The Cookworks
Hosted by successful chef/restaurateur Donna Dooher (Mildred Pierce Restaurant), each episode of this 13-part series features Dooher coaching an enthusiastic group of six to eight adult students with a focus on specific ingredients, techniques and tools. Set in a teaching kitchen, students work together on everything from main courses and comfort foods to fish and pastry, enjoying the fruits of their labour when they sit down to test how it all turned out.
A chef, cookbook author and restaurateur, Donna Dooher is one of North America’s leading advocates of the rewards and entertainment value of hands on cooking. With her 25 years of experience as a chef, partner of Toronto’s Mildred Pierce Restaurant, founder of The Cookworks cooking studio and as a television personality, Dooher has been a trailblazer in enabling people to discover their inner chef.
In developing The Cookworks cooking studio, Dooher relied on the conviction that cooking can inspire and reduce stress, while being both fun and entertaining. In her cooking studio, and now on her series, Dooher encourages participants in her classes to think and cook like chefs, while exposing students to the camaraderie of cooking together and celebrating a job well done. Her approachable, entertaining style of instruction – peppered with lots of good humour – has helped thousands of corporate and individual clients unlock their culinary creativity.
Dooher is a strong proponent of culinary excellence and achievement through her memberships in the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the James Beard Institute, the Canadian Food and Restaurant Association, Slow Food, Cuisine Canada and the Ontario Hostelry Institute.
Dooher’s best-selling cookbook Out to Brunch, co-authored by Claire Stubbs, is in its second printing.
Dooher, originally from Ottawa, Canada, trained in Culinary Arts at Algonquin College and has completed the University of Guelph’s Hospitality Manager’s Development Course. She is married to Kevin Gallagher, her Mildred Pierce business partner and the father of their two children. In her spare time, Donna is an accomplished motorcyclist.