Mystic Cooking School: In a Nutshell !!!

Mystic Cooking School began as a passion that needed to be shared with others of the same culinary persuasion and opened for its first class in September, 1994. Drawing from a rich stock of restaurant chefs, the school has flourished with word of mouth praise and endorsements from food editors at all the regional newspapers.

Annice Estes and Michael Jubinsky started the school together drawing on their contacts in the food industry--she as a local cookbook editor and he as a representative for King Arthur Flour. Annice first met many of the Mystic area restaurant chefs while compiling recipes for a fundraiser cookbook for the Children’s Soup Kitchen in New Haven which she self-published. Due to time constraints, Michael left the partnership in 1995 leaving the school with a solid foundation and continues to teach the occasional course. Today Annice’s son, Tony, is at the helm while Annice and her husband, Cliff (a retired college professor) and daughter and son-in-law ,Tara and Stéphane, (financial analyst and webmaster) continue to assist.

The school first opened using the Stonington Community Center, and then spent four years at the Stonington Vineyard. A beautiful space was constructed on a scenic road in Stonington and was home for the school for five years—later lost in a divorce-type situation. 2005 has seen the school survive at various sites such as Stonecroft Country Inn in Ledyard, Guytanno’s Café in Westerly, and the oceanfront St. Edmund’s Retreat Center in Mystic. Plans for a new permanent home for the school are evolving.

While our class sites change, the quality of our offerings remains constant. Our chefs continue to include well-known cookbook authors, James Beard House guest chefs, and other great American chefs from restaurants as far away as New Orleans, international cooking school instructors, the most creative caterers, and talented home cooks from other cultures. We fill our public offerings with local residents and weekend visitors, and offer private corporate classes for team building or rewards for great employee performances.

We’d like you to join us for one of life’s simple pleasures: good food and conversation on a sociable night out.