Passion For Spices™ Shares a Special Easter and Passover

March 24, 2024 Nicholas McTernan

Passion For Spices™ would like to share these complimentary recipes and menus for your special holiday table. As always our recipes are seasonal, practical, and delicious for everyone to enjoy. We recommend for you to use local and sustainable produce and the best results. Our Spiced Leg of Lamb can be served as a main course and our Anjeer Barfi(Fig and Date Bar) is a healthy treat. This Recipe is from May Fridel’s Indian Cuisine Diabetic Cookbook.

We have several recipes available for the holiday table in our menu. Please invite your family and friends for our curated classes, a special experience for everyone to enjoy. Passion for Spices™ hopes everyone can enjoy and have a happy and healthy spring!

Passion for Spices Cooking School™ Wishes You a Happy New Year 2024

January 9, 2024 Nicholas McTernan

Passion for Spices™ would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year. We hope you have a great start to the New Year! We are very grateful for a very productive and fun filled 2023, while introducing more chefs, new clients, and more community project involvement. We are ever so grateful for the platform we have to share the knowledge of good food and breaking bread with our community. We are looking forward to a fabulous 2024!

Here are some of the curated culinary events at Passion for Spices™ Culinary School.

Our Annual Passion For Spices™ Around the World Summer Cooking Camp Highlights

We had a houseful of enthusiastic young chefs for our Around the World Summer Cooking Camp 2023. We had seasonal after school classes where young kids came and prepared different seasonal food and enjoyed the food they prepared.

Our fifth week of our camp was our culinary teen competition. In this program, The young teens build their culinary skillset, and was able to prepare a full course menu from a given mystery basket. The food was served to the families and they appreciated and were thrilled to see the gourmet food they prepared.

Passion For Spices™ Adult Cooking Classes

Our Adult Cooking Classes showcase, Mediterranean, Latin, and Asian cuisines. Based on season and popularity, we curate different classes with different themes. Some of the popular Adult Cooking Classes included Taste of Morocco, Beer and Gourmet Bites, Taste of Thai, and Classic Indian Made Easy. Above are some highlights from our Taste of Morocco class which happened before the pandemic hit.

We are also thankful for our new classes taught by expert culinary educators, Shelley Wiseman and Kathleeen Sanderson. We are pleased to announce that our Cooking Classes are available for the new year.

Passion for Spices™ Corporate Team Building

Passion for Spices™ Plans for 2024

We will be adding more curated classes and pop ups from around the world, where you can come and enjoy amazing culinary experiences. Also food and wine culinary adventures will be announced soon.

We want to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Safe New Year and we hope that everyone can enjoy more cooking and quality time with their family.

We are also in the process of planning our annual five week summer camp, starting on July 8th to August 5th. Save the date!

Create a Memorable Thanksgiving Table

November 21, 2023 May Fridel

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year to show your gratitude for your Family, friends, and colleagues who you have in life. Passion For Spices™ Team is grateful for all of our clients who joined us in our Cooking School. We are also aapreciative for our wonderful team that makes Passion For Spices™ special. It gives us joy to spread the culinary knowledge and showcase foods of the world as we teach all levels of cooking skills, promote healthy heating and share family time (Tech Free) together.
Here is a complimentary Thanksgiving menu curated by Passion for Spices™. The recipes are easy to make, delicious and will stand out on your dinner table!

Thanksgiving Menu

Thankful for Passion for Spices™ Cooking School

We are very thankful for the growth of our cooking school. We welcome everyone from beginners to experts to join us, as you experiment with real food, and enhance your cooking skills. We are excited to have expanded our cooking school to include Kids Classes, Adult Classes, Corporate Events, and Private Events.

Here’s some of the highlights of cuisines that we offer in our cooking classes. We are grateful for our culinary team and our guest culinary educators who offer classes at our culinary school.

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from the Passion for Spices Team™!

This holiday season, we are grateful for introducing some specials for celebrating the holidays with friends and family.

Holiday Specials

Give the Gift of Cooking For the Holiday Season

GIFT+CARD.jpg — Passion for Spices Gift Card

A unique gift that can be used to register for a cooking class, buy spices, and book a private cooking event!

Shop Gift Cards

Thankful for Our Organic Spice Line

Keralan Curry

Kashmiri Garam Masala

Our spice blends are crafted using the highest quality of spices complete with anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatories to help boost the immune system for optimal health. These blends were also produced using a sustainable and eco-friendly process which creates its flavorful finish.

Memories From Our 2023 Around the World Summer Cooking Camp

August 31, 2023 May Fridel

At Passion For Spices™ this year, our 14th annual Summer Around the World Cooking Camp was a great success again. We are thrilled to provide a platform for our young generation to learn about food and culture, and provide a true culinary experience. Our team at Passion for Spices™ were so happy to see the eagerness of our young chefs and their enthusiasm in learning new skill sets. We had a great group of happy campers. Please see the details below.

American Road Trip

SouthEast: Where the kids learned how to make pulled chicken, and hand pies during our workshop.

Midwest: The Children learned how to make classic Midwestern dishes like Corn Runzas, and frozen custard pies

SouthWest: where the campers learned how to how to prepare chicken burritos and salsa & chips, as well as flour tortillas during our workshop

Appalachia: Where the campers prepared Appalachian delicacies, like turkey sausage, buttermilk biscuits, and fried apples

Louisiana Creole: Where the campers prepared gumbo, red beans, and dirty rice, and Roux and Beignets during the workshop

Around the World

Italy: Where the campers made egg based pastas and Biscotti for the workshop

Morocco/North African: Where our campers prepared Shakshuka and authentic Pita and Mezze

Thailand: Where our Campers made chicken curry and some vegetable pad thai, and some Khamon Tom for the Workshop

France: Where our Campers made Ratatouille and French Pastries

India: Where our campers made Malai Kebab and parathas for our workshop

Arts and Science

Breads: Where our Campers indulged in the science of baking, by making some classic Irish Soda bread, and Mini Cinnamon Truffles, as well as Pizza from Scratch during our workshop.

Dumplings From Around the World: Our campers educated themselves in the application of dumplings, with Mongolian Buz and Periogi, as well as baking some Samosas and Chutney during our workshop.

Pies: Our Pie making class involved us making a pie dough, Shepherd’s pie, and apple dumplings, whilst putting together fruit hand pies.

Cheese: The Campers cheese class was mainly using ricotta, pancakes, with fruits and bacon bits. The accompanying workshop included ravioli with ricotta cheese.

Noodles: Our Camper applied themselves in making noodles, from fettucini noodles and Chicken Yaki Soba noodles. The workshop included pici pasta with garlic sauce.

Farm to Table

Corn: Our campers tried themselves at making corn in Corn chowder and Corn Muffins, while our workshop goers tired their hand at making various flavored popcorns.

Squash: Our campers made various configurations of squash in delectable ways, like a buttermilk squash with lentil curry and roasted zucchini. Our workshop was about the creation of zucchini chocolate cake.

Eggs: our day about eggs had our campers prepare curried deviled eggs, quiche, and madeleines. The workshop as well had other egg dishes, like meringues/Pavlova with fruit

Tomatoes: Our camper prepared NJ’s favorite vegetable, both a tomato tart, and Caprese salad. During our workshop, the campers also made sauces.

Fruits: The Seasonal fruits classes included grilled chicken with peaches, as well as a peach cobbler. The workshop as well included a peach crisp and a blueberry sorbet

Culinary Teen Competition

One of our students, Miles LoPrete, wrote an account of his experiences during our Week 5 cooking camp:

Passion For Spices has been an incredible experience for me. I have made new friends and can't recommend Passion for Spices enough! For those who might not be familiar with Passion-For-Spices, they are a Farm-To-Table Culinary school that believes in using fresh ingredients. The chefs at Passion For Spices help with personalized guidance whenever necessary, Which makes learning new recipes easy! Passion For Spices has amazing spices that you can purchase online and a cookbook and a bunch of free recipes! This class really shows people how easy it is to cook!

On the first day of the week we focused on knife skills. Chef Thomas taught us how to chop, cut, slice, and mince lots of vegetables and other ingredients such as Onions, Peppers, Garlic, tomatoes, and so much more. After cutting all the vegetables we cut chicken for the Chicken Vegetable stir fry we made, which was super delicious! The next thing we learned to make was a Corn chowder With a corn cob broth we made earlier. Overall the first day was super fun!

On the Second day of the camp we made amazing dumplings which chef Thomas taught us how to wrap the dumplings in multiple ways. With the dumplings, we made a super easy and delicious dipping sauce! The second thing we made on day 2 was two types of homemade pasta with super fresh eggs. The first type of pasta is an Egg pasta dough, which we flattened out and we made fettuccine sized noodles with it. The second type of pasta we made was semolina flour and water pasta, Which we made Orecchiette with. After all that, we made a super simple tomato sauce and everything was amazing!

On the third day of camp we started right away making Potato Gratin which is a super delicious french dish with lots of potatoes, Cream, and cheese. With this dish we learned how to use a mandolin, Overall the potato gratin was super tasty and fun to make! The second thing we made was Zucchini ratatouille with tomatoes which was delicious, And for dessert we made a fresh berry pie which tasted super good. Overall day 3 was super fun and I learned a lot!

On day four of camp we learned how to make Herb Grilled Chicken with a delicious marinate. The second thing we learned on the 4th day was how to make a super tasty Moroccan Couscous that was super flavorful with the keralan curry that May (The founder of Passion-For-Spices) sells! We also made grilled zucchini which was super delicious. Over all day 4 was some hard work but was worth it because everything was delicious!

On the last day of camp we did the Teen Cooking Competition where we served all of our parents and siblings food we made. With this competition we used all of the skills we learned over the week to make a 4 course meal! We came at 3pm to start cooking, which gave us around 3 hours to make all the food before our families came over for dinner. After we all gave each other roles for what to do in the kitchen we saw the mystery ingredients they gave us, we had decided what to make almost right away. We decided to do an all around the world theme for our courses! After lots of cooking in big batches we were all tired but super excited for the families to come and try out our food! As 6pm struck all the parents arrived. For the first course we made chicken, carrot, garlic and ginger dumplings with a super good dipping sauce. After course 1 all the food was gone because it was so good. For Course 2 we did a pasta course where we made fettuccine pasta and an amazing meat tomato sauce. Once we were done with course 2 we went straight to course 3 which consisted of Potato Gratin, Ratatouille, and a bunch of herb grilled chicken. After this course everyone was super full from all the great food we made. For the last course we did a peach crumble topped with vanilla ice cream. The teen cooking competition was super fun and it was my favorite part of the week, and I would do it again!

Overall The Teen Cooking Competition week was super fun, It was super hands on, meaning you cook a lot. I also learned a lot from Passion-For-Spices and it was super great to eat all the stuff we made. From this camp you learn new flavors, new skills and so much more, I couldn't recommend Passion-For-Spices more!

Soups, Salads, Broths: Our campers made a very well liked soups, Corn Chowder and Galangal soup for this event, as well as Cold Soba Noodle Salad. The Teens also built their skills like knife skills and basic stock making.

Starters, Homemade Pastas, and Sauces: in the spirit of the name, campers prepared a full complement of starters, with a Dumpling Assortment, Chicken Satay, and Semolina Pasta.

Sides and Desserts: Campers produced French Style Potatoes and Mediterranean Couscous with Rice to accompany any main course

Main Course: Our campers prepared the savory Roasted Spatchcocked Chicken with Classic Style Ratatouille, fit for a king. The final day, we had our annual cook off, where the camper’s parents came to sample everything that the campers had made.

Mystery Market Basket Competition: The Campers cooked a three course meal to present to friends and family.

Passion For Spices™ Team is Gearing Up For our Annual Around The World Cooking Camp 2023

June 29, 2023 Nicholas McTernan

We are thrilled to have our Annual Summer Camp for kids and teens in person for 2023. Passion for Spices™ Team will strictly be following the state guidelines along with our own protocols to maintain the health of our campers and the Passion for Spices™ Team. This is our 14th year of our Around the World Summer Camp. The Passion for Spices™ Team can’t wait to be with the campers and enjoy the culinary adventure.

Foods Of The World I: American RoadTrip
July 10-14

This year, we have introduced our new week, Foods of the World I: Roadtrip America, where the young chefs will explore different food and culture of different regions in the US. We will be introducing them to the New England, Pennsylvania Dutch, Cajun, Pacific Northwest, and Southwest food. Some of the highlights include the Cajun/Creole day, where the campers will be cooking Andouille Corn Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, and Beignets.

Foods of the World II: Around the World
July 17-21

The Passion for Spices Team is looking toforward to welcoming the campers to a fun culinary. The second week is our international Foods of the World Week, where the young chefs will be making stops all around the globe. This year, the culinary regions that the young chefs will experience are the Italian, North African, Thai, French and Indian.

Arts & Science
July 24-28

The third week of our summer cooking camp is all about the art and science of the cooking process. Our chefs will be teaching basic cooking techniques, and the young chefs will get enhanced in their skills of making various dishes including pasta, baked goods, etc. This year we will be showcasing the art and science of cheese, breads, dumplings, pies and noodles.

Farm To Table
July 31-August 4

For the Farm to Table week, we will be showcasing local and fresh seasonal food ingredients, and utilizing them in multiple recipes. The young chefs are introduced to various fruits and vegetables, and our recipes will enhance their culinary skills as well as get them used to a variety of foods in their diet. This year we will be featuring corn, tomatoes, squashes, eggs, and stone fruits to the young chefs. Each day the campers will be learning outdoor cooking methods and enjoying the abundance from the local farms.

Culinary Teen Competition
August 8-12

For our Culinary Teen Competition, we put several teams of teens to the progressive culinary test! Our professional chefs will be working with each team everyday, and each team will learn new techniques, building their skills as they go. At the end, they will increase their skills in planning, preparing, creating and presenting a 3 course meal using mystery ingredients from our seasonal "market basket" along with open access to our "community pantry." Finished dishes will be judged on presentation, use of seasonal ingredients, technique, flavor development, and teamwork. Based on their performance, teams are awarded points, with each team receiving a daily score. On the final day, daily scores will be added together and whichever team has the most points wins!

As we showcase here, our young chefs ages vary from five to teen, and is organized in such a way that they learn at their appropriate levels. Our Passion for Spices™ team are well experienced professionals, who will be guiding and training the kids to get the best experience in this culinary journey.

All of the ingredients used during the weeks of camp are organic, fresh, and non-processed. Each day we have a totally different theme, but all to show kids that their food can be delicious, healthy, and sustainably grown!

Check out the details of our Around the World Summer Camp below, including the camp brochure and registration page:

Camp Brochure

Our Annual Passion For Spices™ Around the World Summer Cooking Camp Highlights

Passion For Spices™ Adult Cooking Classes﻿

Passion for Spices™ Corporate Team Building

Passion for Spices™ Plans for 2024

After School Program

Adult Cooking School

Corporate/private cooking class