Learn with Us

Cooking and Culinary Traditions Program

Hands-On Learning

We are a working commercial kitchen.  Our program offers you the opportunity to participate fully in our innovative production model, and is an ideal opportunity if you are interested in starting a CSK in another part of the country.  We offer real-time, real-life commercial kitchen experience, including:

• Executing large-scale recipes (up to 400 servings) for soups, stews, side dishes, desserts, dressings and more on an ongoing basis
  

  

• Using commercial kitchen equipment including 40-gallon tilt skillets, convection ovens, pastry sheeter, & large-scale food processors
• Creating staff & student meals and understanding serving sizes and quantities for small and large groups
• Working on a daily basis with organic, locally-grown produce; pastured & grassfed meats; whole grains and legumes; traditional, healthy fats; sprouted flours; wholesome sweeteners
• Creating the menu for and executing a four-course public dinner for 120 people, working as a team with your class of students.
• Working as a team and in pairs with other students.

Curriculum

Daily faculty instruction in a range of relevant topics:

• The nutritional wisdom of traditional & indigenous diets
• How holistic healing modalities (such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, & Homeopathy) integrate the healing power of food
• Sustainable food systems, organic farming, humanely-raised meats
  

  

• Culinary skills including knife techniques, animal butchery, charcuterie, fermented vegetables and beverages
• Business skills including costing-out recipes, reading a profit-and-loss statement, drafting a business plan
• Behind-the-scenes insight into many aspects of the Community Supported Kitchen model: inventory systems, delivery options, customer service, sourcing, ordering, recipe development, account management
• Weekly study period for planning menus, scaling recipes, and cooking library study.

Schedule

• Full-time, Monday through Friday, 40 hours per week, with some weekend field trips and workshops
• The program lasts 16 weeks. Upcoming sessions:

• Sept 6 – Dec 22, 2011 (Completed)
• January 2 – April 27, 2012 (in-session)
• April 30 – August 24, 2012 (Accepting Applications)
• September 4- December 21st (Accepting Applications)

 

Available Shifts

All students will be scheduled for 1 Hands-On Learning shift daily, Monday-Friday. The regularly scheduled shifts are as follows:

7:30am	Arrival Morning Birds Review day’s objectives with shift leader begin hands-on learning
9:45am	Tea Break (15 minutes) with snack
10:00am	Resume hands-on learning Students assigned to prepare lunch begins preparations
10:30am	Arrival Afternoon Birds Review day’s objectives with shift leader begin hands-on learning (Mentoring/Study/Shadowing/Special Projects as assigned)
1:45pm	Lunch Mealtime (30-45 min) Family style meal with students and staff
2:30	Classes for 1 hour
3:30pm	Early Birds Go home Afternoon Birds resume kitchen assignments
5:00pm	Stretch break 10 min
6:30pm	Afternoon Birds go home
Saturdays & Sundays (TBA)	Various Classes, field trips and Full Moon Feast
1pm-9pm	Tuesday Night Owl shift students rotate weekly

Important notes about scheduling:

• In order to let you experience each aspect of our model and all the processes, it is best if you are available for all the shifts above at least sometime during your four months.
• If you are available for the daily class and the majority of the daily shifts but would need to miss up to 6 hours per week of Hands-On Learning, we can probably accommodate your schedule. There are also Hands-On Learning opportunities on Sunday and a portion of a weekday shift could be exchanged for a Sunday stretch.

Daily routine:

7:45am	Early shift arrival on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays: Hands-on Learning begins
9:45am	Tea Break (15 minutes) with snack Midday shift arrival time
10am	Daily lesson with Faculty
11am	Resume Hands-on Learning
1:30 - 2pm	Lunch break (we all sit down and eat lunch together) Late shift arrival on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
2pm	Resume Hands-on Learning
3:45pm	Early shift departure
4pm	Stretch break (10 minutes)
4:10pm	Resume Hands-on Learning
5:45pm	Midday shift departure
6:30-7pm	Evening meal break on Tuesday & Wednesday
7pm	Resume Hands-on Learning
8 or 8:30pm	Late shift departure on Tuesday & Wednesday

On-Staff Faculty and Supervisors

Porsche Combash: One of the co-founders and worker/owners of Three Stone Hearth, Porsche has an extensive background in commercial food preparation and retail food specialty sales.  For more information, see her bio here.

Jessica Prentice: One of the co-founders and worker/owners of Three Stone Hearth, Jessica has worked extensively as an educator, with a focus on sustainable agriculture and traditional diets.  For more information, see her bio here.

Seth Peterson: A seasoned chef and avid gardener, Seth has cooked in a wide range of commercial settings in the U.S. and Latin America, and teaches culinary skills through the Slow Food network.

Misa Koketsu: One of the co-founders and worker/owners of Three Stone Hearth, Misa has a strong background both in baking and in sustainable food systems education, and extensive experience managing the finances of Three Stone Hearth.  For more information, see her bio here.

Catherine Spanger: One of the co-founders and worker/owners of Three Stone Hearth, Catherine has a background in hospitality, environmental management, and nutrition, as well as extensive experience managing distribution and customer service for Three Stone Hearth.  For more information, see her bio here.

Otto Thorsen: A long-term employee of Three Stone Hearth and passionate artist and musician, Otto is in charge of making Three Stone Hearth’s kombuchas, kvass, and honey coolers.

Mary Dee: A long-term employee of Three Stone Hearth, Mary works on recipe development, accounting, and store inventory.  Before coming to Three Stone Hearth, Mary spent years organizing educational groups and activities, developing curriculum, and home-schooling her daughter for 13 years.  Mary is passionate about healthy food, nutrition, and community building.

Denise Goitia: As a long-term employee at Three Stone Hearth, Denise has joined us as a liasion for the guest speakers of the CCTP.  She studied Anthropology at Georgetown University, and is a Nutrition Educator, Wholistic Massage Therapist, and student of Western Herbalism. She also works for HeartBeets, a local foods initiative in San Francisco. Denise is committed to promoting sustainable agriculture, whole foods nutrition, and reinvigorating our traditional food ways. She believes all individuals possess an innate wisdom that seeks wellness through balance.

Visiting Faculty

Nishanga Bliss: An assistant professor of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley, Nishanga grows, forages, ferments, cooks, savors and writes about local foods.  She has a forthcoming book, Real Food All Year: Eating Seasonal Whole Foods for Optimal Health and All-Day Energy.  Visit her blog at http://gastronicity.blogspot.com.

Chris Kresser: Practicing what he calls “investigative medicine,” Chris is a health care practitioner, blogger and independent researcher.  He’s the creator of The Healthy Skeptic, a blog and podcast challenging mainstream myths on nutrition, health & disease.  He has a private practice in Berkeley, CA and consults with people around the world via telephone & Skype.

Susan (Hrimati) Fauman has been a student of yoga, health and healing modalities for 13 years. In 2001, she took her first trip to India where she deepened her study of Ayurvedic medicine. She has been a teacher of hatha yoga since 2001 and a teacher of Ayurveda since 2004. She currently teaches yoga and has a private practice in Ayurvedic Medicine and Yoga Therapy at Yoga Mandala Studio in Berkeley.

Edi Pfeiffer: A nationally certified homeopath with 20 years experience treating families, through pregnancy, infancy, childhood, adulthood, and aging, Edi is a 1991 graduate of the Hahnemann College of Homeopathy.  She also completed the Luminos Master Clinician Course in 2002. Edi finds nutrient-dense foods to be a big component of her clients’ wellness. Visit her blog and website for more information.

Julie Matthews: An internationally respected autism diet and nutrition specialist, Julie is the author of Nourishing Hope for Autism.  In addition to her private practice in San Francisco, Julie presents at the leading autism conferences in the US and abroad, hosts multiple radio programs, writes for autism publications, and teaches Cooking to Heal™ autism cooking classes.  Check out her website for more information.

Laura Ciapponi: A certified Natural Chef and Nutrition Educator, Laura created her therapeutic chef business, Nourishing the Whole, in 2005.  Through her practice, Laura integrates her love of WAPF principles with a gluten- and sugar-free approach, as well as using hair mineral analysis, herbal medicine, Reconnective Healing, and yoga to serve her clients.

Kristina Sepetys: An active member of Three Stone Hearth’s Business Advisory Board, Kristina is an economist and writer with a special interest in food and farming issues.

Dana Towsey:  An active member of Three Stone Hearth’s Business Advisory Board, especially on financial issues, Dana has extensive business management and retail experience.

Dev Rana: The East Bay chapter leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation, Dev is a long-time activist and organizer for small, local, connected foodsystems.

Anietie (Tia) Ukpe:  a registered yoga teacher (E-RYT 200) and Restorative Exercise Specialist (RES-CPT), Tia is also a soon-to-be yoga therapist who has been teaching in the Bay Area for over three years.  She combines her love of movement, anatomy and alignment into all facets of her teaching.  Her goal is to educate and empower students to learn and be comfortable in their own bodies.  Visit her website for more information.

Rupam Henry: coming from a family heritage of herbalists, medicine makers and pharmacists reaching back 13 generations, Rupam feels passionate about sharing processes, tools and information to empower others on their path of self-healing.
She combined her expertise as a Holistic Health Counselor, Herbalist, and Light Therapy Practitoner with her 20 year professional experience as an R.D.A in general and pediatric dentistry to form Rupam’s Apothecary, a small, local business specializing in herbal remedies and products.

Laura Paradise: full bio to come…

Costs and Fees

• $2000 tuition per person per session
• $95 materials fee
• Financial aid is available: We want our education programs to be available to everyone regardless of means. We have a sliding scale to help cover the costs of tuition for those for whom the $2000 cost would be prohibitive. Please fill in that portion of the application form if this applies to you.

Application