So, this would be a school that would start with hands-on hows and whys, with the freedom to mess up and be creative. Liano still talks about an a-ha! moment over a skillet full of onions that wouldn't caramelize. Her pan got a quick glance from teacher and longtime restaurant chef/owner Catherine Pantsios, who then asked if she'd salted the onions before starting. She had, and there was the problem, since the salt was drawing out liquid, making the onions steam rather than brown. She remembers this moment of basic cooking chemistry even now, in a way that a written instruction might never have stuck. And Pantsios is now the lead instructor for the professional school."You have to make mistakes," emphasizes Pantsios. "It's so important!" (As well as learning what to do with less-than-perfect efforts: hello, soup stock!)

San Francisco Cooking School main area under construction. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Finding a space big enough to equip two full teaching-kitchen spaces (one for the professional school, the other for chef demos, public classes, and events) was a challenge that dragged on for almost a year, until Liano discovered the corner site on Van Ness and Turk. Once part of the original Auto Row on Van Ness, the 100-year-old building had loft-high ceilings and huge windows, with plenty of room for both a demo kitchen up front and a more compact, restaurant-sized kitchen in the back, along with a dishwashing room, storage areas, changing rooms, offices, even a mezzanine that could evolve into a student lounge, meeting rooms and classrooms. Once an auto showroom, it had been a carburator shop, then Speedo 690, a short-lived Jeremiah Tower restaurant. Most recently, it had been a outpost of the Naan and Curry chain, until a fire closed it down.

Stoves in main area workspace. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Liano sees her student demographic as career-changers, people who've been successful in other fields but always felt the lure of the kitchen, and who've made a thoughtful decision to develop the skills and speed required to make it in a professional setting. (And, it goes without saying, have given a long, hard consideration to paying $24,500 for training in a field that pays not much more than minimum wage to start.)

Professional kitchen workspace. Photos: Wendy Goodfriend

Thus, the professional kitchen is set up like a real (albeit big) restaurant kitchen: a row of ranges, shared prep tables, an adjacent dish room. Expecting an individual "work station" of stovetop, oven, and prep area? Not here! Instead, Liano and Pantsios see students learn how to work together, moving gracefully (and fast) around their co-workers, yanking trays of biscuits out of a blasting-hot oven when the range top above is in full filet-searing swing. "We want to get students used to the pace, rigors, and values of a restaurant kitchen," said Pantsios, "to learn to pay attention to detail, to have that sense of urgency."

Another crucial part of the school's education program will be San Francisco itself. "We're small and flexible, and very hooked in to the food world here. Shouldn't all this community be part of your education?" Thus, Liano envisions hands-on harvesting at local farms, foraging excursions, and talks about sustainable fisheries with the buyers at Monterey Fish. The last two months of each professional program will be an externship at a local restaurant, where students will learn how to put their skills to use in the real pressure-cooker of daily service. Each student will be supervised by a chef/mentor, offering more feedback than the typical stage, or unpaid apprenticeship, undertaken by many beginning cooks. "You can't learn to be a chef in culinary school. We're training people to be entry-level cooks," said Liano, but cooks with smarts, creativity, and a lively knowledge of how things work in the kitchen and beyond.

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San Francisco Cooking School: A Preview