Good food, simple techniques and clear instructions are the keys to success in the Paulding & Company kitchen in Emeryville, Calif., where Terry Paulding and her daughter welcome groups and are confident they can win over any cooking skeptic.
“I’m confident I can make any group successful,” Paulding says.
The San Francisco Bay Area has long been known as a leading healthy food destination, and for planners, part of the appeal of a team-building program like this one is the ease with which dietary restrictions can be accommodated.
“Being a small business, I can really customize events to reflect what groups want,” Paulding says. “I change menus almost micro-seasonally, depending on what’s good at the farmers market.”
The company moved into its current space, a 2,400-square-foot professional-grade kitchen, in 2004 and has seen a very organic growth in popularity amongst local businesses; from making ice cream sandwiches with Clorox executives to providing the Pixar animators behind the movie Ratatouille with some basic cooking training.
Paulding has 20 years of experience working in adult education as a cooking teacher, and she appreciates teaching people tangible skills they can take home and employ every day. She believes that cooking as a craft has been shoved to the background in our modern, harried, society and she wants people to value food beyond going to a restaurant and having people serve them.
“I bring together good food and good people for classes, parties and team-building where everyone can prepare wonderful meals together,” she says.
Past events have included cake decorating contests for publishing companies, all-chocolate menus, and roving, tapas-style parties for larger groups. The location can accommodate about 70 people for seated dining, but tapas are an easy way to make sure everyone, from vegans to those on gluten-free diets, has something to eat.
Paulding thrives off the interaction with her clients.
“I love cooking with people and watching them realize that they’re capable of making really good food. There’s a special alchemy that happens in the kitchen, it’s a miraculous process,” she says.
