Special Events

Heartland Masala: A Journey Through Indian Gastronomy, Culture and History

Join us for this demonstration class.  Sit back and enjoy tastings while learning about the food.

Jyoti Mukharji and Auyon Mukharji authors of Heartland Masala: An Indian Cookbook from an American Kitchen, will lead us through the creation of several recipes from their new book, while explaining their historical and cultural context. Along with learning about Indian food, hear about their tag-team authorship: a years-long collaboration between an immigrant mother and her American-born son. The pair's shared love of teaching, cooking, and culinary history will shine throughout the evening.

**The price includes a copy of the book, Heartland Masala (The Collective Book Studio, 2025) and the evening will end with a book signing.

About the Authors: 

Jyoti Mukharji is a chef, teacher, and retired physician. She immigrated to the US from India in the late 1970s, and began teaching weekly Indian cooking classes out of her home in Prairie Village, KS in 2010. Jyoti has since welcomed several thousand students into her kitchen, and her writing and teaching have been celebrated in press and radio outlets across the Midwest. Jyoti's team includes her husband Jhulan (art director), her eldest son Arnob (grocery shopping deputy), her middle son Auyon (musical guest), and her youngest son Aroop (copy editor).

Auyon Mukharji is a musician, writer, and culinary historian who spends most of his time thinking about food. He studied biology at Williams College and was awarded a Watson Fellowship in 2007 to study self-expression in folk music. Since 2009, Auyon has toured with, and cooked for, the acclaimed indie-folk band Darlingside. He otherwise finds time to work in and around kitchens (and farms) in both his hometown of Kansas City and in Massachusetts, his adopted state of residence.

Sourdough Baking with Regional Flours - A Weekend Workshop with Sarah Owens

Interest in sourdough leavening continues to grow, with many home bakers curious to use locally grown grains and stone ground flours in their bakes. In this 2-day weekend workshop, we will explore baking with a whole grain sourdough starter using local- and regionally-sourced stone ground rye, spelt, oats, and wheat. Through the mixing, shaping, and baking of sourdough breads and pastries, we will discuss how to approach baking with regional whole grain flours to unlock unique, terroir-driven flavors and digestibility.

Join author Sarah Owens as she guides you through a weekend of baking from her James Beard award-winning cookbook, Sourdough. It's the 10-year anniversary of the book with a new anniversary edition coming out in October 2025!

In this 2-day weekend workshop, you'll learn to make and bake bread and pastry that's high in local and regional grains, using a whole grain sourdough starter. This includes a beautiful crusty hearth bread, a focaccia-inspired flatbread, a savory galette, cookies, and a seasonal scone. Each participant will bake these recipes, featuring local whole grain flours, from scratch: from hand-mixing, folding, proofing, and shaping; to baking and, finally, tasting. 

While the dough is resting, we will focus on using sourdough starter as both an agent of fermentation and as an ingredient in other baked goods. Sarah will also demonstrate variations on these themes, with opportunities for making decorative breads. There will also be time to chat about local food systems and how to support them by incorporating stone ground regional whole grains into our bakes. 

Lunch will be provided on day 1, tastings provided on day 2.

You’ll leave the BAKE! weekend workshop with a solid foundation for hearty whole grain baked goods; handouts with Sarah’s recipes; and guidance to continue the baking adventure at home.

***Please note: Ann Arbor hotels book up quickly in the Fall. If you are joining us from out of town, please make your lodging reservations soon after signing up for the weekend workshop.

Meet the Instructor:

Sarah Owens (she/her/they) is a writer, recipe developer, and professional horticulturist who specializes in fermentation and sourdough baking. She leads hands-on and online culinary classes and is the James Beard award-winning cookbook author of Sourdough (Roost Books, 2015), Toast and Jam (Roost Books, 2017), and Heirloom (Roost Books, 2019). In her writing, Sarah seeks the intersection between the natural world and the most celebrated aspects of living. She believes that food is a powerful medium for storytelling that can anchor a community in shared experiences and traditions. After working as the Curator of Roses at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and baking professionally for over a decade in Brooklyn and Queens in NYC, Sarah now lives in Sonoma County, California, where she writes, bakes, and defends her small backyard garden from marauding deer. Sarah's most recent recipes and whole grain baking workshops can be found on her Patreon membership platform and website, www.ritualfinefoods.com.

Lebanese Baking Demonstration with Maureen Abood

Join us for a demonstration class with Michigan cookbook author and IACP finalist, Maureen Abood. Sit back and enjoy some delicious Lebansese recipes from Maureen's newest cookbook, Lebanese Baking (Countryman Press, 2025).** There will be a tasting and a book signing.

What sets Lebanese Baking apart is its sense of purpose. Abood writes not just as a recipe
developer, but as an archivist of family memory and a chronicler of Lebanese American identity
through food. After her mother’s passing, she returned to the kitchen with quiet urgency to
preserve not only the recipes she grew up with, but the stories, language, and tenderness that
shaped them.

**A copy of the cookbook is included in the price of the class.

Meet the Instructor

Maureen Abood's mission is to help her Lebanese-food-loving community keep Lebanese culinary traditions alive. She learned to cherish and master Lebanese cuisine growing up in her big family in Michigan and later attending culinary school in San Francisco. Her award-winning debut cookbook, Rose Water & Orange Blossoms: Fresh & Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen (Running Press, 2015), her popular website, MaureenAbrood.com, and her social media channels are beloved for her trusted recipes made easy, and the deep personal connections of family, food, and memories she makes in her fun, vibrant style with her growing community. Her writing and recipes have also appeared widely, including in the New York Times, Washington Post, Saveur, Food52, and on National Public Radio. Maureen lives in Harbor Springs and East Lansing, Michigan.