Meet Chef Terri Dien; cooking classes now available in South City

I’ve always loved food.  Tuna fish sandwiches were my favorites when I was a kid.  I didn’t ever think I’d grow up to become a chef – I had my sights on becoming a lawyer.  In college, I studied political science and decided to make a career as a political consultant.  So, after college, I traveled all over California organizing and managing campaigns and elections.  It was a very hard and stressful career – and I turned to cooking and baking to relieve that stress.  That’s when I discovered how much I loved it.  When 9/11 happened, I realized that life is too short and one should follow their dreams.  So I quit my job in politics and enrolled in culinary school.  There, I discovered that I really love to teach and show others how to cook.  I’ve been a chef instructor since 2006 for SSF Parks and Rec!

Even as a kid I’ve always loved cooking and baking. My first memory of how food made an impact on me was when I was maybe 6 years old.  I was at a party with my mom – all of her lady friends were there.  The hostess invited me into the kitchen and showed me the dessert she was about to serve: cream puff swans!  I had never before seen anything so beautiful and amazing — a food item that could look like something else – what artistry!  She even let me dust the swans with powdered sugar. And that was it!  I’ve been deliriously in love with food ever since!  As I mentioned above, I decided to use cooking and baking as a creative outlet during my career in politics.  I learned cake decorating one summer between campaigns and even taught myself how to make a wedding cake for one of my very best friends.  From there, baking gradually grew into savory baking and then into cooking in general.  I traveled a lot in politics and there was always a cookbook or food magazine tucked inside my briefcase!

I love eggs.  I can go on and on about eggs — both in baking and cooking — and whenever I’m tired/hungry and need something quick and satisfying, I make eggs.  Right now, as I am writing this, I’m taking a break from planning and prepping a Mother’s Day Brunch for the family this weekend.  I’ve got eggs in almost everything on the Brunch menu!  Crepes, quiches, cakes, eclairs and yes, cream puff swans!

As a chef instructor, my aim is to offer classes that are fun and entertaining but have an underlying message or skill to impart.  I believe everyone should come away from one of my classes with a new skill or understanding.  Maybe not a new understanding… perhaps a new way of looking at something.  I love the Dim Sum class the most, though. I think people take the class because it’s different and surprisingly easy.  We make a huge batch of bubble tea and make and eat dumplings all night — it’s a fun class and I get to share some personal stories as well as cultural history with the students.  The food is quiet good, too!  LOL

I cater on rare occasions and it’s usually for a friend of a friend for a baby shower at someone’s home or something like that.  I like to help people out but I’m not a full-service caterer.  I leave that to the experts who have the space, vision, and equipment!  I’ve been asked more frequently in recent months for private home classes and those have been quite fun!  Most of the time, it’s a family that wants to make sure their teenagers gain the basic skills before they leave for college or it’s a Girls’ Night In.

LOL  I don’t have a lot of off-time but when I do, I like to watch movies and read books.  I’m currently reading Pioneer Girl, an annotated biography about Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I grew up reading her Little House Books and all I can remember from those books are her descriptions of the food they used to eat.  I love movies and filmmaking so I watch lots of movies for the entertainment but also for production and technical aspects.  In addition to teaching cooking classes, I also run a startup company called Dear Martini, which produces bite-sized cooking videos. You can check us out on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/DearMartiniKitchen.  Everything that goes into making the video is done by Chef Mia and myself.  We do it all – photography, camerawork, on-camera, voiceover, editing, etc.  It’s just the two of us!  So all of that take a lot of time which is why, between teaching and Dear Martini, I don’t have a lot of downtime.  🙂