‘Famous Chefs & Fabulous Recipes’ Cookbook serves as teaching utensil
By STEPHANIE OTTEY
HUDSON, Ohio
Located in Summit County is a world-renowned cooking school that has taught and/or featured some of the most highly regarded chefs of our time.
The Western Reserve School of Cooking in Hudson, once known as the Zona Spray Cooking School, has gone without much laud over the years, but now a new cookbook is sharing its story.
In 1971 Zona Spray started her cooking school by renting a space in Hudson’s Little Church on the Green. With years of cooking experience and training in culinary trends from around the world, Spray was able to teach techniques when others just taught recipes. This quickly put her at the forefront of cooking educators, and her school became well-known throughout Northeast Ohio.
After two years in the Little Church, Spray found a permanent home at a space known as The Cookery, where she grew and developed her cooking legend. She hosted a slew of prestigious chefs, taught, learned and networked. The Zona Spray Cooking School was on the map of culinary importance. Soon, Spray had to make a choice: franchise, maintain or retire.
With decades of teaching behind her, Spray longed for a change of pace, and in 1997 she sold the business to Carole Ferguson, who changed the name of the school to the Western Reserve School of Cooking. Ferguson continued to host a number of famous chefs, but struggled financially and sold the school to her accountant, Ed Schiciano of Twinsburg, in 2004.
Three years later he was about to close the school when Catherine St. John and her husband, Carl, offered to purchase it.
Today, St. John continues to teach with the same principles as Spray, but she’s sharing her knowledge with a wider range of consumers and beginning chefs. With couples cooking classes and team-building courses as well, the Western Reserve School of Cooking is reaching a new generation of chefs, both new and experienced.
To further expand the family of the Western Reserve School of Cooking and share the history of Ohio’s premier cooking school, St. John enlisted the help of Niles native Lisa Abraham, a food writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, in compiling a cookbook.
Published by the University of Akron Press, “Famous Chefs & Fabulous Recipes” is a friendly yearbook of the people and recipes of the Western Reserve School of Cooking.
With a brief history of the establishment, words of wisdom from expert chefs and dozens of recipes, Abraham has created a book that invites readers into the kitchens of the cooking school and cordially introduces them to the faces that have made the school a success.
Each chapter focuses on a different category of cooking and shares recipes from chefs with a wide range of expertise. The “fabulous recipes” of the book begin in Chapter 1, where the school history is shared and readers meet founder Zona Spray.
Chapter 2 continues with recipes from chefs acclaimed as “Teacher of the Year” by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Chapters 3 and 4 are dedicated to sweets and breads, and 5 is an introduction to international cuisine.
Chapter 6 brings the recipes back to an American focus, and chapters 7 and 8 feature local chefs and current teachers at the Western Reserve school.
The recipes are versatile. With a recipe for a delicious bacon-wrapped meatloaf by USA Weekly columnist Pam Anderson, one for Lobster Thermidor by 28-time author Steven Raichlen, and everything in between, there is something for everyone in “Famous Chefs & Fabulous Recipes.”
There are vegetarian dishes, French-influenced dishes, classic, nontraditional and comfort food dishes. Beginning cooks will find plenty to dive into and will come out with a sense of accomplishment and a fantastic meal.
Surely, experienced cooks will find new methods and techniques to try on dishes that satisfy any appetite.
With suggestions from an array of accomplished chefs, anybody can learn something from this book.
“Famous Chefs & Fabulous Recipes” is available through www.UAkron.edu, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, and locally at Barnes & Noble.