Park City Culinary Institute opens at Deer Valley Club
By Jane Gendron
Park City Culinary Institute recently set up shop in the Deer Valley Club, creating a local first: a ski-in, ski-out culinary school.
The institute, which operated during its initial month in Temple Har Shalom, offers a selection of classes that cater to novices and skilled cooks alike. Expert area chefs, such as Sundance
Resort’s Ryker Brown and Good Karma’s Houman Gohary, teach the globally inspired classes. The lessons and demonstrations range from Asian Tapas to a Chef ’s Table (featuring menus such as hand-pulled mozzarella with Creamy Polenta Agnolotti and Lamb Ragu). According to founder and owner Laurie Moldawer, the classes and popular demonstration dinners are just the beginning of the institute’s growing menu of tasty learning experiences.
Thanks to a liquor permit, the institute complements its classes with wine and sake tastings. Moldawer also plans to expand the programming to include multiday culinary tours and workshops featuring local artisans, farms and smokehouses as well as corporate teambuilding events.
Located inside the Deer Valley Club (the first ever private residence club), the institute has roughly 5,000 square feet of kitchen, dining and deck space to fill with the aromas of
cuisine from around the world. Initially designed as a restaurant kitchen by Julie Wilson (current Food and Beverage Director for Deer Valley Resort), the space has most recently been
occupied by the Italian-themed Ticino Trattoria. Now, with a few minor renovations, Moldawer envisions a slope-side culinary attraction—for locals, club owners and visitors from around the country and world.
A recent transplant to Park City, Moldawer has a primary background in finance and operations and a globetrotting spirit. When she needed a break from the investment banking world, she headed to Paris and enrolled in the renowned Le Cordon Bleu school for six months. That sabbatical began a new path to culinary learning with work and internships in Paris and New York as well as more culinary schooling. Now, as the founder and director of her own school, her ultimate vision is to grow the institute into a dawn-to-dusk, seven-days-per-week culinary destination, serving both amateurs and professionals.
For now, the institute offers a choose-your- own culinary adventure. No fiery chef barking orders. Just culinary professionals and food lovers gathering together, learning and, of course, eating. Students decide just how hands-on they want to be, which means the sushi student can start with the entire fish—or not. And cheese aficionados may dip their hands into steamy pots
to pull mozzarella or merely watch and sample.
As Moldawer says, “It’s an adventurous town, so our classes have to be extreme.”
Let the culinary journey begin. Bon appétit.
Park City Culinary Institute: inside The Deer Valley Club 7720 Royal St. East. parkcityculinaryinstitute.com
