
Focaccia Class! A hybrid hands-on and demonstration class with our newest instructor, Chef Paul DeLong!
This afternoon we would like to welcome Chef Paul DeLong! Chef Paul brings years of culinary experience to our kitchen. This afternoon, guests will learn the ins and outs of making great focaccia. This class is a hybrid hands-on and demonstration class. There will be snacks provided and focaccia to take home! Reserve today!
Here is a little about Chef Paul:
Chef instructor at Cape Fear Community College
Chef Paul De Long came from very modest and humble beginnings. His earliest memories on his parent’s farm include everything from tending to the animals and gardens to butchery, brining, smoking, jarring, freezing etc. Basically, everything homesteading would demand, was on the chores list.
“I was raised on organic clean food, and I didn’t even know it or appreciate it until much later in life. That kind of lifestyle is increasingly rare! It has become apparent to me that our global food systems have changed, especially these days, with so much manipulation of the food supply on so many levels. It is incredibly important to know where your food comes from and what’s in it! “
At 15 he started working during the summer months at a Cub Scout camp near home. He started cooking at The Olive Garden right out of high school. Moving to the city and working in a high pace restaurant changed his perspective. He decided to see what else was out there. At 24 he received a bachelor’s degree at Paul Smiths College of Arts and Sciences just a couple years after the nation’s first bachelor for culinary arts had started being offered.
This began an amazing series of cooking experiences to include a short course at Le Cordon Bleu Paris France as well as working and living in Burgundy with a French family as a student.
The adventures continued as he worked in high end resorts like The Point Resort and The Lake Placid Lodge both of which are Relais and Chateaux. He worked for celebrity Chef Daniel Boulud in NYC and Las Vegas NV. Taught professional baking and pastry arts at Paul Smiths and started a local custom wedding cake business in the off season. He rejuvenated the pastry department as the Executive Pastry Chef at the White Face Lodge in Lake placid before leaving the north country.
A change in life brought Paul to Wilmington where he became the Chef in a couple of small restaurants and then entered the private country club sector. He enjoyed a prestigious position as the Executive Sous at the Country Club of Landfall until the pandemic. This break sent him home to spend time with the kids and squeeze out a Master of Business Administration at UNCW.
“I have always had a passion for quality and detail, I love food, I can’t help it… I know that no matter what else I do, I always will.” More than 30 years in the industry is hard on the body and mind, so now he finds solace and reward in teaching and helping his community fight high food expenses by learning to cook and getting healthier while doing it.
Among his many favorite quotes: “I firmly believe that you are what you eat, that being the case… I only want to eat the good stuff!”. (Remi the rat)
“Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food” (Hippocrates)