PORT TOWNSEND — A restaurateur facing a slow winter has decided to close an extra day a week to offer cooking classes.
“People can’t afford to go out as much any more, especially in a small rural community like this,” said Laurette Feit, owner of Sweet Laurette’s at 1029 Lawrence St., in Port Townsend.
“It’s a necessity for people to realize the way world is turning right now, we really do need to become a little more self-sufficient.”
Feit will close Mondays, and offer pastry art classes from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on five consecutive Mondays, beginning Jan. 3.
She also plans a braising workshop, which teaches the art of slow cooking, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 16.
“This is something that I wanted to do for a while,” said Feit, 51.
“It will actually allow me to spend more time with my family, since I won’t need to be in here cooking breakfast every day.”
Her business is open now six days a week, closed only Tuesdays, and serves breakfast, lunch and brunch.
In January, she also plans to expand, opening for dinner Friday and Saturday nights.
Teaching a constant
Teaching cooking classes has “always been part of my mission statement,” Feit said, but that was sidetracked when business was good.
When the economy worsened, the idea re-emerged, and closing down another day gave her the opportunity to offer the classes while making fiscal sense.
“Every day we are open, we need to pay the staff and run the operations,” she said.
“If we only get a few customers that day, it’s not worthwhile.”
Learning pastry making is more of a craft than a path to feed a family in tough times, although it offers a taste of inexpensive luxury and can itself become a money-making enterprise.
Braising, where a variety of meats and vegetables are cooked in a large pot during an afternoon, can provide healthy, filling meals for several days, as long as variety isn’t the most important thing.
“I cook a large meal for my family and they eat from the pot all week,” Feit said.
Prior to opening the restaurant, Feit worked for a market chain as “the demo lady,” teaching people how to use the products and create recipes.
“I have always been teaching people about food,” she said.
“Owning a restaurant, you are always teaching your staff and telling them how you want them to do things.”
Feit sees the interest in learning cooking skills as a rerun of the food trends of the 1970s.
“There is a resurgence of wanting to go back to the land, learning how to cook, make your own bread, can your own food, make your own pickles and make your own jam,” she said.
“I’m seeing that people want to learn, even though they might not go home and do anything with it.”
Feit travels frequently but takes cooking classes while on vacation rather than seeing sights, giving her a chance to understand the local culture through its cuisine.
“I’m a food anthropologist,” she said.
“When I visit a new culture, I want to know their food heritage, what their grandmother cooked, what their comfort foods were and what was grown in that soil that made their food so unique.”
While the North Olympic Peninsula may not have the historical depth of Mexico or France, it has a distinct food heritage, Feit said.
“There is a definite food of this region,” she said.
Local food
“There is a lot that can be gleaned by going into the forest, where you can pick salal berries and huckleberries and a bevy of mushrooms that are just lying under the firs and the cedars.”
The shoreline is a tremendous food resource.
“I go up to North Beach at low tide and pick seaweed,” Feit said.
“Or I can go out to the estuary in Oak Bay, put my hand in the sand and pull up clams.”
Feit said local food options are connected to what can be gleaned from a variety of sources.
“What can we grow, harvest or forage within 50 miles? A lot.”
Feit has operated the restaurant for 10 years, beginning as a small patisserie in 2001 and expanding into a breakfast and lunch bistro in 2005.
Feit was known by the name Laurette McRae prior to marrying James Feit in August.
Each pastry class will address a different aspect of pastry art. They can be taken as a series or separately. Each costs $45, or $40 for Food Co-op members.
The braising workshop costs $65, $60 for Food Co-op members.
For more information, see www.sweetlaurette.com/index.html or phone 360-385-4886.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
