As a cooking teacher, chef, and entertainer, Erica Wides, has a way of making everyone feel comfortable, confident, and welcome in the kitchen. With recipes that range from classic French to weeknight originals it’s clear why Chef Erica is a fan favorite—there’s always a lot of laughter and a lot of lessons.
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Chef Erica is a culinary educator, food writer, industry consultant and food media host with over 25 years of experience. She worked in many top NYC restaurants including Savoy, Arcadia and The China Grill, and was executive sous chef at Quisisana resort in Maine. She, then, pivoted to teaching and was a senior instructor at The Institute of Culinary Education for 15 years, and is now lead instructor at Home Cooking New York. She was one of the original show hosts and creators at Heritage Radio Network, where she wrote, produced and hosted 300 episodes of her shows Why We Cook and Let's Get Real. She is now the creator, producer and host of her webseries, Funny People Making Food, on YouTube, a food and comedy mashup co-starring well-known comedians.
Erica believes that the most important life skill is the ability to cook for yourself and feed yourself well...
and loves nothing more than teaching people the fundamentals of good cooking and how to find and eat the best you can. When she's not cooking, you'll find her hiking, tending to her bees, teaching aqua fitness and attempting to grow vegetables.
In our podcast, A Walk Down Prairie Street, Prairie Street founder and CEO, Elliot Moscowitz sat down with Chef Erica to talk about her career. This is an excerpt from their very funny conversation.
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Elliot: Today we have a special guest with us, Chef Erica. We've been working together for about two years now, you’ve done about 20 videos for us, and I call you our “Master Class” teacher. I think it's fair to say that you're primarily an educator—so why don't you tell us what got you into cooking?
Erica: I was a kid who was really into food, basically. I was kind of food obsessed.
Elliot: Oh really?
Erica: I grew up in a family where we did a lot of cooking from scratch and my mom would put up jam and make pickles—a little bit of a back-to-the-land feeling in our house. I was always into food but, you know, in the era that I grew up you didn't become a chef, it wasn't a career option. But, I was a very creative child so I wound up going to art school for college and I majored in photography and art history. Then, when I graduated I realized pretty quickly that the people who make it in the art world are generally the people who have rich parents—I didn't. So I did what every other artist does: I started waiting tables. I was always into cooking, always into food, and so a couple of things led one thing to another.
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Elliot: Did you find that the artwork helped you later in life in plating and how you designed things alone
Erica: Yes, maybe just understanding color and pattern. So, I decided to shift careers. Because I had already gone to college and spent four years—and a lot of money—I was in debt. I went to a very short culinary school program that was just enough to get a job. I spent about seven years in that world and worked my way up to become a sous chef. But I got tired because it's really hard, it's really rough on your body, and it's a very hard lifestyle. So, I took a break.
I had never taught before but, I guess I interviewed well and I was hired at The Institute of Culinary Education—back then, it was called Peter Kump’s. I thought teaching would be just a couple of years, and then I'd open a restaurant or something.
But, it turned out I was really good at it and I really loved it. I stayed there for 15 years.
By the time I left, I was a senior instructor then started teaching at a little, teeny one-room schoolhouse in SoHo called Home Cooking New York. I've been there for ten years now.
What I realized very quickly when I was teaching was that I'm actually a really good teacher. I can stand up in front of a group and give a lecture on anything and keep people entertained. And then that all led to a career in media! That led to me having my own radio show, podcasts, and YouTube channel.
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Elliot: And here you are slumbering at Prairie Street!
Erica: You're lucky to have me
Elliot: I am very lucky to have you and we appreciate when you come by. It is a lot of fun doing this with you because you have a good sense of humor, too. How did you weave in comedy?
Erica: I realized that when you're standing up in front of a group of people teaching you're basically doing a stand-up routine. I had a whole repertoire of jokes. I did some comedic storytelling shows that I built around food and then I got this idea for a web series after watching Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the Jerry Seinfeldshow: why can't I be in the kitchen with comedians cooking. I was very lucky because I got Bridget Everett to be my guest on the pilot—she's a huge star now on HBO. It's called Funny People Making Food on YouTube, and Instagram at @chefsmartypants.
This interview was recorded during a recent filming on location in Hollywood, Florida.
Click here to watch THE FULL INTERVIEW.
Feature Photo Courtesy of: Prairie Street