Q: What do you like most about teaching Advanced Cooking?

Jonathan Zearfoss: First of all, I had the opportunity to design this class from scratch or "whole cloth" when we started the BPS program. As an educator, that has got to be one of the most exciting moments in one’s career. And, it provides the opportunity to design a class that is enjoyable and a great learning experience (I hope) for both teacher and student.

Secondly, I think the class is a really different approach to cooking: the emphasis is on critical thinking and the students make their own decisions about what to produce. As a result, I am sometimes surprised and sometimes positively delighted by the results.

Q: What key learning would you like your students to take away from your class?

JZ: In terms of their learning about food, I think of the class as a voyage of self-discovery of which I am for the most part a facilitator. I would like them to leave class feeling more comfortable delivering and receiving non-emotional feedback and having a more developed sense of their personal relationship to the art and craft of cooking.

In more general terms, I hope the students have a more developed sense of hospitality, see how cooking fits together with their other classes as part of a liberal education and lastly, that they have a spirit of commitment to using their educations to make the world a better place.