The Key West Cooking SchoolTM: Where Food and Heritage Meet
Imagine yourself in your grandmother’s kitchen, watching intently as she chops onions and peppers, measures mysterious spices, and expertly sifts them into a pan sizzling on an old-fashioned stove.
Her voice rises and falls in rhythmic cadence as she explains that she learned the recipe she’s preparing from her mother — that it has special meaning to your family and your culture, that one day you’ll share its secrets with your own children and grandchildren.
The kitchen is warm with enticing aromas, with a sense of timeless comfort and tradition. You lick your lips in anticipation, eager to taste this dish that’s seasoned with such a rich heritage.
And that, in essence, is what the Key West Cooking SchoolTM is all about.
It’s about the way food tells the story of a culture, connects past and present, and strengthens multigenerational family ties. It’s a tantalizing introduction to the diverse flavors of the southernmost city in the continental United States.
During the cooking school’s demonstration-style classes, you’ll learn how to prepare dishes that have been Key West staples for more than a century. You’ll also gain insights into the Bahamian shipwreck salvagers, Caribbean fishermen, and Cuban cigarmakers who settled the island in the 1800s … all bringing their cuisine and traditions with them.
A chef-storyteller guides each class, standing in the 1950s-style demonstration kitchen with its retro wallpaper and turquoise appliances, and prepares a four-course meal while offering cooking tips and island tales. Student-guests watch from long tables in the dining area, following along on printed recipes and taking notes with fellow foodies.
The décor is rich in elements that evoke an “old Key West” atmosphere: a replica façade of the iconic Strand Theater, a large-scale 1884 map of the island, photos from various eras, and a jungle of fruit trees reminiscent of those that grow in local gardens.
A quirky touch is provided by the “pandelier” suspended from the soaring wood-beamed ceiling — a super-sized chandelier, artfully crafted from dozens of gleaming silver-toned sauté pans — and other light fixtures resembling the stock pots used for boiling seafood.
Seated beneath the whimsical lights, you might watch the chef-storyteller make shrimp ceviche, filled with the sweet local pink shrimp that were undiscovered until a late-night expedition in the 1950s. Or ropa vieja, the Cuban comfort food that blends shredded beef with a bold tomato-based sauce, whose name means “old clothes” and whose other ingredients stretch leftover meat to feed a family. Or Bahamian coconut stew, a fusion of locally available fresh seafood, limes and coconut milk that was developed by the Bahamian settlers first dubbed “Conchs.”
Menus and dishes vary, so no two cooking school experiences are the same — just as time-honored recipes might be varied by Key West cooks, depending on seasonal ingredients or the type of fresh-caught fish being unloaded at the docks.
But the Key West Cooking School™ is about far more than learning how to prepare intriguing local recipes. Much like your grandmother might while chopping and stirring, the chef-storyteller will intersperse cooking tips with the history of various ingredients, when and why they’re incorporated into certain dishes, and their place in traditional Key West cuisine.
You’ll discover how the early islanders harvested sea salt, vital for food preservation in the days before refrigeration, from the aptly named Salt Ponds near today’s airport. How mangoes and Key limes, growing abundantly on local trees, were used a century ago to add sweetness and tang to everything from fish to desserts. How certain foods were transported to Key West long before heavy grocery trucks rumbled down the Overseas Highway, and why old-time residents smile when they see free-range hens and chicks.
You might even find out the truth about “Aunt Sally,” the woman widely credited with inventing Key lime pie, whose identity and ties to an early Key West millionaire are quite different than most people believe.
As you absorb the cooking hints and stories of recipes’ history, a much larger story unfolds: that of the resourcefulness, creativity, tenacity, and zest for life that have characterized Key West residents for the past 200 years.
In the same way that ingredients define a flavorful dish, the Key West Cooking School™ experience defines the authentic culture, community, and heritage of the island city — showcasing them through cuisine in a distinctive new way.
Once the cooking demonstration is over, you and your fellow guests will sit at the long communal tables, chatting together and enjoying the delicious multiple-course meal you now know how to prepare.
While you savor the flavors, looking forward to cooking the dishes for family and friends, you realize the class has inspired a new appreciation for food’s role in creating traditions and connecting generations … along with a new understanding of the influences that shaped the vibrant, colorful spirit of today’s Key West.
