What happens when you’re a culinary artist, a former TV Food Network chef, who is currently teaching cooking at the American Heart Association (AHA), and the world is shut down by a pandemic? If you’re Stephanie Rose, you continue to do what you’ve always done—show the world how to create delicious recipes, while keeping them entertained.
The recipes and ingredients may be simple, but Rose brings her own flair to the videos filmed in her home kitchen. Tune in and catch her sassy repartee, or watch the ingredient substitutions that create sumptuous healthy choices. Rose has not let the lockdown slow her or her style down.
The Oxford resident is Director of Simple Cooking with Heart, AHA’s only brick and mortar teaching kitchen in the US. Located in Baltimore, they offer hands-on, affordable cooking classes. Rose says, “My big thing was, heart-healthy doesn’t mean it has to taste like cardboard. I mean, it should be delicious! It should be wonderful and healthy all at the same time.”
Rose joined the AHA two years ago and quickly saw the potential to “Cook it Forward,” donating the foods prepared in their classes to those in need. Their goal for March was to donate 1000 meals, and they had already contributed 600 before the Governor issued a stay at home order.
Like most organizations, AHA’s Baltimore Heart Kitchen was forced to shut its doors and freeze budgets in March. But Rose didn’t miss a beat. She quickly started filming her kitchen creations, sharing them online through her own, AHA’s, and the Oxford Community Center’s Facebook pages.
Asked how she came to this point and what prepared her for this seamless pivot, Rose replied, “Hard work and I followed my dreams!”
It may also have something to do with her upbringing. Her mother, Susan Hovanec, was a foreign service officer for the US State Department, so Rose experienced many cultures first-hand and developed a palette for a variety of foods. She refined the palette by receiving a diploma in culinary arts/chef training. In the mid-90s, Gary Kunz brought Rose to DC for the opening of his renowned Asian fusion restaurant, Lespinasse. She was invited to Paris to study with Anne Willan at La Varenne École de Cuisine, and then landed a TV Food Network role, working alongside many of the top chefs, like Emeril Lagasse.
After a few years, Rose stepped back to raise her family, launch her own business, and get a Master’s degree in sustainable food systems.
Her mother’s retirement in Oxford led Rose to our small community on the Eastern Shore, where her kids grew up attending the Oxford Kids Camp in the summer. The camp’s founder, Jennifer Stanley, invited Rose to join the team, encouraging her to offer classes in farm-to-table cooking. But campers got more than just instructions. Rose highlighted local crops, such as corn, and then showed them how to make tortillas. She took them on field trips to catch fish and then had them make fish tacos.
When the world hit “pause” in March, Rose took the opportunity to share heart-healthy cooking, both online and in her hometown. She set up a Go Fund Me site for “Cook it Forward,” to cover the cost of ingredients, and asked the community who needed a good meal. She’s delivered her creations to local families, our Coast Guard crew, and the Emergency Room nurses at Easton Hospital.
Not surprising, given Rose’s experience with the Food Network (and that she also has a BA in Theater), her videos are not only informative but also entertaining. You might catch her giving step-by-step instructions on how to make the absolute perfect fluffy pancakes or find her ‘spanking the chicken with her knife.’ “My family,” she says, “love the videos where I am having a cocktail!”
Besides the videos, Rose has been working behind the scenes to launch virtual Simple Cooking with Heart classes for AHA. She’s led one each week in May and is working on a weekly schedule. She sees herself as an “educator on a mission,” and her vision is to teach heart-healthy cooking across the country and around the world.
So, until Rose can return to her AHA Baltimore kitchen or her yearly two-week teaching engagement at the Oxford Kids Camp, we get to enjoy watching her adventures in her own Oxford home kitchen. One thing is for sure, cooking can most definitely be fun.
Register for the next AHA cooking Zoom class or contact Stephanie Rose through email or on Facebook. Phone 646-246-6072 Photo credits: Stephanie Rose
Heather Hall is a Leadership Coach, Spiritual Director and Storyteller through arts and crafts. Born and raised in Maryland, she spent 22 years in Alaska, working in environmental service. She recently returned to the Shore and resides in Oxford
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