Get back in the Kitchen with Food Evolution

The Food Evolution in Bardonia is having its grand opening Saturday, Aug. 21 from 10-6 with free food tastings, cooking demonstrations and raffles all day long.

Diane Hoch, founder, opened the Food Evolution to offer people classes on how to prepare delicious and nutritious meals. Starting Monday, there will be three 2-hour classes a day with each class ending with a meal that was cooked during the class. There will also be classes on Saturdays.

"People love cooking shows, but they're watching, not cooking," Hoch said. "We've lost [time spent eating and cooking as a family] because we're running, going." As the mother of three girls, she knows parents nowadays are busy and most have gotten an extra job because of the economy. However, she also stressed that busy lives also need to slow down sometimes and cooking and eating meals together does just that in addition to creating necessary family bonds.

Hoch hopes that the Food Evolution will not only help bring families back together through cooking, but also join families over healthy meals.

"Fast food and big food companies have convinced us that getting dinner on the table is easier and faster through them," Hoch said. "Our children have become sick; our bodies are not used to these processed foods, artificial foods. The thing that bothers me is that it's not the kids' fault or the parents'." Hoch's plan is to start with parents and change what they buy and cook for their families, such as organic vegetables.

Her produce comes from Goshen Green Farm near Warwick and Camp Hill Farm in Pomona. Camp Hill Farm is also helping Hoch start a vegetable garden for Food Evolution behind her building to use for classes. Squash, cucumber and tomatoes are a few of the vegetables she plans on growing. Hoch is a CSA member (Community Sponsored Agriculture) of Camp Hill Farm in Pomona. As a CSA member, Hoch gives seed money to the farm in exchange for a weekly basket of vegetables during the growing season.

"I want to do everything local." Hoch's business is mostly built from local vendors. Her kitchen backsplash, custom tables, appliances and floor all came from local vendors. She even used a New City local, Laina Leckie, to create her website and brochure graphics.

The Food Evolution's location was previously Hi Seoul Café, a Japanese and Korean restaurant. Hoch changed it into a residential kitchen with an office and added a public back door entrance by replacing the steel service door from the previous restaurant.

Private parties are also offered and the place fits 15 people comfortably. Hoch plans on adapting her classes with the seasons. For example, there will be classes on cooking and entertaining during the holidays.

One of Hoch's favorite classes is "Cooking with the Seasons."

"We should eat and live by the seasons," she said. "It's so natural. "

The Annemarie Colbin institute inspired Food Evolution. This institute focuses on food and healing; it started offering public classes and Hoch took one for fun. Hoch was so influenced by the institute she modeled some of her classes after it such as the "Basic Knife Skills" class.

Those interested need to register and pay for classes in advance. The website uses Paypal, but credit cards are also accepted at the Food Evolution. The Food Evolution also sells Wusthof knives and gift certificates.

Hoch graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and received her Nutritional Health Counselor certification from the Columbia Teachers College. Her love for food started long before that, however. Hoch always loved to cook and remembered when she started seriously cooking in high school making dinners for her family. When her daughters started going to school, she realized the unhealthy meals schools offered to children.

Today she is the president of the Rockland Coalition for Better School Food, a not-for-profit based out of the Food Evolution. Hoch has lived in the community for 16 years and after fighting for healthy school meals, she decided to take it one step further and try to get parents to make healthy home meals.

"We need to heal our food system," Hoch said. She also has a private practice as a nutritional consultant.

One of her favorite mottos:

"Given half the chance, our bodies will heal themselves." 

The cooking demonstrations for the grand opening are:

10-11am Salads with Homemade Dressings

12-1pm Healthy Party Appetizers

2-3pm Creating Sauces using Fresh Herbs

4-5pm Cold Soups for Summer

The free raffles will give the public a chance to win cooking classes and coupons.