by Connie McMullen
If a delicious meal is the soul of your inspiration, Back of the House Cooking School is one of Reno’s exciting places to visit. Catering to those who love great food, enjoy eating, and culinary adventures, Back of the House offers cooking classes that feature soup stocks and sauces to learning the latest trends in grilling. Signature dishes can also be created for private parties, business meetings and corporate team building activities. In August, locals can enjoy lunch at this vintage Victorian cottage conveniently located in downtown Reno.
Karen Fabian (left), Barbara Mills, and Rebecca London (right).
The oven is a Fontana Forni- wood fired Italian Oven. Photo-Back
of the House Cooking School /Eric Asay, Graphic and Web Design
Back of the House Cooking School is the creation of Barbara Mills, who hails from Cleveland, Ohio. Loaded with positivity, there are few business owners that work as hard, and yet enjoy every moment of cooking.
Mills came to Reno in 2003 for a culinary interview with the “Nothing to It” Culinary Center. “Everyday I got up and everyday the sun was shining,” she said of Northern Nevada. “It was so different from the Midwest. It was pretty perfect!”
Photo-Back of the House Cooking School /Eric Asay,
Graphic and Web Design
Jennifer Bushman inspired her to move to the community, but later she freelanced out of her home and consulted for friends before opening her own business. Settling on the building located on the corner of West Second and Winter streets, “It fit all the criterion that I needed to make a cooking school happen,” explained Mills, and “I wanted the ability to do private events, and private parties. Everything here fascinates me.”
Cooking School has been open since February, 2008. Classes are offered to 12 in a teaching kitchen that is complete with Bertazonni gas stoves and John Boos prep tables. Recipes are displayed on an overhead flat screen TV for everyone to view and obtain copies. Classes generally have good attendance as most are 2/3rds full.
Back of the House Cooking School also carries retail items, gourmet foods and gadgets. Visitors can find anything from specialty wine, cooking ingredients, cookbooks, and utensils.
Back of the House Cooking School carries retail items, gourmet foods and gadgets.
Photo- Connie McMullen
A specialty vegetable grower for a number of years, Mills knows what ingredients work well together and tries to simplify each menu. Classes are held in the kitchen and when the session is completed everyone moves to the dining room to eat together. “Even if you come by yourself, you make friends very quickly,” she explains. “At the end, people sit around the table talking about all kinds of things. It’s another big dinner party.”
Photo-Back of the House Cooking School /Eric Asay,
Graphic and Web Design
Back of the House will start serving lunch in addition to cooking classes and community cooking demonstrations.
“There’s a lot of people who love to cook but would rather just eat out.” And then, there’s many people who want to cook in the kitchen but don’t know how. Boomers have more time at this stage in life and enjoy learning new things. “I have a lot of men who come to take classes.”
Mills, 57, says “It’s interesting how the paradigm shifts. The woman’s career becomes much more of a trajectory because the younger children are now independent and grown. A lot of the guys who come here are retired, but the wife still works. They start cooking and they like it. It’s a new skill to master and its fun and entertaining.”
With more then 20 years of catering and culinary teaching, Mills is licensed in Nevada to teach vocational culinary arts. She has trained in artisan bread baking with Master Baker Jeffery Hammelman, and artisan cheese making with Jackie Faillace of Three Shepherds in Vermont.
She also served as the marketing and special events cocoordinator for The Chef’s Garden in Huron, Ohio where she cooked for such culinary stars as Bradley Ogden, Charlie Trotter, Rick Tramonto, Christian Delouvier and Martha Stewart. Mills trained with Ohio chef, Parker Bosely, and taught for nine years with Tom Johnson, Executive chef for the state of Ohio. She was an instructor for Viking Culinary Arts Center before relocating to teach in Reno.
A communitywide supporter, Mills spends a good deal of time promoting culinary adventures while partnering with local growers in in the area. With a staff of six and an intern, she is often found creating recipes using fresh fruit and vegetables at farmers’ markets.
“Part of my heritage was attending the Farmers’ Markets in Ohio.” Mills learned about sustainable agriculture, often obtaining produce from farmers stands. “They had chefs on site cooking,” she said. “I kept saying ‘why does that not happen here?’”
During the summer, you can catch Mills and her staff at the California Avenue Farmers’ Market cooking up fun. “I try to target recipes that help the farmers sell produce, and we’re having a great time. My staff loves going. They pass out samples, and chat with people. I love cooking on the fly.”
And Mills attracts plenty of attention cooking for hungry shoppers. “I help the farmers sell their broccoli, and cauliflower. I’ll sauté it beautifully on site, and people attending will say, ‘oh my gosh, I didn’t think it could be that good, or I didn’t think I could fix it.’”
Last summer, Barbara offered a class where she took people to the California Farmers’ Market two Saturdays a month. “We’d take a group, and shop the market. They would be allowed to pick what they wanted. Then I’d have them come back to the cooking school and create a recipe. It was a lot of fun.”
Barbara Mills Back of the House Cooking School is located at 800 West Second Street, Reno.
Classes start at $35 per person and hold 12 people. The house can also accommodate private parties and hold 12 – 50 people. For more information about the classes, log on to BackoftheHouseCooks.com or call (775) 284-1080. Barbara Mills can also be found on the Plush Life on Channel 2, and monthly on Reno Style, aired on Charter Cable.