Several restaurants, resorts and specialty food retailers thrive in Door County, Wisconsin, but nothing taps into the region’s abundance of produce and raw materials quite like The Savory Spoon Cooking School in Ellison Bay on the Door County peninsula. It is apt the school, which operates mid-June to the end of October, occupies a former village schoolhouse, built in 1879 and restored in 2005. The old “Classroom 2” is currently equipped with state-of-the-art appliances, tools and fixtures, including cooking and refrigeration equipment from SubZero/Wolf and top-name small appliances.
Savory Spoon Dessert. Photo: Elyse Glickman
Chef Janice Thomas, who owns and operates the school, is a member of International Association of Culinary Professionals and Women Chefs of America. Even with those credentials, her approach is part Mary Poppins and part Julia Child, with a dash of Auntie Mame. She talks to even her youngest students with enthusiasm, respect and easy-to-follow guidance. Another thing that makes her a compelling teacher is she herself continues to be a student of the culinary arts, sharpening her skills at the renowned Cordon Bleu in Paris and with well-respected chefs in France, Italy and China and applying her widening base of knowledge to using Door County ingredients — down to her backyard herb garden — to the fullest effect.
As Thomas also has had experience teaching cooking classes for many years in Arizona, Oregon and Wisconsin and running a catering company, she is also a fan of food fusion cuisine, which crosses both state and international borders and informs the various themes of her cooking classes. Thomas’s family-focused and kids classes successfully blend a useful array of cooking techniques, global flavors and the worldly chef’s adept storytelling style relaying any pertinent globe-trotting experience related to the class theme.
A special guest from a local business bringing in baked goods or samples ties “local flavor” back in regardless of the focus. The final result is a day that makes older participants feel like they’ve been zapped into a Food Network or PBS culinary show. Kids and teens, meanwhile, not only learn correct methods for essential cooking basics and kitchen safety, but master them via a process involving teamwork.
Savory Spoon Herb Garden. Photo: Elyse Glickman
During the final month of the 2018 season, class offerings will include a Soup Swap, Global Chicken and Local Flavors, concentrating on the last harvest of Door County’s growing season. During the off-season, Thomas organizes and leads international group food adventures in Mexico, Europe and, on occasion, China. Next year’s itineraries detailed on the website include Villa Bonita, Mexico (Feb. 3–10); Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca (TBD); Sicily, Italy (TBD); and France and Spain’s Basque regions (May 2019). Check the website regularly for updates to the trips’ departure dates and information on how to enroll, as well as classes offered in Door County in the 2019 regular season.
Read This Next
#WhereverFamily
Insta FeedNorth America
Sep 3, 20266 Winnipeg, Canada, Destinations for Family Travel
It’s time to start dreaming of your next family trip. Here’s some destination inspiration for you. Take a visual journey through Winnipeg, Canada, with us.
Sponsored Content
GET TO KNOW TAP FORBIZ
Unlock flexible, refined business travel with TAP Air Portugal’s program, TAP FORBIZ. Developed for small, medium and large Companies, with options for corporate events, TAP FORBIZ offers exclusive advantages adapted to each type of business.
Hotels
Sep 3, 20263 Caribbean, Latin American Marriott Hotels for Multigen Trips
Multigenerational travel continues to grow in popularity, with family travelers moving away from traditional getaways for meaningful trips with family members of all ages. The Caribbean and Latin America are growing destinations of interest for this type of travel, and three Marriott properties offer opportunities for multigen families to create lifelong memories.
Destinations
Sep 2, 2026Look Past the Traditional Classroom with Scott Dunn’s Back-to-School Itineraries
Parents looking to provide their kids with hands-on learning experiences going beyond textbooks by visiting unique destinations with family-centric approaches will find that and more with Scott Dunn's private, expert-led itineraries. These experiences provide lessons the classroom cannot.
Sponsored Content
Best of Both Worlds
Enjoy the best of both worlds when you fly with TAP Air Portugal thanks to the Portugal Stopover program. With the program, TAP passengers, whether traveling for business, leisure or both, can stop in Portugal for up to 10 days at no additional airfare on the way to their final destination. What does this mean for travelers wishing to explore by both land and sea? It means after flying to Portugal with TAP and experiencing the country in an entirely new way, travelers can then embark on scenic river and ocean cruises from Portugal’s port cities, or fly with TAP to another European destination.
Destinations / North America
Sep 2, 2026Visit an Old-Fashioned County Fair in Maine
Celebrate autumn with a family trip to a traditional New England county fair. These annual celebrations of agriculture and country life are filled with sights and activities for the whole family to enjoy, from admiring prize pumpkins and meeting live animals to witnessing horse shows, listening to country music and dancing, and doing craft demonstrations. Most fairs also have carnival rides and hands-on activities for kids.
ShareThis