Food Food and Nutrition

Check Out the Best Places in the Country to Learn Healthy Cooking

Jessie Van Amburg
March 26, 2019
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Photo: Courtesy of Miraval Austin
I remember when I first started to learn how to cook, I had little more to guide me than a hand-me-down copy of the cookbook Clueless in the Kitchen, a malfunctioning stovetop, and my talented older brother looking over my shoulder, judging my knife skills. (Not exactly the best learning environment for a gun-shy chef.) I have since overcome these hurtles—and only cut myself once in the process—but there's still part of me that wishes I had learned how to cook in a calmer environment. Maybe somewhere with actual counter space? Or without cats jumping up on the cutting board?

Newbie chefs, you don't have to have my experience. At Well+Good's first retreat of the year at the Miraval Austin, a wellness-oriented spa and resort, we'll teach the fundamentals of mood-boosting cooking at Miraval's new Life In Balance Culinary Kitchen. All the recipes are straight from The Well+Good Cookbook (which, if you haven't pre-ordered  your copy yet, WYD?), and the classes are led by psychiatrist and farmer Drew Ramsey, MD, as well as other wellness experts, like nutritionist Dana James. (At future retreats, attendees will similarly be learning important healthy cooking skills—although those menus are still being fleshed out.)

A taste of what's on the menu:

  • Creamy Sweet Onion Dip
  • Kale Salad with Chickpea Croutons
  • Creamy Cashew-Black Bean Enchiladas

Even if you can't join us on our retreats, the Miraval kitchens are open to guests at the resort's Tuscon, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, properties. Consider these locales the best places to get a jump-start on your healthy cooking ambitions. Guests take a wide range of healthy cooking classes offered in partnership with Williams-Sonoma, from a knife-skills workshop to a class on making bone broth. (And if guests like the tools they use in class, they can buy them straight from Williams-Sonoma.) According to a press release, the classes will also be offered at Miraval's Berkshires location, which opens autumn 2019.

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Want to join us on a future retreat? Check out the full list of dates and locations. And here's why you should embrace therapeutic cooking.

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