Asheville chefs turn their home kitchens into virtual cooking classes

CAMERA READY: Chef J. Chong on-location in her home kitchen, the set for her IGTV cooking tutorials jchong_eats. Photo by Danielle Wheeler

In February BC19, chef J. Chong gave her then-boss Katie Button, owner of Cúrate, a two-month notice on her intent to venture out on her own. “A brick-and-mortar wasn’t on my radar,” she says. “I was thinking of setting up a dumpling cart at markets and breweries, doing more pop-up dinners at local restaurants and teaching cooking classes.”

Well before her notice expired, the restaurant industry in America shut down, and Chong was forced to reevaluate how to carry on professionally. It didn’t take long for her to move to Plan B. “I get bored very easily and needed to find something to do,” she says with a laugh.  “My wife, Danielle [Wheeler], and I were brainstorming, and she said, ‘How about a virtual cooking class? Put yourself out there and stay connected with the community?’”

Faster than producer/director/camera person Wheeler could bark, “Action!” jchong_eats debuted on IGTV on Instagram. Filmed live from their home kitchen, the energetic, fast-paced segments open with a musical bed and pan across the recipe’s mise en place on the kitchen counter before Chong dances onto the set and segues into instruction.

All of the classes on her personal channel — which air every other week — have focused on Cantonese cuisine, including veggie lo mein, hot-and-sour soup, egg drop soup, fried tofu with scallions, garlic and ginger sauce, and dumplings. “Teaching Cantonese food is so important to me,” says the first-generation Chinese Canadian. “I want people to understand that it’s simple, clean and delicious.”

Chong also contributes cooking segments to LGBTQ nonprofit Campaign for Southern Equality’s Front Porch virtual gatherings via Zoom, the first of which was famously interrupted by Zoom bombers hurling racist and homophobic slurs at her. “I was making spinach pesto, and suddenly this started, and it took a couple of seconds before we realized what was happening and the communications people could shut it down to get them off,” she recalls. “It was shocking, but it’s important to talk about.”

Chai Time

The only thing bombing chef Meherwan Irani’s Chai Time cooking tutorials are the family golden doodle, Rosie. “She has become a bit of a celebrity on her own,” says the owner of Chai Pani restaurants in Asheville and Atlanta. “She has found her way into every segment but one, and then people asked where she was.”

Irani started the video cooking classes a couple of weeks after closing his restaurants. “What do you do after you’ve been hit by a freight train? I just needed to cook and have a distraction, for myself and for anyone watching.”

Like Chong, he relies on his wife, Molly — aka @ChaiPaniMom — to be the one-woman production crew, shooting in front of a bank of windows in their home kitchen. “When we bought this house a year ago, we bought it for the kitchen. The first thing guests would say when they saw it was, ‘This is the perfect setting for an at-home cooking show.’ Well, what do you know?”

Irani naturally focuses on Indian cuisine, specifically on Chai Pani classics like buttered chicken, sag paneer and vindaloo, and tries to make recipes accessible and relatable to amateur home cooks. “The ingredients aren’t things you have to run to the Asian market on the other side of town to get,” he says. “I suggest substitutes for items people might not have, but everybody has vegetables on their last, shriveled legs, so let’s turn that into pakora. I think after all this time, people are maybe bored with 87 things to do with pasta and are open to trying something more exotic.”

New Chai Time segments, which run about 30 minutes, debut Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. on the @spicewalla Instagram account. Chai Time Quickies run on Wednesdays and are short how-tos of Indian food foundations like ginger-garlic paste and tandoori marinade. “It keeps me from getting bogged down in the Chai Time segments and getting too professorial. I could do 15 minutes on salt. My daughter calls it ‘dad-splaining.’”

Meal Kits with Katie & Felix

Button’s video classes, Meal Kits with Katie & Felix, are shot with an iPhone on a stand in her home kitchen and are also a family affair, with wine pairings and suggestions  from husband and partner Felix Meana, spontaneous set-crashes from their toddler son and off-screen commentary from their daughter. The meal kits are among the items available through La Bodega by Cúrate, a concept launched the first week of May that offers semiprepared Cúrate favorites, pantry goods, charcuterie, Spanish wine, beer and Cúrate’s new Spanish-style cider collaboration with Botanist & Barrel.

The meal kits are prepped  from scratch in the Cúrate kitchen, ordered online and picked up at the Bodega, which operates out of Button & Co. Bagels on South Lexington Avenue. They offer two kits per week, and Button demos one on her @ChefKatieButton Instagram.

“I like it better as a representation of our food because I’ve always been disappointed in the way our food travels for takeout,” she explains. “The meal kits let people cook it at home. The videos are meant to show people how easy they are. We don’t think them out; it’s just us and very natural and personal. They are not intended to go deep and teach people how to cook. It’s just fun and gives people a little insight into our everyday life. Every mom has cooked with a kid on her hip!”

Chong’s videos have helped her kick-start Plan C: selling her dumplings. “We’re at the [River Arts District] Tailgate Market every Wednesday with two kinds of frozen dumplings and sauces,” she says. “It was so great to be out there again, just thrilling to be in that environment with other locals showing their passion for food.”

Irani has also found a positive in the pandemic. “Cooking at home, not just for the classes, but all the time, I have rediscovered the sheer joy of cooking. Not as the business that consumes us, but the real pleasure of it.”

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Kay West
Kay West was a freelance journalist in Nashville for more than 30 years, contributing writer for the Nashville Scene, StyleBlueprint Nashville, Nashville correspondent for People magazine, author of five books and mother of two happily launched grown-up kids. To kick off 2019 she put Tennessee in her rear view mirror, drove into the mountains of WNC, settled in West Asheville and appreciates that writing offers the opportunity to explore and learn her new home. She looks forward to hiking trails, biking greenways, canoeing rivers, sampling local beer and cheering the Asheville Tourists.

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

One thought on “Asheville chefs turn their home kitchens into virtual cooking classes

  1. RuthAnne Brown

    Though I live in northwestern Jackson County information and articles are valuable resources to me.
    Thank you for the excellent reporting and editing. I have long been a reader of SMN and miss it.

    I have been in a grocery store four times since the middle of March. I have ordered online for pickup from Darnell Farms and Sylva Lowe’s.

    I am well, wear mask and gloves where needed.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.