Trout Point Cooking & Wine School, Nova Scotia, Canada
and the Institute of Sustainable Gastronomy


Cooking Classes & Culinary Vacations
in Cheeses & Cheesemaking, Seafood, and Hot & Cold Smoking and Curing
Trout Point Lodge and its Institute of Sustainable Gastronomy offer the Nova Scotia Seafood Cooking School, a favorite program since 2000. Classes for 2009 include Seafood Cookery and Mediterranean Cuisine, with an emphasis on seafood and Mediterranean culinary techniques. For the fourth year, Trout Point will also offer its Cheeses & Cheesemaking Master Class in September.

Classes by the hour are also available for Trout Point Lodge guests in Creole Cookery, Smoking & Curing (Seafood), & Cheeses (appreciation & cheesemaking). Guided afternoon Wine Tastings in the Lodge's Great Room will also be offered in 2009.

Among the most acclaimed cooking schools in North America, the Trout Point Cooking & Wine School has recently garnered top recommendations from:

The 10 "most palatial, intriguing and gourmet jouneys on offer" NBPulse (July, 2008)
"World's best culinary trips" ForbesTraveler  (April, 2008)
"A touch of class" Food & Travel (April, 2007)
"Global Culinary School" concierge.com/Condé-Nast (May, 2007)
"They come for the seafood" Globe & Mail (September, 2007)
"Gourmet traveling North American style" Peter Greenburg (September, 2007)

 
 

These classes are intended for all food lovers!

Topics include:
e-mail for reservations & information: troutpoint@foodvacation.com

Instructors for the Master Classes

VAUGHN J. PERRET, a New Orleans native, earned a BA in history from Loyola University and an MA in cultural anthropology from Tulane University before receiving his JD from Cornell. He grew up on Creole cooking and Louisiana seafood, and later lived in Paris. At Chicory Farm, Mr. Perret established a mushroom cultivation laboratory and growing operation, and oversaw an extensive market garden certified organic by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture. An expert in wild edible foods, Mr. Perret is past Vice President of the Gulf States Mycological Society, and participated in the historic wild mushroom research expedition in Morocco with noted mycologists Rolph Singer and Gary Lincoff in 1993. He has consulted with the French agricultural research station at Bordeaux on specialty mushroom cultivation. Mr. Perret also directed cheese development and affinage at the Chicory Farm Creamery. In 1994, he received a Small Business Innovative Research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for work on alternative crop cultivation technologies. This grant and another one on dairy sheep production in 1995 directed by Dr. Leary resulted in Chicory Farm receiving the first annual Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration, a national honor. From 1995 until 1998, Mr. Perret oversaw concept and menu development for the Chicory Farm Cafe, and along with his two partners worked as founding vendor at the New Orleans and Baton Rouge farmer's markets. In addition, he has acted as an advisor on wild edible mushroom collection and cookery to a number of New Orleans chefs. Like his partners, he is among only a handful of Americans inducted into the prestigious French Guilde des fromagers, based in Dijon. Mr. Perret specializes in seafood cookery and wild foods, and has lectured on cooking at venues such as Longue Vue Gardens and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

CHARLES L. LEARY holds an AB degree, magna cum laude, with high honors and distinction in history, from Kenyon College, and MA and PhD degrees in modern Chinese history from Cornell University. He has taught on the adjunct faculty at Tulane University and was a research fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan and at Newcomb College’s Center for Research on Women. He has lived in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan and has a special love of and expertise in Chinese cuisine. Born in Oregon, he has also lived in various parts of the U.S. From 1990 until 1998 he served as co-proprietor of Chicory Farm, where he produced European-style, raw-milk cheeses and marketed them to chefs around the United States, while also assisting in mushroom & organic produce cultivation. Under Dr. Leary’s guidance, Chicory Farm acted as a purveyor to New Orleans' prominent restaurants including Commander's Palace, Emeril's, the Grill Room, Bella Luna, Brigsten's, Andrea’s, Peristyle, and NOLA, and also to restaurants across the country like Everest (Chicago), An American Place, Picholine, Le Bernardin, and Gramercy Tavern (New York), and the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton (San Francisco). With his direction, Chicory Farm cheeses received accolades and recommendations from the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, & the TV Food Network, and were served at the Mobil 5-Diamond Chef's Awards in Atlanta in 1997 and at the Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen, Colorado. Chicory Farm's soft-bodied, washed-rind Catahoula cheese, developed by Dr. Leary and Vaughn Perret, received praised as the best American cheese in a New York Times interview with Maitre fromager Max McCallman, co-author of The Cheese Course. He has researched cheese production in France's Loire Valley under the auspices of ITOVIC, and also at the Washington State University Creamery. In addition to East Asia, Dr. Leary has traveled extensively in Mexico, Central and South America, and Western Europe. Dr. Leary oversaw cheesemaking at La Ferme d'Acadie, and along with Vaughn Perret directs the kitchen at Trout Point Lodge. He has written on numerous occasions for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and also for Fine Cooking, American Way, Republican China, and recipes for Louisiana Cookin’ and Food & Wine.

Perret & Leary have both recently studied French language, food, and wine in Bordeaux, France and also teach Medtierranean food & wine  in Granada, Spain.

Trout Point Cooking School
Trout Point Lodge
(902) 482-8360
 troutpoint@foodvacation.com