Culinary center inspires interest in cooking

Martin Murphy, executive chef at the Robb & Stucky KitchenAid Culinary Center, pours corn cake batter into a pan during an informational class.


Neil and Kate Armal enjoy a coriander crusted scallop over a sweet corn cake with saute of sweet peppers during a class at the Robb & Stucky KitchenAid Culinary Center.

Martin Murphy is cooking up unique eats at the Robb & Stucky KitchenAid Culinary Center in Bonita Springs and everyone is invited to come out, eat and learn about food.

Murphy, the center’s executive chef, is offering interactive classes in which students are invited to ask questions, learn about food, ways to prepare it and how to spice up their daily meals.

“My philosophy is to get you to appreciate and enjoy cooking,” said Murphy, to more than 25 attendees.

The culinary facility, which opened in March 2005, is the first of its kind in Bonita Springs.

“He writes all the menus and researches everything so when he talks about the food, everyone learns so much,” said Jan Secrest, Robb & Stucky’s marketing coordinator.

Built within the Robb & Stucky store, which sells kitchen appliances and other home decor items, the center has a kitchen equipped with cameras and screens that show students exactly what’s going into Murphy’s food.

“I want new flavors, techniques, new equipment and new ideas,” said Nancy Spence of Marco Island, who has changed her way of cooking since taking the classes. “There aren’t that many cooking classes in town and this one comes with history about the food.”

In the class, which costs around $40, students are given recipes that detail what will be made based on the day’s theme.

“I put together these menus on a plane ride but it is just as easy for you to do the same,” said Murphy about a recent class about cooking appetizers. “I try to share my experiences in the kitchen, my philosophy and ways for you to cook at home.”

During a recent class, Murphy cooked a coriander crusted scallop over a sweet corn cake with saute of sweet peppers and showed students that it’s creativity that makes the dish.

“You can make anything an appetizer; it’s all about portions,” said Murphy, who’s been a chef for 25 years. “Appetizers are very trendy right now and people like to eat smaller foods with different tastes.”

Neil Arnal and his wife Kate have tried Murphy’s recipes at home and stand by them.

“We love it; we’ve been to several (classes) and it’s always extremely educational,” Neil Arnal said. “We’ve tried them at home with guests and things always work extremely well. We love the class.”

Furniture studio to support art scholarship

The Art League of Bonita Springs and Design Within Reach have teamed up to provide scholarships to give thriving young artists, designers, and architects a chance to go to college, technical programs or additional classes at the Art League.

“We have a lot of kids in our program that wouldn’t be able to go to college or even pay for our classes if we didn’t have these scholarship opportunities,” said Joni Loehnis, Art League spokesperson.

Design Within Reach, a classic modern furniture store, is donating money to the scholarship program because, after opening a new studio at the Coconut Point shopping district in Estero in November, the studio realized it wanted to give back to the community in a big way.

And, it is allowing the community to give back as well until Jan. 15.

Following its grand opening celebration on Thursday, the studio began its “Percent for Art” program in which 10 percent of all sales between Jan. 8 and Jan. 15 are awarded to high school students who intend to study art or design at the college level.

“We invite the community to come out and purchase the very, very cool looking furniture we have,” said Nanette Dorbeck, the studio account executive, who won’t give an estimate on how much the studio will be able to donate until sales end on Tuesday. “We are all about what the Art League does because we are supporters of design, too. We are thrilled that we can do this for them.”

Art students are the ones who will be seeing the big rewards but not until mid-March after the Student Showcase at the Art League.

“We get kids from Collier and Lee counties that come out to our classes and all participating students have a chance to be in the show,” said Loehnis, about the showcase that includes a gallery exhibition and awards ceremony. “This partnership will gives us an additional scholarship and give one more kid a chance to study art and that’s important to us.”

Last year the Art League handed out more than $12,000 worth of college tuition scholarships and other students received more than $9,000 to attend classes at the Art League.

“We know that this money will help local artists and that’s what we want. We wanted to support the nonprofit group as well,” Dorbeck said.

“It’s always good to have more money to go to school. It’s part of our mission statement to help enrich the culture of our diverse community,” Loehnis said. “We will be able to stick with that mission with the studio’s help.”