At home, Sherry Pitt and Chef Ann Cooper with Liv Cook Eat Soy Sauces

Liv’s Food and Flavor Fundamentals class was thoroughly enjoyable. Learning about flavor profiles and experiencing them introduced a new awareness to cooking. Ann and I now discuss flavor profiles during our meal preparations, and it is fun to experiment with them.

Liv is a delightful chef/educator and we would highly recommend Liv’s class to family. A Soy Sauce tasting during class elevated our vocabulary of taste.

-Sherry

I thoroughly enjoyed this course, apply its lessons every week, and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone!

Many food classes teach students how to cook. Chef Liv’s Food & Flavor Fundamentals course arms students with the tools to create.

Liv examines ingredients by their contribution to a dish’s flavor profile, and frames it in discussion of how various cultures achieved similar effects with the different ingredients available to them.

– Sean

Food & Flavor Fundamentals deepened my understanding and appreciation of cooking, food, taste and the enjoyment found when eating meals.

I've been an avid cook for 13 years now and I had not really thought about our basic flavor profiles with such intention as I do now after taking the course.

I highly recommend it!

– JUdith

We enjoyed learning about the magic of putting spaces and flavorings together to create the best possible "sensation" of food flavors.

The course changed my whole perspective on creating special dishes.

– Gaylen and Katherine, retirees

I was surprised by all I did not know.

Liv’s class helped me to develop the self-confidence to open the cupboard and start cooking from what is on hand--not from a recipe.

The course helped me understand the building blocks of flavor. It also helped me create a vocabulary around what I am tasting so I can now describe and deconstruct anything. Very freeing!

– TENA

The Food & Flavor Fundamentals course taught me so much about flavor profiles and what ingredients work well tougher and what don’t.

After this course, I have been able to cook a variety of tasty dishes without using recipes!

– Jamie, college student

I loved the Food and Flavor Fundamentals course.

It helped me to hone in more on flavor and less upon following recipes.

I use the flavor grid to enhance my dishes to create the most flavorful dish possible.

– Jeanne

I was telling my friends all about the course and they are so jealous and think it is so cool. I love being able to show them my skills too. Now when I am at restaurants and looking at what to get I feel like I am able to branch off more and I can actually understand the menu. I also have started to think about what flavors I am tasting which makes eating fun!

This cooking class was so amazing for me to be able to learn how to cook better, eat better, and learn to appreciate food more. I felt like I had a new appreciation for flavors and textures and different foods. It was lots of fun doing it at such a young age because now I have so many new ideas for school lunches and dinners for when I am home alone.

I also feel very ready to be able to cook for myself once I go off to college which makes me feel very accomplished. I’m so grateful to have an experience like this and hope that many more kids my age can experience what I have.

– HEIDI, age 15

Dr. Lynn Wagner

I met Liv Wu for the first time at the Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives conference at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California. There she presented her model of culinary teaching which she developed for Google. As a integrative lifestyle medicine physician who works with patients and clients on a daily basis on the benefits of healthy eating for optimum health, her style of teaching was beyond any other schooling or instruction I had experienced. Her method of using flavors, ratios, smells and more were intriguing for someone like me who always used recipes and cookbooks to navigate the kitchen. 

In Liv’s class, Food & Flavor Fundamentals, I was not disappointed in her promise to teach me her method.

Liv brought me to a whole new level of cooking. Most importantly, it was a method that I can now share with my patients and clients who struggle just as I have to navigate healthy cooking. The key is to make it less complicated so people can actually stick with a healthy diet and Liv does just this!

The best part about the experience was that I shared it with my two daughters, 11 and 15 years old. The techniques we learned together have already been shared countless times in our own kitchen. They were engaged and excited the entire experience. It is not uncommon for me to received a text from one of them while I am at work, demonstrating their latest culinary experiment.  Even my 9 year old is benefiting as we brought the skills home to share with him.  It was a life-changing experience. 

I highly recommend working with Liv an any way you can, whether you are a master chef or a budding foodie. You will not be disappointed!

-Dr. Lynn Wagner

Andrea M. Girman, MD MPH

As a physician bearing witness to the epidemic of chronic illnesses ravaging this country, it has long been my belief that better lifestyle choices are one of the most important remedies – good food choices topping the list. And yet, many of us lack key competencies to unlock the healing power held within food: the knowledge of basic cooking skills, an understanding of how to choose wholesome ingredients, and a feeling of confidence in our ability to enhance our food with the myriad palette of flavors available to us from culinary traditions all over the world.

Thankfully, these are the gifts of Liv Wu’s teaching. Students become grounded in their essential cooking skills; they experientially discover and cultivate a fundamental understanding of flavor profiles; and they gain confidence to choose fresh and cook fresh – without the burden of recipe. Liv Wu’s teaching, coaching, and framework has deepened my curiosity for everything I taste, and it has provided a sense of liberation in the kitchen.

As the former Director of Medical Education for a large functional diagnostics lab (Genova Diagnostics), much of my time was dedicated to building knowledge skills in our physician-clients. Given that experience, I believe that

Liv Wu’s course is the perfect course for health professionals: nutritionally sound, multicultural and guaranteed to transfer the language of and enthusiasm for eating well to your patients.

I remain ever grateful for the adventure of this class, the extraordinary skill, insight, and graciousness of Liv and her Sous Chefs, and the grace and ease of her approach to cooking. I look forward to continuing my education with her, and sharing it forward.

– Andrea M. Girman, MD MPH

Teresa P. McBride, ND

Liv’s class has really stepped up my game in the kitchen. Learning to cook using the flavor grid and ratios has freed me from needing to follow recipes and has helped me make better use of leftovers.  

Being a healthcare practitioner I am excited to share this with my colleagues and patients.”   

– Teresa P. McBride, ND

Nicholas Petti

Culinary Arts Management, Department Head at Mendocino Community College

Liv, Cook, Eat is a cross-disciplinary curriculum that teaches students basic nutrition, self-care, and life skills, using the lens of food and culture. Each class focuses on a taste and a ratio, encouraging students to develop a food vocabulary and vernacular, as well as giving them practical tools to move beyond cooking from recipes. The ratios and flavor grid help students think about food, flavor, and balance.

Since food is essential to all of our lives the curriculum is adaptable for use in a number of disciplines. I am a culinary instructor, training food professionals, but am excited to bring this curriculum to my colleagues in the nursing, sociology, and athletic departments, to name a few. I will also introduce the curriculum to local agencies meeting the needs of underserved communities.

– Nicholas Petti