Nourishing Wisdom Bridal Cooking Parties

 

Before your wed­ding, you might be look­ing for an activ­i­ty to bond with your brides­maids while hav­ing some fun.  If food is your thing and learn­ing how to cook healthy is too, then a Nour­sh­ing Wid­som bridal cook­ing par­ty with Hol­ly Shelowitz might be for you.

 

 

Hol­ly is a Rhinebeck-based nutri­tion coun­selor whose resume includes work­shops for cor­po­ra­tions like Whole Foods and Moth­er Earth­’s Stores, and you can also hear her talk about food as a reoc­cur­ring guest on Radio Wood­stock­’s Morn­ing Show. Her cook­ing class­es for brides is some­thing that she has been doing for a long time, since 1999 to be exact, when she was com­plet­ing her train­ing at the Insti­tute for Inte­gra­tive Nutri­tion and the Nation­al Gourmet Insti­tute in New York City.  “I was con­tact­ed around that time by a maid of hon­or who’d heard on the inter­net that I was giv­ing class­es for indi­vid­u­als.  She was plan­ning a trip upstate with the bride-to-be and some brides­maids, and want­ed to set up some­thing spe­cial for the week­end.  I was thrilled to do that,” recalls Hol­ly.  “After that, cook­ing class­es for brides took on a life of its own as it spread by word of mouth.”

 

 

Today Hol­ly gives sev­er­al bridal cook­ing class­es a month dur­ing the wed­ding sea­son, teach­ing future brides and their brides­maids (and some­times the groom and his grooms­men) about healthy eat­ing and prop­er cook­ing tech­niques.  Her 2 1/2 hour class­es are held all across the Hud­son Val­ley and in New York City in a vari­ety of venues.  “Some­times brides and their brides­maids will come up for a week­end in advance of their wed­ding and rent out a house with a real­ly nice kitchen.  Oth­er times, I rent out kitchens for brides who have lim­it­ed space for a cook­ing par­ty,” says Hol­ly.

 

 

Each cook­ing par­ty is cus­tomized to every bride and group with a vari­ety of menus.  “Nor­mal­ly I sug­gest a healthy Mediter­ranean cui­sine menu, but we can also do Thai, Moroc­can — what­ev­er fla­vors, spices, and dish­es appeal to a group,” Hol­ly explains.  “I also make sure that any dietary con­sid­er­a­tions are tak­en into account for veg­e­tar­i­ans or peo­ple who are dairy or gluten-free.”

 

 

A com­mon thread through­out all of Hol­ly’s cook­ing class­es, no mat­ter what the cui­sine, is learn­ing to make prac­ti­cal, healthy meals at home.  Hol­ly says, “The whole point is that every dish becomes part of the stu­dents’ reper­toire and they can make them all the time.  And this real­ly helps brides who maybe are career women and don’t have a lot of time to cook com­pli­cat­ed meals.”

 

 

Some­times Hol­ly’s class­es are more than about savory din­ners.  Some­times they are all about choco­late mak­ing.  “In these class­es we make choco­late from scratch,” explains Hol­ly.  “I teach bridal par­ties about grind­ing their own cocoa and cre­at­ing choco­late tablets with nat­ur­al sweet­en­ers such as hon­ey, maple, or coconut sug­ar.  Then we dec­o­rate them with nuts, dried fruits, and rose petals.”  Oth­er treats cre­at­ed dur­ing choco­late cook­ing class­es are truf­fles, dip­ping sauces, and a healthy choco­late-hazel­nut spread.

 

 

An inter­est­ing vari­ant of the choco­late cook­ing par­ty is the lin­gerie & choco­late par­ty.  Hol­ly laughs as she recalls how the first of these off­beat class­es came into being.  “I was work­ing with a wom­an’s group in New York City for about a year and around that time I went to Cos­ta Rica to learn about choco­late grow­ing.  I men­tioned to some­one that I want­ed to teach about choco­late mak­ing and one of the ladies in the group said, ‘Why don’t we have a class and wear lin­gerie?’  It was some­thing that was so hilar­i­ous and dar­ing that I decid­ed to do it, and every­one in the group said yes.  Every­one came to the class after work and every­one was gig­gling and hav­ing fun.  It fit because choco­late is real­ly a sen­su­al food.”

 

 

After each cook­ing class, Hol­ly and her stu­dents sit down to enjoy the fruits of their labor togeth­er.  “Nor­mal­ly we eat fam­i­ly style but if a par­tic­u­lar group wants to be served at a sit-down din­ner, I can arrange for a team of assis­tants to be servers for the evening,” Hol­ly points out.

Also, there is swag: each per­son who attends a class receives a print­ed deck of cards fea­tur­ing all the recipes made.  As an add-on, Hol­ly can also arrange for cus­tom aprons or wood­en spoons with the bride’s name print­ed on front, or any oth­er sen­ti­ment.

 

 

When plan­ning a cook­ing par­ty with Hol­ly, she rec­om­mends a min­i­mum of 2–3 months in advance.  Ear­li­er if order­ing cus­tom aprons or spoons, or any oth­er per­son­al­ized items.  Dur­ing the wed­ding sea­son, Hol­ly says she can book up fast and might not be per­son­al­ly avail­able for all dates.  How­ev­er, she does have a num­ber of asso­ciates with whom she can arrange a great cook­ing par­ty even at the last minute.

“It can be extreme­ly busy, but it’s a lifestyle that I love.  And the Hud­son Val­ley is for me the per­fect loca­tion to do this with all our farm-to-table foods, and the nat­ur­al beau­ty and boun­ty of this place,” says Hol­ly.  With that sen­ti­ment, we could­n’t agree more.

 

 

Does a bridal cooking party sound like fun?

Down­load images from this arti­cle on our Nour­ish­ing Wis­dom Web Album made espe­cial­ly for your smart­phone. Use it for ref­er­ence and share with those help­ing you plan your pre-wed­ding activ­i­ties.

Additional Information:

Learn more about Hol­ly Shelow­itz’s bridal cook­ing class­es vis­it http://www.nourishingwisdom.com/ or call (845) 658‑7887.

To dis­cuss your wed­ding with Due­tim­age Hud­son Val­ley Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­phers, call (845) 905‑6323 or vis­it: http://www.duetimage.com/contact.