About Me

My culinary passion and profession spans several decades of education and work, but was propelled when I went to the French countryside of the Loire Valley and the Poitou-Charente to study with the late Chef Robert Reynolds of Le Trou Restaurant in San Francisco. Upon returning home to the Bay Area I received a degree in pastry and baking at the California Culinary Academy and returned to France again for an internship in pastry at Le Petit Prince in Sorgues, a small village near the famous wine region of Chateauneuf de Pape. I became pastry chef for Postino Restaurant in Lafayette after training at Tra Vigne in the Napa Valley under Chefs Michael Chiarello and Cat Cora, both currently with the Food Network.

Eventually, I parted from restaurant work to pursue my love of cooking in France and Italy as well as a career in culinary education, and recipe testing for chef-authors. I tested recipes for and contributed to the celebrated Dean and Deluca Food and Wine Cookbook by Jeff Morgan and worked with Iron Chef Cat Cora on two cookbooks, Cat Cora’s Kitchen and Cooking from the Hip, among other book projects. In between times I returned to  Provence to work at Chateau Routas a sprawling vineyard and estate and worked for a summer as chef-manager of the property.

About Terry’s Kitchen

My home-based cooking school, In Terry’s Kitchen, is located in the SF East Bay hills situated on a hilltop in Lafayette, California. A spacious well-equipped kitchen adjoins a large patio-garden with a wood burning Italian forno. A tree shaded staircase winds down to an expansive organic garden complete with hen house for six laying hens. Spectacular views reminiscent of Provence display a hillside studded with lavender and rosemary and California native oaks. The setting is a perfect tranquil environment for the specialty “hands on” classes, cooking parties, and demonstration classes offered throughout the year to enlighten students to the joy and pleasures of learning the art of cooking.