Boulevard Cooking Classes bring food lovers and restaurateurs together in several six-week courses

Por Mónica Garske | Reportero SDUN

Thanks to efforts by the El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement Association, local restaurateurs along the boulevard are sharing secrets behind their authentic culinary creations by taking part in community cooking classes. With the association’s district spanning several neighborhoods, participants in the Boulevard Cooking Classes have sevearl opportunities to discover new locations thoughout Uptown.

Organized by Beryl Forman, marketing director of the Business Improvement Association (BIA), the next six-part cooking series begins July 9. Classes are held Mondays for six weeks, and participants visit six different restaurants along El Cajon Boulevard. The third series ends Monday, June 25, and the course on Monday, June 18 was  hosted at Mama’s Lebanese Bakery in North Park.

During each class, restaurant owners or chefs teach participants how to make specialty ethnic dishes from different parts of the world.

“It’s a very community-minded project that brings people together,” Forman said. “Restaurants can participate and get more one-on-one time with customers. For participants, it’s cool because they learn to make something new and get to know the owners of restaurants.”

Forman said each class usually includes a step-by-step demonstration and a brief history on the dish being prepared, such as where it originated from and how it is eaten in that part of the world. At the end of the class, Forman said students typically get to taste the dish and take home a copy of the recipe.

In addition to learning new dishes for the students, restaurant owners are also seeing benefits from participating in the classes, by seeing the value in connecting with the community, Forman said. Many have happily offered to host future demonstrations.

One of those participating restaurateurs is Edward Haidar, owner of Mama’s Lebanese Bakery and host of the June 18 class.

At the class, Haidar taught students to make traditional Lebanese dishes like “baba ghanouj,” a flavorful eggplant spread, and “sajj,” a flatbread and a potato-based garlic spread. Both are typically used in Lebanese cooking.

“I like getting involved in this. It’s fun getting to know people from the area and showing them food from my culture,” Haidar said.

Haidar, who has owned Mama’s Bakery since 2004, said he has had many students from the cooking classes come back to dine at his restaurant and that they have also helped spread the word by telling their friends about his business.

Constantly looking for new, positive ways to promote businesses along El Cajon Boulevard, Forman said the idea for the community cooking classes came to her after attending a workshop at the Agitprop gallery, located on University Avenue in North Park.

“My friend runs the gallery and was teaching a class about what businesses in the community could actually teach one another and their neighbors,” she said. “After dropping in on that class I decided, ‘That’s it; restaurant owners on the Boulevard can teach cooking classes.’ The idea took off from there.”

She also said she believes projects like the cooking classes help locals realize there is much more to El Cajon Boulevard than they might think.

“People have preconceived ideas about El Cajon Boulevard because of its past reputation,” she said, “but when you visit a restaurant and get to know the owner, you’re now engaged in the food culture of El Cajon Boulevard and you’re not making assumptions about what may have once been here.”

For Haidar, who signed up to host during the next series of classes, there may be several familiar faces. Some students, Forman said, return series after series, including Jacquelyn O’Connor, president of the Boulevard’s BIA.

Saying her favorite part about the classes is learning about the different spices and ingredients used in cultural cuisine, O’Connor called the demonstration at El Borrego, where a mother and daughter cooking team taught the class how to make authentic Mexican posole, an example of what the classes mean for her.

“A gentleman taking the class with us actually went home and made posole for his family,” O’Connor said. “I just really enjoy the feeling of community that comes from these classes.”

As interest grows for the classes, Forman said she will add more to the schedule, but that for now, she will keep bringing positive emphasis to eateries along El Cajon Boulevard and introducing foodies to global fare.

“My plan is to put on four or five of these series each year. El Cajon Boulevard is the perfect place for something like this because it traverses all these different neighborhoods,” Froman said. “It gets locals to explore areas they may not know anything about.”

For the series starting July 9, participants will visit Flavors of Africa in University Heights, Eclipse Chocolat and Tiger! Tiger! in North Park, El Borrego in City Heights, Awash Ethiopian Restaurant in Rolando and, of course, Mama’s Lebanese Bakery.

Classes are limited to 10 participants and the entire six-week series costs $150 per person. For more information about courses, visit theboulevard.org.