The COOK Masters Program is a free, instructional cooking series taught by some of the city’s and country’s biggest culinary names, for students who are truly passionate about pursuing a professional career in the restaurant industry.

The third semester of the COOK Masters Program began earlier this month. COOK has once again secured an impressive roster of professional chefs as instructors. Upcoming and past instructors include Michael Solomonov (Zahav, Percy Street Barbecue, Federal Donuts), Jean-Marie Lacroix (Lacroix, Brûlée Catering), Pierre Calmels (Bibou), Nick Elmi (Laurel), Jon Cichon (Lacroix), Georges Perrier, Peter Woolsey (Bistrot La Minette), James Barrett (Metropolitan Bakery), Brian Freedman (Drink Me Magazine), Aimee Olexy (Talula’s Table, Talula’s Garden, Talula’s Daily), Joe Cicala (Le Virtu), Jason Cichonski (Ela), Katie Cavuto (Healthy Bites) David Katz (Creekstone Farms) and many more.

And this semester, we’ve made a change. While, in the past, the program has been open only to cooks, this time we’re held a couple of spots open for food writers–and already held a special class taught by Rick Nichols and Drew Lazor which focused completely on the business of writing about dinner rather than cooking it.

We asked some of the writers to contribute to our blog – recapping classes and giving our readers a sense of what the Masters Program is like. One of our students, Nancy Lowell, has spent a lifetime loving, eating, cooking, learning and reading about food. She has owned a small restaurant in Delaware County, New York, a catering business in New York City, worked for fifteen years for Whole Foods Market, and served Breakfast at Tiffany’s during her time working in corporate dining. Here is a link to Nancy’s blog, Chef’s Last Diet, where she recaps the recent butchery Masters class taught by Jon Cichon, Executive Chef of Lacroix.