New San Diego Cooking School Targets Serious Amateur Cooking Enthusiasts

Infusion Culinary launches to meet the needs of “foodies” of San Diego who want to become great cooks.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) January 21, 2006 -- At a time when the popularity of the Food Network Channel continues to rise and sales are brisk at specialty cooking stores, comprehensive culinary classes for serious cooking enthusiasts are becoming the next big thing. With the recent opening of Infusion Culinary - and classes beginning January 25 - San Diegan “foodies” now have a place to learn the fundamentals of fine cooking, skills they can use to create great meals for life using ordinary ingredients.

Until recently, cooking enthusiasts have had to choose between two extremes to receive cooking instruction: hobbyist-oriented one-off seminars or multi-year programs at culinary institutes for professional career chefs. This is beginning to change now. In major cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco and now San Diego, professional-style in-depth cooking classes for “foodies” are becoming popular.

According to the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, 2005 was the largest attendance year for their amateur cooking classes in their 27 years of business. In addition, one of the nation’s best-known cooking schools, The French Culinary Institute in New York City, has picked up on the trend and now offers shorter programs for cooking enthusiasts in addition to its full-length programs for aspiring chefs.
    
“This growing food and cooking trend can be partly explained by the popularity of food channels, which glamorize cooking and expose people to new cuisine,” says principal and executive chef of Infusion Culinary, Joey Nerenberg. “There is also a new focus on entertaining and the home. More and more people want to go beyond sustenance with cooking.”

Infusion Culinary offers five- and 12-week programs. Each class is taught in a professional kitchen by two professional chef instructors and is limited to 15 students, guaranteeing personalized, hands-on instruction for each student with a Hear It, See It, Do Itsm approach. All ingredients, utensils and cooking attire are provided. Students learn to make professional-quality cuisine from everyday ingredients in an atmosphere that emphasizes the fun and social aspects of food. Upon course completion, students will have gained the essential skills to prepare great meals from commonly available ingredients. More importantly, students will have the understanding and competency to create all kinds of cuisine without being tied to recipes, in essence, achieving “culinary freedom.”

"Students will walk away from the class with the skills and confidence to create meal after meal that goes beyond the everyday,” says Nerenberg. “Instead of just following instructions they will understand what they are doing and cooking will become second nature.”
   
Specific skills students will learn in both the five- and 12-week programs include: knife skills and cooking techniques, stocks, soups, sauces, vegetables, proteins, salads, dressings and much more. Plating and presentation skills are also covered. Once students master the fundamental skills taught at Infusion Culinary they will be able to create many types of cuisine with ease. Courses culminate with students preparing a fine meal for family and friends during the final class session.

About Infusion Culinary

Founded in 2005 by chef Joey Nerenberg, Infusion Culinary of San Diego, Calif. provides professionally taught educational courses for the serious cooking enthusiast who is looking for a comprehensive grounding in the fundamentals of fine cooking. Infusion Culinary’s course offerings fill the broad, previously un-served niche between one-time classes best suited for cooking hobbyists and professional culinary institutes. Infusion Culinary uses a total immersion, Hear It, See It, Do Itsm approach to teaching that is fun and very effective. Small class sizes with two professional chef instructors per class guarantee ample personal attention for each student. Instructors engage students with humor and encouragement. Through this unique teaching approach, essential cooking skills and knowledge become second nature to students. More information about Infusion Culinary can be found at www.infusionculinary.com.

About Principal/ Executive Chef Joey Nerenberg

Joey Nerenberg, founder, principal and executive chef of Infusion Culinary has been cooking his entire life. A native Californian, Joey spent 11 years in Minnesota before returning to San Diego. He received his bachelor of arts in political science from the University of California, San Diego and his masters in Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Minnesota.

After college, Joey spent more than 10 years working at American Express Financial Services in Minneapolis, Minn. He first worked in technology support and management and then moved to product development, creating more than $500 million in new product sales. He then worked in professional development, converting a $2 billion field sales organization into a successful profit center. Leaving American Express as a director, Joey returned to California as a consultant in the financial services and web-based customer relations management areas.

After living a few more years back in San Diego, Joey discovered his culinary calling and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii to study at the Culinary Institute of the Pacific. In addition to becoming a competent chef, Joey cultivated a love and appreciation for Hawaiian and Pan Asian regional dishes. After completing his culinary arts education in 2003, Joey moved back to San Diego and became a chef-instructor at the Art Institute of California, San Diego, teaching there from 2003 - 2005.

Joey’s new career and continued passion for cooking, combined with his past corporate work experiences, led to his creation of Infusion Culinary, a unique cooking school, in 2005. While working in the corporate world, Joey found that he could achieve consistent project success by focusing on customer service and operating profitability, and by coordinating all parties involved in a project. Joey realized that these skills are directly applicable to teaching people to become competent cooks. In fact, Joey found the professional culinary process to be almost identical to that of a corporate project or campaign, but on an abbreviated timeline. Instead of occurring over a number of months, cooking transpires in a matter of hours! It was this realization that led Joey to create Infusion Culinary as an innovative way to learn essential cooking techniques and creative skills.

When not working or in the kitchen, Joey spends time with his wife and two children and takes frequent trips back to Hawai’i to visit friends.

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