Published Sept. 24, 2005, in the Waukesha Freeman

Story by Matthew Webber

BROOKFIELD - Her classroom smells better than a school cafeteria. Her course tastes better than a school-lunch staple. Instead of squares of pizza and orange-flavored drinks, students sample entrees like Mediterranean pasta.

When Staci Joers assigns it, homework tastes like chicken.

Her students at The Cooking Store take notes and ask lots of questions. "My family ate my homework," could serve as an excuse. They rave about dishes they'll try to re-create on their own later: tostadas, quesadillas and bourbon mustard chicken.

The background noise is sizzling. Chicken and spice scents waft throughout the store.

The 13 students in Joers' "Fast and Fabulous Chicken" class don't always have time to cook, which is why they spent two hours Monday night trying to learn six quick and easy recipes.

Although the store in Brookfield sells a myriad of specialized cooking supplies - lobster butter warmers, cherry and olive pitters, spaetzle dumpling makers, granny forks, contour graters, grater spoons, grater tongs and more - it earns much of its business from classes like Joers', with today's fast-paced world requiring faster but still fabulous meals.

The classes are designed for novices and experts alike, Joers said, so people of any cooking background can sign up. As her students attest, anyone tired of prepackaged meals can benefit.

"For a guy, I guess I'm a pretty decent cook," said Greg Nelsen, the only guy in the course and someone who credits taking several cooking classes for his acquired skills in the kitchen. "I have a lot of people who tell me I'm in the wrong field, that I should have gone to culinary school."

Because of how much he enjoys cooking for his family and Bible study group, he chose to drive from Racine on Monday night to learn new fast and fabulous dishes, instead of driving to his local grocery store to stock up on equally fast but not as fabulous frozen dinners, boxed meals and other supposedly ready-to-eat entrees.

Like anyone else with a job and a family, Nelsen doesn't have as much free time as he would like to spend over a stove. But he somehow manages to steal a few minutes here and there to read cookbooks, test the occasional new recipe and complete other self-assigned homework assignments that save time when he does want to cook.

With dozens of satisfied family and friends, Nelsen recommends classes at The Cooking Store or anywhere else for fresh foods and ideas.

"My purpose for coming here is just to learn new techniques and learn more about cooking, some shortcuts," he said. "It's just an encouragement to hear the knowledge that specifically Staci has."

Another return student, Sandie Cooke of Oconomowoc, said she has learned a lot from the classes, joking that the people she feeds with her newest recipes "keep coming back" for more.

Joers believes anyone can develop this kind of confidence in the kitchen, no matter how much time they have or don't have to cook, as long as they are willing to try.

Clearly, after five sold-out sessions of "Fast and Fabulous Chicken," there is a demand for this kind of class, but there are numerous other ways even the most inexperienced chef can learn how to cook chicken or any other dish in a quick and easy way, Joers said. With just a little effort, anyone can learn the art and science of cooking.

"Start small," she recommended. "Find some easy classes to take. Find some easy cookbooks to purchase. Get a good magazine, like a cuisine or home magazine, with step-by-step, full-color photos, that lets you in on why we're doing things the way we're doing them, a little bit on the food science so you understand when you're doing something."

There are infinite recipes for people of any palate, many of which are both better tasting and better for your health than store-bought meals, Joers said. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, there are too many people who rely on those meals.

"People, because of their working schedule, a lot of times are relying too much on convenience products, and they're going and getting the all-in-one dinner things where you just add water and simmer on the stove," she said.

"They're very high in sodium, very high in fat," she said. "Most of the vitamins and minerals have been cooked away from any vegetables that are in them already."

When people prepare their own meals with fresh ingredients, and when they find a quick and easy recipe they like, "this way they can have that kind of a fast meal without a lot of preparation, but control the salt, control the fat, control the vitamins and minerals in the things your families get. It's a healthier approach to quick cooking."

Perhaps most importantly, cooking can be fun. Joers loves her job as a cooking instructor so much she drives from her Racine home to nine different locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin to teach her student chefs.

She said she loves "the creativity, the ability to make something that others enjoy. I guess I like to make people happy."

As her students and a lucky newspaper reporter sampled steaming chicken picatta, chicken enchiladas and four other "saucy and delicious" dishes with "depth of character," "a little kick" and a "third dimension" of herbs and spices - all Joers' words - it was clear she also likes to keep people full.

If they study and do their homework, people starved for time don't need to starve.