Brooklyn, Be Mine? A Guest Blog Series from ExchangeMyPhone

With February 14th in mind, ExchangeMyPhone has written this Valentine series for ioby highlighting a handful of people and organizations that perform labors of love for the borough’s wellbeing. ExchangeMyPhone is a website for anyone to sell (or recycle) their old phones and their blog is full of local, and global, green innovation stories.

What’s Cookin' in Brooklyn

 
Like many fresh-out-of-school twenty-somethings Chrissy’s friends didn’t know their way around a kitchen. “It was shocking to me” the Brooklyn transplant says, “that there are people who don't known cooking basics, and I wanted to help them learn without it costing an arm and a leg or using complicated terminology, techniques, and ingredients.”
And so, Chrissy’s Cooking Club was born, the newbie non-profit that focuses on cooking from scratch with locally farmed food to show people how to use the produce available in their neighborhood and demystify the terrors of the kitchen.
These days you can often find Chrissy at the Bushwick Farmer’s market or the Campus High School, where she does live cooking demos and sells full-portioned meals to the public.  Seeing her or her volunteers whip up something delicious on the spot takes all the intimidation out of cooking, and whenever possible they let people get their hands in on the process too.  “To me,” says Chrissy, “It's always better when someone can experience how easy it is to cook than to have me just stand around extolling the nutritional virtues of a dish.” Though she was never formally trained as a chef, Chrissy learned the traditions of nutrition from her mother and, fittingly enough, her biggest audience seems to be mothers who visit the market each week to copy down the recipe and make that dish for their families. “My greatest pleasure comes from them,” says Chrissy. “That’s my true love! Knowing that I can make a difference in something as fundamental as what people choose to eat and feed their family.”

Right now, the Cooking Club is looking forward to the spring (and all the fresh produce!) as well as hunting for spaces to host cooking workshops.  “Our demand in 2011 was just so astonishing I am hoping we can get more volunteers, programs, and workshops in the upcoming year.
If you're interested in helping out as a volunteer, making a donation, or have a place they could host a workshops, please contact Chrissy directly at chrissy@chrissyscookingclub.org .