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It was a baptism by fire that dropped Harmons Chef Bob Bryant into a lifelong culinary career. At 15, he was washing dishes in a café when one of the cooks didn’t show up for work.
“You know the difference between burned and raw?” the owner asked Bryant.
The native Utahn’s culinary career was born on that day and he hasn’t been far from the stovetop flames ever since. Today, with 35 years of experience under his belt, Bryant is head chef for the groundbreaking Harmons Culinary Education Center.
“It’s one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen a grocery store do,” said Bryant.
The Harmons Culinary Education Center is easy to find on the spectacular mezzanine of Harmons newest store at 13800 South and 100 East in Draper.
This is the place Bryant, his sous chefs and the family-owned Harmons company are inviting Utahns to come to hone their cooking skills in a friendly environment with some of the state’s most skilled chefs and up-to-the-minute equipment and technology.
Classes are offered several times a week and the schedule is easily accessible on-line.
The center features five state-of-the-art cooking stations anchored by spiffy stainless steel Wolf ranges and all the other equipment to support entrees, side dishes, sauces, ethnic dishes, desserts and anything else on the cooking school calendar.
In these beautiful surroundings, Harmons chefs and staff will deliver classes and menus from their own private recipe files and also craft classes on topics requested by customers.
Chef Bob Bryant will teach most of the classes.
After his early initiation to cooking as a teenager, Chef Bob Bryant has learned from some of the best mentors around. Over the years, he has cultivated what he calls a classical education in culinary arts. He has trained with some of the best chefs in Utah.
He spent much of his career in Salt Lake City – he owned Cafe’ Rude in downtown Salt Lake City for example – but after many years sought a change of pace and spiritual respite in Antimony, Utah.
Up until a few months ago, he was at the helm of his own restaurant, an eclectic American eatery in Central Utah called Desert Blossom.
A yearning for a larger experience brought him back to Salt Lake City and to Harmons where he’s delivered some unlikely dishes that are becoming Harmons customer favorites – turkey meatloaf for example.
“If you ever have my turkey meatloaf...” Chef Bob Bryant teases. “You will cry. It’s that good.”
The beauty of this variation on the dinnertime favorite actually has less to do with the turkey, and more to do with the range of vegetables pureed to add moisture and flavor without adding saturated fat.
It’s a theme that follows Chef Bob Bryant through many of his offerings at Harmons culinary education program. He’s health conscious, but a little bit mischievous too and his dishes are a bit unexpected.
He likes it that way. He loves to take different ingredients and put them together in unique combinations. Pasta with an Asian flair for example, or “Shrimp from Hell,” a bevy of Caribbean flavors made up of shrimp sautéed with orange juice, coconut milk, jalapenos, Vietnamese chilis, mangos, bananas and cilantro.
Huh?
“I love that reaction,” Chef Bob laughs. “It sounds a little off, but taste it, and it’s incredible.”
In preparation for opening, the whole cooking school staff went to San Francisco to observe and train at a cooking school there. They brought back their expertise to the Harmons Culinary Education Center space that is a pleasant surprise to customers used to the white walls and straightforward interiors of mainstream grocery stores.
Six-burner, Wolf ranges highlight the modern space, which also includes Cuisinart mixers, JK Henkel knife sets and everything else necessary in the fully equipped instructional facility.
While the equipment is made for pros, Harmons’ cooking enthusiasts don’t have to be. Classes range from sharpening knife skills, to preparing classic gourmet sauces, to grilling more interesting meals this BBQ season, to whipping out delicious vegetarian dishes.
Bryant and his team of chef educators will assist with either “hands-on” or “demonstration” cooking sessions.
Hands-on cooking classes are just that. After a technique demonstration, attendees jump in and create menu items for that class. When the food is ready, everyone eats.
Demonstration classes are meant to be foodtainment. Attendees watch as the team of chefs prepares that evening’s selections – and can get a bird’s eye view from two large screen monitors mounted overhead. Later, attendees eat what the chefs prepare. Class fees cover all ingredients, preparation and food costs.
In addition to Chef Bob Bryant, the school will feature guest chefs from all areas of the food industry, including Harmons Executive Chef Kyle Lore and Certified Master Chef Helmut Holzer.
The company is also pulling expertise from its own experienced ranks.
Harmons Chef Colleen Lodge, for example, started crafting meatless meals when her teenage daughter went vegetarian a year ago. Lodge dialed back her meat consumption, cut friend foods, and lost 48 pounds. Now she’s teaching Harmons patrons what she’s learned in vegetarian cooking class.
“That’s the beauty of this,” Bryant says. “It’s not Better Homes & Gardens-style cooking. It’s more complex, more gourmet. But we’re translating it into terms and classes the average person can enjoy.”
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