Welcome to a different kind of cooking experience, located in Stratford, Ontario. You arrive for your weekend away filled with cooking, great meals, laughter and a cozy bed, and leave filled with warm memories, and the confidence that cooking is like speaking a language, it just takes practice, patience, and the right teachers. For us, the owners of Stamp House and Chez Soliel Cooking School, Janet and Liz, were the perfect pair to guide us along the way.
I will be honest, cooking classes are not usually my thing. Often times, I feel not dissimilar from how I felt in math class in elementary school — namely, the urge to gaze intently out the window, hoping the recess bell will sound before my name is called to participate.
At Stamp House, with our Cooking Package, I didn’t feel any of that. The conversation with Liz and Janet started with this undeniable sense that they’d go to any lengths to make this experience one that could be enjoyed, regardless of cooking background. An experience catered precisely to what we were looking for.
In the weeks leading up to our visit, we all chimed in on what we’d love to cook, and what we’d love to learn more about in the process. Steven and Lauren (an absolutely wonderful pair from The Foodies Group), and Bri and I settled on Peruvian Cuisine, and just like that we were off to the races.
Everything was so carefully catered and customized to our interests and skill level in the kitchen. With Janet and Liz at the helm, I never felt frustrated, intimidated or discouraged by the process. Upon further reflection, I’ve come to realize that Stamp House is all about prioritizing facilitation over demonstration. Yes, they’ll show you how it’s done, but the goal is help people feel like, in their kitchen, anyone can be a world-class chef, even if only for a day.
Their combined breadth of kitchen knowledge was, in a word, staggering, and yet they operated with such humility, and such curiosity of and respect for the cooking process. The best teachers, I’ve come to realize, are the ones who know a lot, but have never stopped trying to learn more – to grow. That describes Liz and Janet to a tee.
The Story of Stamp House
The namesake for the house harkens back to one James Stamp, a prominent Stratford builder as well as the former mayor. The original house was completed in 1894, and Liz’s great grandmother purchased the house from the Stamps in 1903. Throughout its history, the property has been owned by three different mayors, and has remained in the hands of their family for five generations.
As Liz noted:
“Our mother and father (one of the mayors) bequeathed us siblings – Pam, Ruth, Eric and Liz – this beautiful, Edwardian home and asked that we keep it in the family if we could. We decided to combine our talents, and are honoured to be sharing our home with you.”
It’s a beautifully restored historical home that also happens to be in a quaint, quiet residential neighbourhood that’s within walking distance to the downtown core. With a cooking package, which we’ll talk about in more detail below, there’s time built in to explore. You can walk through parks, enjoy Stratford’s breweries, do a little Stratford cycling, grab a coffee, or even line things up with a show at a local theatre.
Cooking Packages at Stamp House
Liz Mountain is a graduate of the culinary program at George Brown, while Janet Sinclair was trained at the Stratford Chef School, which I note here to make it clear that this isn’t a hobby turned profession from two local friends. It’s two professionals who have the chops (no pun intended) to guide you at every turn.
Alongside you, they help design a magical four-course menu. As they note on their site, “popular menus have included regional cuisines, techniques that need mastering, and exploring ingredients not familiar to your usual grocery list.” Here’s a sample French menu and Thai menu, so you get a sense of the quality you’ll be aiming for.
The ingredients they’ll source will reflect their respect for organic foods and the importance of farm-to-table.
The Cooking Package includes:
- Two nights of accommodation
- 4 meals (2 breakfasts, one lunch, and one dinner)
- A full day of instruction guided by two culinary instructors in an intimate setting
- All the recipes that you’ve worked on together (ie. some great cooking knowledge!)
- The chance to bond with the people you’ve arrived with in a new way, in a very warm, welcoming setting
You can request more information here, if that interests you. There’s a part of that form that sums up everything you need to know about Janet and Liz’s approach:
“What gets you excited about cooking? How can we make your package the best it can be? We want to make this event memorable for you and your guests.”
The meals that you’ll have besides the main dinner are also here to wow you, and to me, felt like a showcase of the combined talent of Liz and Janet.
Take, for example, our lunch, which featured Moroccan preserved lemons, tahini miso dip, a mixed herb pesto, harissa, roasted beets, blood orange and candied walnuts with Asian greens, an Algerian eggplant jam, roasted crispy chickpeas with parmesan cheese and black pepper, roasted almonds, Italian green olives, grilled red peppers with feta cheese, oregano and black olives, lentil & bulgur croquettes, dried apricots, toasted hazelnuts and pickled purple onions.
Who knew we’d be coming to Stratford to harken back to some of our favourite flavours from the Middle East?
Just to give you an idea of how things will run on the day of the cooking class – we had breakfast, had some cooking instruction for most of the morning, explored Stratford in the afternoon, then got back together to put the finishing touches on the meal in the evening, before seating ourselves at the dinner table, and breaking out a little wine to celebrate our accomplishments
Our Peruvian Inspired Menu
Here was the custom designed four course menu that we had the pleasure of cooking, and then enjoying together. We decided to go with dishes from Peru, and this is what we settled on with Stamp House’s guidance.
- Lake Huron Whitefish Empanadas in Achiote Dough with Olives
- Red and Green Peppers Loco Squash Saute with Tomatoes, Onions, Corn and Peas
- Pato con Higos: Roasted Muscovy Duck with Fig Sauce served with Quinoa
- Tejas: Peruvian Truffles with Dark Chocolate and Toasted Pecans
Since we had all offered input in its design, and been a part of the cooking process, this whole meal truly felt like ours. That’s not a feeling I’ve always had in the past with cooking classes. Upon further reflection, I think this is a credit to the smaller class sizes and the intimate setting that you can find at Stamp House.
To extend the metaphor, we were guided on the hike by two experienced guides, but still very much did the hike. They knew the trail well, and showed us we were capable. And, to my surprise, I never felt tempted by the idea of taking the gondola, because we were all in it together – one big team with a worthy common goal.
Stamp Houses Accommodation Options
You’ve got 4 rooms that are available here during your stay. Each of the rooms is named after a family member, and we were particularly honoured to be staying in “John’s Room,” a beautiful nod to the late John Mountain, the partner of our dear friend Greg, who runs followsummer.
Bri and I had heard so much about John through our friendship with Greg, and so the beautiful bookcase and king bed aside, it was a place where we could spend downtime and feel like we were a part of a story bigger than ourselves — a humbling, welcome state to be in.
Stamp House is pet friendly, we should add.
- John’s Room: 2 twin beds or 1 king bed, a 3 piece ensuite bathroom, plus a nice sitting area, mirror to get ready with, and that wondrous aforementioned bookcase. This is the largest room in the house.
- Pamela’s Room: 2 twin beds or 1 king bed, a 3 piece ensuite bathroom
- Eric’s Room: 2 twin beds or 1 king bed, a private bathroom with a shower across the hall
- Ruth’s Room: 2 twin beds or 1 king bed, a private bathroom with a shower across the hall
All of the rooms are homey and welcoming, so if you’re a part of a larger group, I wouldn’t worry too much about what room you get. There are plenty of common spaces to spend your time during the day on both the first and second floor.
A Cooking Class, Reimagined
I was almost positive that I was done with cooking classes…and then I came here. They call their cooking school “Chez Soleil,” and it’s hard to think of a more apt name for it, because I think back on the experience, and I’m filled with light and warmth.
I asked Janet at one point how many people she thought they’d taught along the way. “Well ten years, three times a week…it’d have to be in the thousands,” she said.
When I asked her what drove her and Liz to share this knowledge, and encourage people to get into the kitchen and give themself to the process, she lifted up a nearby pepper and a knife, and gestured to all the filled, boiling pots, and the oil, piping hot, cooking our nearby empanadas and said, simply, “this is life. This is all your senses.”
Christopher Mitchell is the Cofounder of Ultimate Ontario. He’s visited over 80 countries, and has lived on 4 continents, but now has his eyes set squarely on exploring this incredible province, and helping others do the same.