Branching Out

of Stuarto’s products. He shops at Stuarto’s Bowling Green store, the only location beyond the two stores in Lexington.

Before class, he does all the prep work. During class, students work in small teams, following fve or six simple steps in the recipes Lawrence has written.

Lawrence is easygoing and funny, nothing like those scary high-strung chefs who rage on TV. At the start of class, he tells students, “Now, you are not going to be up here slicing and dicing because we do not have the space, and if you had knives, you would not be drinking wine,” eliciting appreciative laughs.

Instead, students season, sauté, stir, sear, and sauce, and each team prepares one of the four dishes — two entrees, a side, and a dessert — each cooked in deep skillets over portable butane gas burners. About a dozen stations are set up along long tables.

When their work is done, students dine together, enjoying the dishes they created during a four-course meal served bufet-style.

Te classes have two goals: to inspire home cooks and to encourage them to experiment with the many favors of oils and vinegars and other seasonings that Stuarto’s sells.

Te recipes Lawrence writes for the class always incorporate Stuarto’s products. Lemon butter chicken piccata meatballs, for example, include four: Tuscan herb blend, jalapeno sea salt, bourbon barrel-smoked paprika, and lemon olive oil. His recipe for apricot