Wendy Van Wagner In the Kitchen

FOR WENDY VAN WAGNER, COOKING has been a lifelong passion. It stems from her love of diverse cultures and congenial dinnertime conversation.

“Sharing food with family and friends has always brought me joy,” she says. “I saw it becoming a lost art in the American culture.”

Like others, Wendy noticed that too many family dinners consist of eating restaurant left-overs or fast food in shifts.

Wendy, a cultural anthropology major from Pitzer College near Los Angeles, set out to show the benefits of a home-cooked meal enjoyed around the dinnertable.

She has been teaching cooking and nutrition classes for years, owned a homedelivery meal service and started an organic hot lunch program in the Oakland schools.

Last year, Wendy opened In The Kitchen in Nevada City, a cooking school in a renovated California bungalow-style home.

She offers cooking classes for adults and children alike, private cooking parties and “farm to table” catering in concert with Bluebird Farm in Nevada City.

She also offers “seed to table” classes. A class on July 20 and August 17 features recipes from ingredients such as butter let-tuces, Nasturtium flowers and garlic scapes.

Wendy’s dinner table, which seats 12, is a classic: It is fashioned from a wooden bowling lane from a bowling alley in Grass Valley.

“I love the local food community,” says Wendy. “People are growing and serving beautiful food.”

In the Kitchen
648 Zion Street, Nevada City
www.wendyvanwagner.com