Voices of the Valley: Couple shares craft of cooking

What do you offer and to who?
We offer personalized, hands-on and demonstration cooking classes followed by lunch or dinner to anyone who wants to learn more about cooking-regardless of their skill level.
Why? What motivates you?
Sandy’s motivation, as a chef, is passing on the knowledge and the craft of cooking that he has been lucky enough to have had passed on to him by his many mentors over 45-plus years.
What sets you apart?
Sandy has developed over 1,000 recipes over the years and draws on them for the classes. He is a James Beard Award-winning chef who has numerous accolades under his belt, including the fact that he has cooked for Julia Child and the Dalai Lama. Sandy’s food achieved the highest Zagat Guide rating at our restaurant, Sanford, which we owned in Milwaukee, Wisc., and ran for 23 years. Angie ran all of the front-of-house operations at the two restaurants and bakery while employing and managing a staff of over 100. Her service team at Sanford achieved the highest Zagat Guide rating for service. All of our experiences carry over to Good Stock Farm and because it’s just the two of us, it is the ultimate distillation of where we come from and almost completely under our control- unheard of in our past lives- which hopefully creates a stress-free and fun learning environment. Our new school/home overlooks the Connecticut River, so it is stocked with produce and fruit from the amazingly fertile soil of our own gardens and fruit trees. And what we don’t find in our backyard is drawn from the extensive bounty of the surrounding farmlands of the Pioneer Valley.
What mark do you hope to make on your community?
We hope to add our personal take on food preparation and hospitality and eventually become a small part of this vibrant food scene that initially drew us here.
How people can contact you:
info@goodstockfarm.com

Voices of the Valley in complied by Janice Beetle of Beetle Press in Easthampton, a PR and communications firm. beetlepress.com. To suggest a subject for the feature, email Beetle at Janice@beetlypress.com.