The Santa Fe School of Cooking

Story by GORDON BUNKER and Photos by KATE RUSSELL

Susan Curtis, founder of the Santa Fe School of Cooking, and Nicole Ammerman, who runs day-to-day operations, make a brilliant mother-and-daughter team. “We love to work together,” says Nicole with her ready smile.

Sitting on the patio in front of their building, at 125 North Guadalupe Street (which started as a Packard automobile dealership), Susan and Nicole brim with enthusiasm about the school’s new, larger location and the expanded programs it will offer. Nearby, water trickles over a massive carved granite fountain. The school’s previous location, in the Plaza Mercado on San Francisco Street, was the epitome of old Santa Fe, all vigas and adobe walls . The new place is clean-lined and contemporary, featuring ample space for sixty participants in the demonstration area and a separate kitchen for hands-on classes.

Even with renovations underway and amid all the commotion of a construction site, it is clear Susan and Nicole love what they do, and their genuineness is immediately apparent. The pair are all about reaching out to the culinary community, and ingredients for classes are locally sourced. “The public support and working with small farmers—those two things are the most rewarding aspects of this business,” says Susan. Local chefs teach the classes, and the school enjoys collaborative programs with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and Santa Fe restaurants.

Susan recounts the beginnings of the school. “Twenty-three years ago it was a midlife crisis,” she says, “and I hate to say it that way, because now it means I’m old! I had been a commercial real estate appraiser, my youngest was off to college and it was like, ‘What do I want to do?’ My husband and I had been very fortunate to travel a lot, and what we eat is really a focus of a trip. I was sick of what I was doing, and suddenly the idea [for the school] occurred to me in the middle of the night. I flew to New Orleans to consult with Joe Cahn, of the New Orleans School of Cooking. My husband was supportive, and that’s how it all started.”

The school’s mission statement is succinct: “To celebrate the traditions of the culture and cuisine of New Mexico.” “Before I opened the doors,” says Susan, “I knew I wanted to sell New Mexico products. Chile, I wanted chile powder. I felt like I was dealing drugs, because every little farmer heard I was buying chile powder, and they’d come to me with their bags full, and we’d line them up, tasting the quality and talking about where it was grown, how it was milled. We get going, bouncing around the countryside,” she continues. “I love that. I love to go and explore and find products that are not so common.”

Nicole tells a story. “We get in the car when it’s not really busy here and drive all around New Mexico. We went to Velarde a few years ago looking for…” “El Guiche!” Susan interjects as she remembers the name of the tiny village. “My mother said, ‘I’m almost positive this is where I got those wonderful chicos.’” says Nicole. “And I’m like, ‘You can’t just go randomly knocking on doors asking Is this where I got those amazing chicos?’ But she went up and knocked, and, sure enough, that’s where she got them!” Beaming, Susan adds, “I woke the poor guy up from his nap, but he was delighted.” “This is how you establish those real connections,” says Nicole. “We still work with some of the people my mother found forever ago, and it’s really something special. We love the farmers’ market and do farmers’ market classes, but it’s so much deeper than that.” “Old traditional processing, old places ... It’s wonderful to go to these places and find things you’ve never even heard of, and you see how it’s done,” says Susan. “I love that.”

Most of the school’s students are visitors to Santa Fe. “The people who take a class here are interested in learning a little bit more than just going to a spa (which I love to do),” says Nicole. “They want to know why we eat what we eat here; they want to have an authentic experience. People love this town. We’ve always had a pool of chefs who work as teachers and always will,” she continues. “We encourage personal styles, but there are recipes: ‘This is what you’re making in this class.’ So it’s not like a specific chef’s show, it’s really the red and green chile show. We’re celebrating New Mexico’s food history and where we are now with that. We set a sense of place in every class we do, because what we have here is so unique.”

The school has taught the regional secrets to a number of professionals over the years. “Eight chefs from the USS Enterprise spent ten days with us,” says Nicole. “They took every class we offered at the time, wanting to learn about this type of food so they could offer it on the ship. That was a highlight!”

Susan recalls a particularly memorable student and, laughing, adds, “One fellow got a cheffing job with the Forest Service based on his diploma from us!”

On the school’s series of restaurant walking tours, “I was having lunch at La Boca,” says Nicole. “Chef James Campbell Caruso used to be in our pool, so he’s a good friend of ours. He kept sending out food asking what did I think of this and that, and it was just a blast. I was thinking, ‘I love my job!’ and wondered if I could package this for the general public. This is how the restaurant walking tours came about. To start, there was just one route, and they were so well received I added another and now there are four different routes.”

Students appreciate the behind-the-scenes look and time with the chefs. “They think it’s fabulous,” says Susan. “They’re a group that are not here for just surface involvement. They spend the time to learn.”

“We have the most wonderful customers,” adds Nicole. “When I got married, they sent wedding gifts; when I had babies, I got baby gifts. There are people who have been taking classes with us the whole time we’ve been open.” Faced with finding venues for classes during renovation of the new facility, she explains, “This wonderful, generous woman who has taken lots of classes at the cooking school so very kindly said, ‘Why don’t you run classes at my estate?’ We’ve done two classes a week in the outdoor kitchen. It’s so beautiful and shaded. It’s such a nice time of the year.”

As we bring the interview to a close, the din of concrete saws and compressors and who-knows-what reverberates through the walls to our lovely spot on the patio. “We had the Travel Channel filming here last Friday. That was a circus!” says Nicole. “The construction guys were jackhammering.” She smiles and shrugs her shoulders. “What are you going to do?”

The crew inside takes a break for lunch. We tiptoe around scaffolding and a torn-up section of floor in what will be the school’s market, and Susan directs my attention back through large windows to the patio. “People will come in here, look through the space and see the displays in the window and the fountain,” she says. The grand opening celebration of The Santa Fe School of Cooking’s new location is slated for this November, but all classes will be up and fully running mid-September.

“I’m so excited about this!”

The Santa Fe School of Cooking is located at 125 North Guadalupe Street in Santa Fe. You can reach them at 800.982.4688, 505.983.4511 or cookin@santafeschoolofcooking.com. Class descriptions and schedules and videos of cooking classes can be found at santafeschoolofcooking.com.