Food is love is not only a common refrain at the Farmer’s Table Cooking School, it also is a way of life exemplified by the school's Executive Chef Connor Wolf.
Wolf heads up the Farmer’s Table Cooking School cofounded by Bridget Engle seven years ago this December in the town of Livingston at Mississippi 463 and Mississippi 22 in Madison County.
“He has so much love for food,” Engle said. “That is what we say, ‘Food is love.’ It is contagious.”
On a recent blue-sky sunny Thursday afternoon hundreds of people strolled the streets of Livingston, some sitting on the porch of the town bar, others perusing the food trucks, food stands, produce stands and arts and crafts stands set up in the shade of giant trees on the town square for the first of the year’s Livingston Spring Markets.
Wolf worked the Farmer’s Table booth frying batches of fresh Gulf shrimp to make po-boys with fresh-cut French fries on the side for hungry customers who lined up at the booth.
“I love his cooking,” said Starry Love of Bolton who has been driving over for the Livingston Spring every Thursday during the spring for years to enjoy Wolf’s cooking. “I love his cooking. The pulled pork is excellent.”
The shrimp po-boy also met with Love’s approval, she said.
“I am a fan,” Love said.
Wolf joined the Farmer’s Table Cooking School as executive chef in August 2017, where he creates all menus for cooking demonstrations, classes and catering events.
For cooking classes, Wolf said he teaches students to prepare their own meals. He works with local farmers to supply seasonal produce for menu planning.
“You come in, we’ve got beer, wine, sangria that are offered whenever you come through the door and we’ll have a little appetizer and then we start cooking,” Wolf said of the cooking class experience. “It will either be a soup or a salad. Then we make a main entrée and a dessert and you make it all from start to finish. Then take a seat and eat what you created.”
The meal preparation portion of the class usually takes about an hour, Wolf said.
“The main purpose of this is making people comfortable in the kitchen, and I like seeing people learn new things like the proper way to dice an onion or break down a bell pepper or sear scallops,” Wolf said. “People think they know the correct way and the proper way to do it and then they come here and I just say I make cooking easier for people. I make them more comfortable in their own kitchen.”
A recent cooking class walked participants through preparing grilled redfish served over cucumber, heirloom tomato and shallot Israeli couscous and garlic roasted green beans and lemon butter sauce with arugula salad with sliced summer peaches, diced red onions, roasted corn, feta cheese and toasted pinenuts dressed with a lemon vinaigrette lemon icebox pie with toasted meringue topping and sliced almonds. The admission price was $99.
Wolf has spent years honing his craft, having earned an associates degree in culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts Miami Florida in 2014 and having worked as a line cook at Swine in Coral Gables, Florida, in 2013-2014, as a line cook under Derek Emerson at Walkers Drive In, Jackson, Local 463 and Caet, 2014-2015, before working as a sous chef at Walkers Drive In 2015 to 2017.
“Some people can be intimidated by certain dishes or recipes or using a certain product and then we give people the chance to come out here and experiment and try something new and make them feel a little more at home in their own kitchen, too,” Wolf said of the cooking school classes.
Wolf said he not only loves teaching people proper cooking techniques but also loves feeding people.
“I love cooking for people and cooking with them,” Wolf said. “When I was growing up my mother would always say three words, and it seems very cliché nowadays but the idea that food is love sort of rings true to me. I’ve sort of built my life and my career around those three words.”
Engle said that love of cooking for and feeding people makes Wolf a natural for teaching cooking classes.
“He was working for Derek at Walkers and at Local and Caet and I had him come out and teach, do a guest chef and I knew, he was literally a duck to water, this is what he was made to do for now,” Engle said. “He will be able to do great things. … He is a very, very good chef. I would probably say one of the top three chefs in the Jackson area.”
Wolf said he also loves meeting people from different walks of life, different backgrounds or religions and ethnicities bond over food.
“We all have one thing in common, we all really enjoy food,” Wolf said. “We have to have it and to see strangers come in here and walk through these doors and gather around the dinner table and share experiences and tell stories and cook hand in hand, there's really no greater thing to see.”
While each class is a standalone experience Wolf said many students come back for more classes.
The Farmer’s Table Cooking School’s classroom is well-equipped for the experience as well with rows of four tables each equipped for four students to accommodate 16 students per class and cooking equipment including Viking ranges, Viking grills outside, mixers and blenders. Students learn knife skills and proper techniques for frying, baking, sauteéing and grilling.
The Farmer’s Table Cooking School also offers special classes including private lessons and classes for up to some 25 students. The school also recently had children's classes.
“Once it gets past that point we either do seated dinners or I do demonstrations where we set up demo style,” Wolf said. “People just set up in front of me at the kitchen bar and I may have a little TV screen camera putting me up there and I show them how to make a couple of different things and they get to learn about it and also enjoy cooking without having to chop, slice or dice. That is another option as well.”
Wolf said people do not understand how powerful the food bonding experience can be.
“The one thing that I do and I end every class with is to reenforce and it is not just the basis of the cooking school but it is the main reason that I do it is the idea that food is love,” Wolf said. “People don’t understand how powerful it can be whether it is something so small like everybody seems to give food to families if there is a loved one that has passed or there is a baby that is born. Everybody is always dropping off food that makes you feel good. You know it really does, but whether it is something super small like grabbing them a Hershey bar or dropping off a pint of ice cream or bringing a pint of ice cream home to your pregnant spouse. Something so small can make such an impact.”
