparation methods for maximizing nutritional value and digestibility. Following these techniques will lead to the greatest improvements in health and well-being.