Throughout my career life, I’ve served as more of a teacher than that I often realize. It all began during my senior year at Louisiana State University in 2003, teaching LSU 1001 to college freshmen. I taught the history of the university, culture and traditions of campus life, and fight songs for football games.
I spent two years teaching high school math (algebra and financial math) at Lee High School in Baton Rouge from 2007-2009. Not knowing what I was getting into, I stumbled into the job and quickly took on the role of head baseball coach as well. During those years in the classroom I might have learned as much as more than my students, but the joy of seeing them succeed is a feeling I’ll always hold onto.
Early in my culinary career, around 2012-2013, I served as a part-time instructor at the Louisiana Culinary Institute, teaching several semesters of culinary math to eager and ambitious future chefs.
I’ve led many countless cooking classes, chef demonstrations, video cooking tutorials, and online workshops. These have taken many different forms, but the core of teaching, listening, and learning is always there.
In 2019, I flew to Kolkata, India to host a three-day culinary entrepreneurship workshop for people looking to grow their businesses in eastern India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The program, put on by the US State Department, the Indo-American Center, and US Consulate in Kolkata, aimed to foster relations with that part of the globe using food as a universal language.
In 2024, I’m teaching a course at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA - IMS 25X - Brewing for Fun and Profit: The Ins and Outs of the Craft Beverage Business.
The course will intertwine many fields of study from economics and education to chemistry to history. Students will learn about alcoholic beverages from early agricultural, geographical, and cultural roots to the political implications of blue laws and the history of constitutional amendments that both created and repealed prohibition. And of course, we'll drink taste it all too as we learn about about different varietals of wine, styles of beer, and types of spirits.
