By Portia Williams
WHEELERSBURG — The Pastor’s Pantry Cooking School, located in Wheelersburg, is now open and accepting reservations for their cooking classes and private instruction events. A subsidiary of Patter Fam Sauces, the cooking school is a complete cooking and dining experience led by chef and local pastor Sam Peters.
“The company has been around since 2009, and has done extremely well. And as a part of that, we are opening up our own sauce bottling factory for our products and for products for other companies,” Peters said. “We have companies from Florida and Kansas and Georgia, and just all over wanting to actually bottle their sauces at our factory, that’s because we specialize in doing basically, micro batch bottling process. So, that really helps the small company, or the noobie that is kind of getting into the industry it kind of helps them get started.”
It is the kitchen lab in his factory that sparked the idea for Pastor’s Pantry Cooking School.
“We saw that as sort of a niche of just micro batching of condiments and sauces that wasn’t being met very well, so we decided to open our own factory,” he said. “As part of that, in our factory we have created a kitchen lab to test and develop sauces, and in addition to that I am using that lab to do a cooking school called the Pastor’s Pantry Cooking School is all about.”
The name Pastor’s Cooking School emanated from a cooking class video series in which Peters would do online cooking lessons.
“So we thought we would try this, there is really nothing in the area that caters to that, and so that is how we started it, inspired through all of the sauce making, and all of the cooking that I have been doing since I was 14 years old,” he said.
The cooking school teaches the participants how to cook a wide variety of dishes ranging from Asian, Italian and Latin America to domestic styles of Barbecue, Cajun and Lowlands regardless of their experience level.
Their desire at the Cooking School is to share the gospel of good taste with the people they care about.
“This has been a dream of ours for some time. Getting people we love around the table is what social interaction should be. I have used that expression for a number of years, that we are all about sharing the gospel of good taste,” he said. “What I feel that means is that, with my vocation as a pastor and a chef, my take is that God wants us all to be in community with one another, and he created us to be social beings, and social interaction needs to happen a lot more around the table breaking bread together, rather than on a keyboard and a computer screen. So, when we’re sharing the gospel of good taste it’s all about bringing families and loved ones and friends around the table to kind of share together the gift of good food with one another.”
The school will also offer special events for a relaxed evening such as Date Night, Girls Night Out and other themed events. The Pastor’s Pantry Cooking School is available for private cooking classes, special occasions, team building, or client appreciation events.
Each class is an intimate, hands-on event where students may get to assist in preparation and eat what is cooked. Most classes feature a four-course meal. Classes are limited to 20 reservations so that everyone can enjoy the interactive experience.
Class schedule varies and can be seen along with the menus on their website: www.patterfamsauces.com under the tab “Cooking Classes.” Prices begin at $20 per person.
The Pastor’s Pantry Cooking School is located in the Patter Fam Foods building, 8019 Hayport Road in Wheelersburg at the intersection of Hayport Road and Old Gallia Pike. Parking is located at Duis and Hayport Road, or it is recommended that guests use the valet parking at the main entrance of the building. For more information may also be obtained by calling 740-352-2008.
Reach Portia Williams at 740-353-3101, ext. 1929, or on Twitter @PortiaWillPDT.
