About Us
It all started with a burnt galette.
It was 8:00pm and I was just getting started on making dinner. Earlier that evening, I had decided that I would try making my first galette. A goat cheese, potato & leek galette. There are endless resources online for a recipe and technique tips, and bonus, I had just recently acquired a cookbook that praised how simple galettes were to make. Quoting from that book (which is my favorite cookbook regardless of how this story ends), "my essential, beginner-friendly dough". This is absolutely something I want to take on for tonight's dinner, I effortlessly thought.
The dough making was beginner-friendly, got to give it to the author. It came together just as the author said it would, a little scraggly but nothing to worry. Dough is chilling, mies en place is placed, now to assemble. From the reference cookbook, a quick mention of "a more polished look, transfer the dough to a 10-inch removable bottom tart pan". I'm polished, I thought. I butter the pan and rest my scraggly dough in. Wow, this is so beginner-friendly, no wonder everyone is talking about them this summer. Pop the cheese, potatoes, leeks onto the dough, fold the edges over for that perfect *galette gram photo*, and into the oven. No less than 5 minutes later, the oven is smoking and I have an upset smoke detector and howling chihuahua. The butter leaked from the cracks of the removable pie pan onto the oven coil. I asked myself if I thought it would be wise to switch the oven off. I was reluctant to turn off the oven because it's now 8:45pm and I have no back up plan. Now, if you're a professional chef or baker, at this point you're thinking that only full blown idiots would put a pie pan in the oven without a baking sheet underneath it. Well, I am not a professional chef. I am simply a woman reading and doing what was in a cookbook that I adore. So, here I am, with a raw galette. Raw dough, raw potatoes. I shimmied the dough out of the pie pan and into a cast iron pan, turned the burner on and covered the pan with foil. Foil, because, raw potatoes and 8:55pm. I need to cook this thing. I have no idea how long it "cooked" for, but at some point, I called it. Dinner was served.
Typically, my family sweetly congratulates me for what I made for dinner. The night of the potato leek galette, I got a "it's amazing how you can both burn and undercook the same thing." We all laughed and I haven't dared to make another galette since.
I knew that I couldn't possibly be the only home cook out there that felt so encouraged to try a new recipe and then quickly was so discouraged during cook time by surprises that popped up. This is where Fēst comes in. Fēst leverages the knowledge, skill, talent and cooking instinct of professional chefs in real-time video cooking classes for home cooks. All of our cooking and baking classes begin with an introduction to the recipe, and the chef will instruct the home cook to pull out all of the ingredients and equipment needed for the recipe. Then, chef will give a high level run down of the recipe steps. Because, surprises aren't always fun. Then, while the home cook is cutting, chopping, measuring, heating, cooking, baking, mixing, chef will be watching, giving guidance and feedback, and helping to troubleshoot until the dish is finished and plated. All cooking crises averted.
Wish I had a Fēst chef on video the night of my now famous galette.
We're a woman-owned business founded in 2019.
Fēst, pronounced 'feast', is a collective of Chefs, Pastry Chefs and Sommeliers who teach guided, interactive and completely customizable classes to cooking-curious people of all skill levels around the world.
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Meet Our
Team
Brit Obenauer
CEO and Founder
Working virtually from Charleston, South Carolina.
I knew that I couldn't possibly be the only home cook out there that felt so encouraged to try a new recipe and then quickly was so discouraged during cook time by surprises that popped up. This is where Fēst comes in. Fēst leverages the knowledge, skill, talent and cooking instinct of professional chefs in real-time video cooking classes for home cooks. All of our cooking and baking classes begin with an introduction to the recipe, and the chef will instruct the home cook to pull out all of the ingredients and equipment needed for the recipe. Then, chef will give a high level run down of the recipe steps. Because, surprises aren't always fun. Then, while the home cook is cutting, chopping, measuring, heating, cooking, baking, mixing, chef will be watching, giving guidance and feedback, and helping to troubleshoot until the dish is finished and plated. All cooking crises averted.
Chef Camorrow Jones
Chef Instructor
Teaching virtually from Dallas, Texas.
A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Chef Camorrow Jones began her culinary career immediately after high school. Chef Jones received her Associates in Culinary Arts from the Art Institute of Dallas and Bachelors in Culinary Nutrition from Johnson and Wales University.
Chef Dave Brightbard
Chef Instructor
Teaching virtually from Costa Rica.
Chef Dave was born and raised in Australia. He is well travelled and has lived and worked in multiple countries around the globe giving him a vast array of knowledge with different cultures and cuisines with almost 25 years experience working in restaurants and catering.
Chef Garrison Price
Chef Instructor
Teaching virtually from Napa, California.
Chef Garrison is the executive chef of Bear at Stanly Ranch in Napa, California. Previously, Garrison was the executive chef at Il Florista in New York City, where the seasonal menu focuses on Mediterranean flavors highlighting flowers and botanicals in their many edible and beautiful forms. At Il Fiorista, Garrison worked directly with local and regional farmers to source ingredients and honor the restaurant’s commitment to sustainability.
Chef Peggy Aoki
Chef Instructor
Teaching virtually from Mountain View, California.
Chef Peggy loves travel, culture and meeting new people. She also works as a sustainability and education project manager for a large corporate food company, helping chefs find ways to reduce food waste and understand sustainable food practices.
Chef Adrianna Holiat
Chef Instructor
Teaching virtually from New York City, New York.
Chef Adrianna is a Private Chef based in Greenwich Village, New York City with 15+ years of professional cooking experience. Her straightforward cooking style compounds on a whole foods approach with a vast knowledge of the many health benefits that food can offer us. Adrianna loves to support and educate clients to create simple and flavorful food by teaching easy, sustainable kitchen skills and ingredient swaps to level up their cooking game.
Chef Sherry Swanson
Chef Instructor
Teaching virtually from Stratford, Connecticut.
Chef Sherry is a Private Chef and Culinary Instructor from Connecticut. She enjoys sharing food and cooking techniques with her students and has taught classes for more than 15 years. She believes that food brings people together and each meal is an opportunity to create a special memory with the people we care about.
Sommelier Julieta Acevedo Correa
Sommelier and Mixologist Instructor
Teaching virtually from Seattle, Washington.
Originally from Argentina, Julieta started in the service industry 10 years ago and, while attending winemaking school, discovered her true calling in sommellerie. She achieved the Head Sommelier position at the Mendoza Park Hyatt in the heart of the Argentine wine industry, where she directed multiple award-winning wine programs. She has also worked as a Sommelier in the acclaimed Azafrán Restaurant, and has collaborated in the opening of winery restaurants and wine bars in Mendoza, where she worked with some of the most influential winemakers in the country.
Chef Peter Turso
Chef Instructor
Teaching virtually from Spring Lake, New Jersey.
Chef Peter draws on the wisdom of 20 years of professional experience to formulate his culinary expressions and opinions in the modern day. He is a Graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Spending most of his life in the Northeast, his career has taken him from high volume boutique hotels, high tech food science labs, to several fine dining establishments where elaborate 11 course tasting menus were a commonplace. He believes in the inseparable synergy of the local farm circuit and hyper seasonal cuisine. His cooking, at times, can be analytical and technical, but he also balances concepts with art, color and soul.