Sustainable Kitchens and Kessenich's Partner to Launch CHOP University in Madison, Wis.
In April, 2018 Kessenich's, a Madison-based food service design, equipment, and supply store, opened a new 24,000-square-foot showroom and design center at 3226 Progress Road. The facility is just a few blocks north of Broadway and east of Stoughton Road.
Shortly after opening, Sustainable Kitchens of Milwaukee and Madison's Bierock (a restaurant that opened on the north side last June) requested the use of the yet-unused demo kitchen for recipe development. And a partnership was born.
SK CEO, Justin Johnson quickly saw an opportunity. An opportunity to kick-start the development of Kessenich’s Culinary Event center with a cooking class series to be offered to the Madison Community.
Marketing Director for Kessenich’s, Diane Sorenson, agreed. Kessenich’s is celebrating a 90-year anniversary this year and this series is the first of many fun community focused events Kessenich’s plans to offer in the future with SK.
In November of last year, SK and Kessenich's collaborated on a pilot class offered to Kessenich's staff. The results were uproarious. "I've never seen this team laugh so much and have this much fun." said Sorenson. The two organizations realized they had something that could be grown.
The SK team immediately began to develop a series of cooking classes to be offered to the public at the Kessenich's Culinary Center geared toward the home cook.
"The most important thing for us is to get people back to scratch-cooking and demystify it as a complex, time-consuming or expensive endeavor."
The classes to be offered include Knife Skills, Extreme Pantry Makeover, One Pot Magic, Grilling, Soup Making, Pizzas and Holiday Entertaining. The individual classes are $65 per person but the series can be purchased for only $350, saving over $100 off the a la carte price. Participants will work with state-of-the-art equipment and receive a full meal in the process.
The 2019 line-up kicks off on Thursday, February 21st; classes will run from 6pm to 8pm. Sign up at www.sustainable-kitchens.com/chopu
