Do you love to cook? Do you love to eat? Then Tilia has the perfect event for you. Following on the success of our Great Tilia Bake Off we have created an exciting all day Culinary Extravaganza Workshop to help you to take your cooking up a notch. This all day event will take you through a world culinary experience where we take you from breakfast delights to scrumptious entrees. We will feature food from around the world ranging from a Scottish favourite to Swiss decadence (with stops in between to enjoy the tastes of Scandinavia, Russia and Italy). Your journey is guided by some incredible local chefs and you can learn more about them below. Hope you can join us on Sunday March 8, 2020 to enjoy a world of flavour!
Corrine Lauro – owner/operator of Retro Café
Born and raised in France, Corrine grew up in a little village on the Mediterranean coast surrounded by fresh produce, fresh fruit, lots of seafood, and fish. Her cooking inspiration came from her mom who she remembers watching prepare delicious meals with such ease and wanting to be like her. Every meal was prepared from scratch, their groceries coming not from supermarkets but from outdoor markets.
Her first experience with the North American culture of “fast food’ was when at 17 she moved to Florida where her family lived for just over a year. It was a strange experience for someone raised on fresh, healthy food but like most teenagers she came to like it! Fortunately when her family returned to France her parents bought a Delicatessen business and her culinary passion was born. She became so thrilled with this kind of business, (where they catered hot meals for takeout and sold a wide range of cheeses, the best deli meat and cured meat, wine and spirits, chocolate, fancy pâté, caviar, smoked salmon, wild games, delicious dessert….) that she decided to go back to school in Marseille and be a chef. As she studied and worked at her parents' shop, her passion for cooking grew stronger and she knew she had found her life’s calling. Her career has been around food and service ever since. Over the years she has combined her French background heritage and the North American culture into her way of creating the meals she serves every day at her restaurant, Retro Café.
Michele Romano Kropinak of Michele Romano Recipes is a food blogger and cookbook author and her website http://www.micheleromanorecipes.com features her fabulous recipes that celebrate her passion for her Italian food.
Michele credits her love of cooking to her family and learned hands-on in the kitchen cooking with some amazing cooks, both family and friends. She had the honour of being mentored by well known Vancouver Italian chef Luigi Toscano who taught her many tip and tricks for making delicious food.
Michele’s favourite part of every day is to get cooking in her kitchen. Although Italian food is her first love, it is not her only love. Over the years she has been inspired not only to create her own recipes, but to gather a repertoire of the very best recipes from various cuisines and nationalities around the world as well as from family and friends. She is also passionate about the health benefits of pure and simple food in its natural state. She is particularly fascinated learning about all of the super-foods, grains, herbs, spices, oils, organic fruits and vegetables that are available to incorporate into her cooking.
Danika Peltzer Wishlow of Luv at First Bite is affectionately known in Creston as the “Cupcake Girl”. Growing up in Creston Danika dreamed of a career in the culinary arts and this dream took her around the country where she earned her Food and Beverage Management certificate and Baking and Pastry Arts level 1 Certificate then went on to study at the Pastry Training Center of Vancouver; the Cacao Barry Academy in Montreal; was the 2017 Junior Chef Culinary Exchange Recipient to Niagara Falls, and spent countless hours of work experience in the Okanagan and across Canada. She moved back to Creston in 2016 and began building Luv at First Bite, focussing on creating desserts that represent the Creston Valley.
She is excited to contribute to our wonderful community by buying local, by providing a dessert choice that her customers can feel good about, and to connect with those who call Creston home. She believes that each dessert she offers is a potential work of art, a gift for each guest, and is handcrafted with individual attention and care, respecting the ingredients used.
Rachel Beck co-owner Tilia Botanicals is not only passionate about herbal medicine but she loves creating amazing herb based culinary dishes. She is responsible for creating the culinary spices, beverages and food items that are sold at Tilia Botanicals and developing the recipes that are features in Tilia’s monthly newsletter.
During her university days Rachel created Heart’s Delight catering business in Vancouver (to help pay tuition!) and it was named one of the top small catering companies in Vancouver two years in a row and was featured in Vancouver Magazine and the Vancouver Sun. She went on to study under the head pastry chef at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver as well as taking additional training while living in the UK. She has published two cookbooks and is currently working on another. It is her hope with her recipes to inspire people to look at herbs in a different way and to learn to experiment with flavour combinations to fearlessly create exciting and memorable creations.
With this fantastic lineup, this class is filling up quickly! If you are interested in joining this culinary extravaganza let us know early as space is limited.