Cookology Culinary School opens its kitchen to chefs, drink-makers, cookbook authors and all creatives in the food scene with new, ongoing events. We’re kicking off this series of guest stars with award-winning talent from DC’s food and drink world.

 

Mardi Gras Magic with David Guas | Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 | Buy Tickets
New Orleans native David Guas owns Bayou Bakery in Arlington, and will celebrate a decade in business this year. The casual NOLA-inspired cafe keeps Guas grounded, as he makes appearances on The Today Show, The Talk, Chopped, Chopped Junior, and as host of American Grilled on Travel Channel.

With his Cuban-born father, Guas visited his ancestral homeland and has taken an interest in promoting a newly thriving food scene. He’s been written about in Food & Wine (including his trip to Cuba), Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Saveur and Bon Appetit.

DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style (Taunton Press) was a James Beard Award finalist, an International Association of Culinary Professionals [IACP] Cookbook Award finalist and named as one of Food & Wine’s Best New Dessert Cookbooks.

In this ode to Mardi Gras, Guas will celebrate classics from the Crescent City.

 

Cool Beans with Joe Yonan | Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020 | Buy Tickets

In 2013, before the term ‘plant-based’ became ubiquitous, Yonan “came out” (his words!) as a vegetarian. It was a little bit of a scandal. He explained: “… anybody who doesn’t understand the compulsion to eat less — or no — meat isn’t paying attention to news about its environmental impact, or doesn’t care.”

More than a half-dozen years later, this move to a more meatless diet feels rather mainstream. Yonan, of course, a food writer and editor who knows what we want to eat before the first signs of hunger, now leads us to the world of beans (beans are a thing, btw) with Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes (Ten Speed Press, 2020). 

Yonan has led food coverage at the Washington Post since 2006, and has since garnered two James Beard Foundation awards for the best newspaper food section (2009, 2010) and the Publication of the Year in 2017 from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He’s the author of four books, including Cool Beans, which he’ll share food from during his demo at Cookology. And yes, there will be answers to all your soaking vs. non-soaking questions.

 

Nordic Nights with Willona Sloan | Thursday, Feb. 19, 2020 | Buy Tickets

It is winter. It is still winter. It will be winter for weeks.

How to survive the cold, the dark? Embrace the chill and a Nordic sensibility.

Willona Sloan, a storyteller, writer and editor, teaches creative and professional writing workshops. With an artist residency at Gröndalshús Writer’s Home in Reykjavík, Iceland, she’s also a bit of a Nordic enthusiast.

She’ll lead an immersive and interactive writing workshop at Cookology, blending traditional workshop techniques in between cooking demos. Find time to craft stories and snack and sip Nordic bites prepared by Ed Hardy, a disciple of Ethiopian-born, Sweden-raised celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.

Sloan has published non-fiction, fiction and poetry in the Washington Post, Northern Virginia Magazine, Paste, Publishers Weekly and The Rumpus, among others, and received two Artist Fellowship awards from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

 

Cocktails & Conversation with Derek Brown | Thursday, Feb. 19, 2020 | Buy Tickets

In Derek Brown‘s history of the cocktail, Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters: How the Cocktail Conquered the World, he chronicles humans’ innate desire to get a buzz, noting some archaeologists think “creating alcohol, not bread, was the true purpose of agriculture.”

Brown travels through history up to now, the platinum age of cocktails. But he stopped short of the next wave: spirit-free drinks as well composed and balanced as spirited sips.

At Cookology, Brown will show us how to make one of Columbia Room’s signature cocktails, the Getaway, with and without alcohol.

Columbia Room, of course, is one of the most important and celebrated cocktail bars in the country. It won the 2017 Spirited Award Best American Cocktail Bar, and it celebrates 10 years in 2020. Brown was named Imbibe’s 2015 Bartender of the Year and was appointed Chief Spirits Advisor at the National Archives. He’s written about drinks and drinking for The Atlantic, The Washington Post and Bon Appetit. 

You’ll want to book this hour to learn from one of the great bartenders.

Want to teach a class at Cookology? Email Stefanie Gans at [email protected].