Passion for Spices Team™ Wishes You a Happy New Year

From our team at Passion for Spices™, we want to wish you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. 2025 brought us together with many new students, chefs, and other partners that have helped our brand thrive, and we are looking forward to a year of even more growth and new opportunities ahead in 2026!

A Look Back on 2025

Our most exciting accomplishment from 2025 was celebrating the 15th anniversary of Passion for Spices™ in June! We gathered with family, friends, business partners, and community members at a special event to commemorate this momentous occasion, and it brought us immense joy to see so many of our supporters join us to help celebrate our success and growth over the years. We are thankful for everyone who continues to engage with our brand.

15th Anniversary Celebration
June 2025

We are grateful for all of the new and returning students who joined us in the kitchen in 2025. From weekly classes to corporate team building events, summer camp, and special events, it is our honor to share the joy of cooking with you. Food is powerful in its ability to not only physically sustain us, but boost our mental and emotional health as well. When we gather in the kitchen and around the table, we create connections, memories, and share stories, strengthening our connections with each other.

In 2025 we hosted birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, private family parties, corporate team building events, and many more special events in our kitchen, in addition to our themed weekly classes. We love hosting such memorable events and being able to share in your joy with you and your loved ones as you gather together in our kitchen. We look forward to many more special events in 2026! Here's a peek at some of our 2025 events.

Highlights from 2025 Classes with Award Winning Chef Kathleen Sanderson

Spice Up Your Spring at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Spring 2025

Summer Camp
June/July 2025

Calvary Autumn Luncheon
October 2025

Holiday Celebrations
December 2025

What’s Ahead in 2026

Looking ahead to 2026, we are excited for the return of our popular Winter Season After School Cooking Program (on Tuesdays and Thursdays in January and February) and our summer camp, two of our favorite programs of the year. Working with young chefs through Passion for Spices™ is so rewarding, as we observe firsthand the benefits of teaching kids and teens these essential skills at a young age. Through these programs, we hope to encourage healthy habits and inspire a sense of curiosity and creativity in the kitchen that our students can carry with them throughout the rest of our lives.

In 2026 we are excited to continue to expand our cooking class offerings to include a wider variety of cuisines and other specialty classes and workshops, such as baking techniques. Click here to check out our calendar and see what we have coming up. We are proud to be a wellness ambassador for the community, showcasing local ingredients and sustainable cooking methods. Our cooking classes are fun and unique opportunities to spend time with family and friends, get out of the house for a fun date night, and also to meet new people who share a love of cooking!

Our corporate team building classes remain one of our main pillars and offerings here at Passion for Spices™. These events are wonderful opportunities for professionals to come and enjoy an exclusive culinary journey while bonding with colleagues outside of the office. Our trained chefs will provide an informative cooking class and help to build and inspire a strong foundation for a healthy lifestyle. Click here to learn more about our corporate team building events.

We are also thrilled for the launch of our culinary travel program in 2026, a unique opportunity for foodies and travelers alike to enrich their culinary education beyond our kitchen in Summit. Participants will be fully immersed in food and culture through cooking classes and demonstrations, market tours, winery visits, and more, in one of our chosen destinations abroad. We are excited to explore the Blue Zone and Finger Lakes cultures with students through this program. We hope to be able to share more information on this program very soon. Stay tuned!

To all of our students, chefs, corporate partners, community stakeholders, and friends, we are grateful for your continued support of Passion for Spices™. Our success would not be possible without you. Here's to a year filled with more time around the table with friends and family, breaking bread and making memories together. See you in the kitchen!

Sincerely,
The Passion for Spices™ Team

The Three Featured Pillars at Passion for Spices™

Curated Culinary Experience
Organic & Kosher Spices
Food & Culture Travel (Launching Soon)

Curated Culinary Experiences

Our cooking classes and events are curated culinary experiences, showcasing a variety of cuisines from around the world, including Mediterranean, Latin, Asian, and more. Here is what you can expect when you join us for one of our unique cooking classes:

Organic and Kosher Spice line:

Our organic spices are a welcome addition to any culinary adventure, regardless of genre. Our two spices, Keralan Curry and Kashmiri Garam Masala are available.

Keralan Curry

Great for grilling meat, seafood, poultry, and veggies. Use this versatile spice blend at cookouts, this earthy and smokey blend will turn every backyard barbecue into a celebration. Use it in the kitchen everyday for grilling, braising, soup, salads, and roasting.

Kashmiri Garam Masala

Kashmiri Garam Masala is great for grilling lamb, poultry, and veggies. Also, try the spice in pies, cookies, and cakes. This aromatic spice blend could be used in many baking, sweet and savoury dishes.

Passion for Spices™ offers a perfect gift for upcoming holidays, a gift of cooking for you and your loved ones. The gift card can be redeemed for the spices and the exclusive culinary events.

Here are two complimentary recipes for the holidays that you can make and enjoy at home.

Passion for Spices™ Wishes Everyone Happy Holidays

Passion For Spices™ wishes everyone happy holidays! We want to thank you for joining us in the kitchen this year and helping to support our mission with every class and gift card purchase.

This is a special time of year where we gather with friends and family around the table and in the kitchen. We encourage you to have fun and be creative in the kitchen with new, healthy recipes. Cooking together and sharing food and recipes with loved ones is a wonderful way to create memories that will last a lifetime.

Looking ahead to the new year, we have many exciting classes coming up and are actively scheduling more every week to include a variety of cuisines, from Indian and Spanish to Mediterranean and many more! Our cooking classes and workshops are the perfect way to spend quality time with friends and family while learning a new skill and meeting new people. Click here to check out our schedule and see what we have coming up in the new year!

Need a last minute holiday gift? Give the gift of a unique cooking experience! Our gift cards are the perfect present for everyone on your list. 

We're looking forward to seeing you in the kitchen in the new year! Happy holidays from all of us at Passion For Spices™.

Sincerely,

The Passion for Spices™ Team

---

Spice up your holiday menu with some new ideas from our team at Passion for Spices™. Click on the menu image below to view the recipes!

Happy Thanksgiving from Passion for Spices™

With the holiday season upon us, Passion for Spices™ would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our community. To our students, clients, partners, chefs, and everyone who helps us further our mission of healthy eating and sustainable lifestyle practices, thank you. We are truly thankful for our platform and the opportunity to share our culinary knowledge with you and showcase different foods and cultures of the world.

Over the past fifteen years since the inception of Passion for Spices™, we have seen firsthand the power of cooking, the connection it fosters and the joy that is created when we gather in the kitchen and at the table. Food is medicine, not only in the way it physically sustains us but in its ability to inspire conversation, joy, and a sense of belonging. 

Our success would not be possible without our friends and gracious hosts at Calvary Church. They are fierce supporters of our mission and we are grateful for their partnership.

This holiday season, we hope you are able to spend time at the table with friends, family, and neighbors, to share meals and make memories.

We would love to see you at one of our upcoming classes. Please take a look at our schedule, there's something for everyone! And if you're struggling to find a holiday gift for someone in your life, consider purchasing a Passion for Spices™ gift card; they can be used at any of our classes.

Here are some highlights from our third annual Autumn Luncheon at Calvary Church. It was a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season! Check out some photos and the menu from the event below.

Happy Holidays!

Passion for Spices™ Wishes Everyone a Stress-free Thanksgiving!

At Passion For Spices™, we are thankful for an amazing 15 years of sharing the knowledge of food and culture to our community! We are grateful for the many young kids, businesses, and families who have come and enjoyed a culinary experience with us. Our platform has helped many learn about good lifestyle practices to enhance the immune system and metabolic health. Our recipes and techniques are designed to enhance the health of communities.

Breaking Bread is something we enjoy with everyone, where we cook delicious food together using local and sustainable ingredients available seasonally and share a meal. We encourage Breaking Bread in our many curated seasonal classes taught by award-winning chefs. Here are our special Thanksgiving classes: a Home-Style Thanksgiving class with Kathleen Sanderson and a Hors d’Oeuvres Workshop.

Thanksgiving Special Cooking Classes

---

For more cooking classes, click the link below!

---

Give the Gift of Cooking For the Holiday Season

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.

Passion for Spices™ 2025 Cooking Camp Week 1

For the first day of the Passion for Spices cooking camp, we travelled to the Midwest. The students started by making their very own pasty dough – that’s right, pasty, not “pastry”.  The Michigan pasty is a delicious dough pocket filled with meat and vegetables. It originated in the Michigan mining community, where it was popular for its handheld ease. Once they got their dough in the fridge to chill, our young chefs practiced chopping a variety of vegetables, allowing them to further hone their knife skills. Next, our students turned up the heat, both literally and figuratively. We put some pots on the burners and added our vegetables and spices to the pan, cooking them down until they became the perfect base for our turkey chili. Originally from the Texas-Mexico border, Turkey Chili offers a leaner, more heart-healthy alternative to traditional beef chili. While the turkey chili was simmering on the stove, we finished up our pasty filling. Once the filling was cool, the kids rolled out the dough and filled it, sealing it with a fork. Then we popped those in the oven. Needless to say, the kitchen smelled fantastic. In the afternoon, the young cooks were hard at work making cinnamon rolls from scratch. Every piece of the recipe, from the dough to the filling, was measured and mixed by the students. Even the icing was homemade! It was a sweet, protein-packed first day!

On Tuesday, we trekked to the Deep South and found ourselves in Louisiana. First up on the menu was a heart-warming cajun classic: étouffée. The students began by preparing the Holy Trinity. Different from a classic mirepoix, which features carrots, celery, and onions, the Cajun Holy Trinity is comprised of bell peppers, onions, and celery. It’s a staple in most traditional Cajun dishes. Our etouffee was roux-based, which is a method of thickening that utilizes an amalgamation of flour and fat that’s browned over the stove. Along with a roux and the holy trinity, we also added Cajun seasoning, a recognizable blend of paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, white pepper, onion powder, dried oregano, and cayenne pepper. Traditionally, étouffée is made with andouille sausage; however, we opted for chicken sausage for a more nutritional meal. For a hearty side dish, the young chefs also made cheesy grits. We brought the grits to a simmer and added seasonings like butter, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and, of course, an ample amount of cheese. In the afternoon, we took some of the Cajun seasoning from earlier in the day, and the students marinated and grilled their very own version of blackened chicken, using a cast iron skillet to create those perfect grill marks.

For the third day of the Passion for Spices cooking camp, the students made dishes from the Southeast: biscuits and gravy, oven-fried chicken, and peach cobbler. To prepare the fried chicken, the young chefs dredged and breaded each breast to create the perfect crumb coating. Then the chicken was baked in the oven until crispy. We were able to achieve that crunchy fried texture without using seed oils or unnecessary fats. This healthier alternative preserved the mouthwatering flavor of Southern fried chicken while also improving its nutritional density. To accompany our main entree, we made a side of biscuits and gravy. The biscuit dough, handmade and cut by our students, was flaky and full of buttery layers. The gravy had a base of homemade chicken stock and was thickened with a roux. The peach cobbler in the afternoon was the perfect summer treat. We’re right in the middle of stone fruit season, so the peaches were picked up from the farm fresh that morning. All in all, this day was a great example of how simple, organic ingredients are the key to a delicious meal.

On the fourth day of our cooking camp, the young chefs tackled New England classics like Boston baked beans and corn chowder. For our baked beans, we combined beans and our seasonings, such as Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, into a saucepan. Once the beans were simmering, they were finished off in the oven.  We got the corn chowder started with corn stock made that very morning from our leftover cobs. Using scraps of meat and vegetables to make stocks is a great way to reduce food waste in the kitchen. Apple cider donuts might be widely considered a fall treat, but they are just as enjoyable in the summer sun. The students started by making their batter, adding garam masala and apple cider to make a moist, perfectly spiced dessert. Then they piped the batter into donut trays, baked them until golden brown, and coated them with garam masala and sugar.

For the fifth and final day of our summer program, we ended our food tour with a classic southern barbecue. Using pasture-raised chicken, combined with a homemade barbeque sauce, the young chefs put together beautiful pulled chicken sandwiches. You haven’t really tried coleslaw until you tried homemade coleslaw, so the kids went to work thinly slicing cabbage and combining it with our slaw dressing. For their final dish of the week, the kids made cornbread muffins. They combined cornmeal, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl, then prepped their wet ingredients separately. Finally, they mixed everything together and put the mix in a muffin tin to bake. The cornbread muffins came out perfectly brown– a fantastic end to a fantastic week!

one of the pulled chicken sandwiches the young chefs prepared!

campers preparing the gravy and chili!