Vegetarian Cooking Class at Kohler's Demonstration Kitchen

On Saturday morning, I drove to pick up Karis and we took the trip north to Sheboygan and Kohler for a Vegetarian Cooking Class at the Demonstration Kitchen at the Shops at Woodlake Kohler.

Photo courtesy of Karis

The kitchen itself was beautiful and seeing all of the colorful vegetables and fruit on the counter made me look forward to cooking with more fresh ingredients now that spring is here. 

We sat in the front row and had a good view of the Chef cooking.

Our teacher was Chef Mark Tennie and his sous chef, Kael Klassen. Both work together at Riverbend, a private club near the American Club resort. 

Karis and I drove by Riverbend after class and check out how gorgeous it is! Thanks to Karis for this shot from the car. This mansion originally was owned by the Kohler family. Can you imagine living here?

The first item we tried was Asparagus Soup. Like everything we had, it was so delicious and fresh tasting. 

Chef Mark was very gracious with answering the many questions from the class members.

Next, we tried a salad on pine nut puree. 

It's so beautiful that I just had to share another photo.

This Polenta Cake was wonderful too! I loved the mushrooms and spinach leek puree on top.

Dessert was Banana Beignets, which were so different and the perfect treat to end class with.

The Chefs spoke about ramps quite a bit throughout class, so they passed one around at the end. I'd like to forage for them sometime and cook with them this summer.

Here's a shot of the classroom!

We drove into downtown Sheboygan and checked out Field to Fork. It was my first time visiting the restaurant. Karis had been before, but just to get a juice. This time, she picked up some baked goods and I got a carrot and apple juice. 

What a fun day spent with a great blog friend! Since meeting Karis, I have definitely taken more cooking classes than I ever imagined I would. Now I really need to be good about making the recipes I learn in classes, which is a great transition to my next post about seeing Michael Pollan speak about his new book, Cooked.