It was the first time I wore an apron since I made pottery in an elementary school art class. I can cook a frozen pizza, and not much else. So I signed up for the “Men Only” cooking class offered at Pam’s Corner in downtown’s Davis Building.
Our menu for the evening was veal piccata, and a swordfish steak with mango, papaya salsa. I was certain that I would ruin both dishes, but Pam assured us that “mistakes can be made and you can still have good results.” Pam showed us the basics, like how to chop a red pepper, or juice a lemon. She answered our questions, like “How much is ‘a pinch’ of salt?”
“Cooking calms me,” said Pam Weirauch, who has run the downtown lunch café, Pam’s Corner, for the past dozen years. Pam has sandy blonde hair and an even disposition. Her calmness never rattles as she directs a group of novice bachelors struggling to harness sharp knives and open flames. “You have to own each recipe,” Pam told us as I incorrectly put raw garlic into the salsa. “That’s okay,” Pam told me, and put my mind back at ease as I began sautéing the veal.
My dish was not pretty, but it was mine, and it tasted amazing. The capers in the picatta caramelized with the butter and lemon to make each bite of veal chewy, tart, and tender. The salsa tasted fresh in a way I have not found with the store-bought salsa that I have always known. Pam’s class allowed me and some basic dudes to be our own, weird selves, and to make some meals that could become all our own.
A Chef’s Kitchen
It is a trend to offer amazing food in spaces outside the traditional restaurant. Food trucks, pop-up cafes, and dining clubs offer the hip cachet and glorious dishes that snag “likes” on Instagram faster than James Franco taking a bedroom selfie. The exclusive meals are inherently awesome and pretentious, traits that are often intertwined in bigger cities. Toledo offers the pop-up without the pretense. One of the best meals you can eat in Toledo is not in a restaurant, but, instead, is offered at a hands-off cooking class in the kitchen of an old pie factory.
Scott Pierce owns Tree City Catering, a business he began last year when he moved back to Toledo. Pierce grew up in Sylvania, then spent a decade cooking in Columbus at the revered Refectory and the now retired Handke’s. Pierce is 29, baby-faced, and shockingly talented. Clients fly him around the country to cater their events. Pierce turns the simple into something else. In his hands, chicken becomes golden and juicy. His knife turns vegetables into boldly flavored ornaments of color. His oven creates a chocolate soufflé so soft and rich that Paula Deen could use it as a pillow. “The ‘freshest’ is what I like to cook today,” said Pierce. But his food is so much more than that.
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Pierce holds a monthly demonstration where up to sixteen people sit around and watch him cook in his kitchen found in the old Schmucker’s pie factory on Angola Road. He explains how he makes everything, from the Hungarian-spiced steak rub to the homemade, candied walnuts—his last dinner was a summer steak salad to offer a brief reprieve from the January cold. An angled mirror lets you see his hands move knives like a conductor’s baton while you casually sit and drink wine. He creates a three-course meal that you eat inches from where he made it. “My mother taught me not to play with my food,” Pierce said. And he doesn’t. He just takes the freshest food he can find, and opens his kitchen once a month to let you see—and eat—how perfect his ingredients can be.
The next men’s cooking class at Pam’s corner will be held on Tuesday, March 25, 6pm.
Registration will close a week prior to the event. $35. Pam’s Corner, 116 10th St. 419-243-2081. pamstoledo.com
Dorian Slaybod is 27, a local attorney, and happily living in Toledo.
