Press
Selected Press and Published Works
Purple Kale Kitchenworks has been featured in numerous international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. The pieces excerpted below capture whatâs unique about chef Ronna Welshâs way to cook.
We also have a cookbook! Click HERE for reviews of The Nimble Cook and interviews with author/chef/founder Ronna Welsh
How a Simple Soup Can Be a Gateway to 3 Additional Meals
So how can we benefit from a recipeâs specific instruction and, at the same time, use it as a cooking resource rather than just a path to a specific dish? How can we turn that recipe into a jumping-off point to make us more efficient, waste-conscious and help develop our off-the-cuff cooking mind-set?
by Ronna Welsh
âWhen you mention using them for stock, thatâs when people start to roll their eyes,â said Ronna Welsh, a cooking teacher in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who chronicles her adventures with chard stems and watermelon rinds on her Web site Purple Kale Kitchenworks, in a column called âOtherwise, Trash.â
Her students are the kind of home cooks who make the extra effort to go the farmersâ market and support local agriculture, she said, but whose schedules and lack of skills cause them to feel stressed by a refrigerator full of raw ingredients.
Ms. Welsh likes to generate recipes for trimmings, she said, because using up everything satisfies some of the same urges that fuel the desire to be a better cook.â
by Julia Moskin
Guides, tips, and techniques
Ronna Welsh is a contributing âexpertâ to Martha Stewart Living
âPurple Kale Kitchenworks transforms that uncertain moment of opening up the fridge or cupboard into one of creative possibility.
Among the many questions facing humans in their lifetime, one remains both universal and eternal: âWhat should we eat?â For home cooks who are feeling stumped or uninspired, who have tried meal planning or bulk meals on weekends but still canât find a fit, Purple Kale Kitchenworks might offer just what youâre looking for.
Via private and group classes, this Sunset Parkâbased food educator transforms that uncertain moment of opening up the fridge or cupboard into one of creative possibility, even if itâs been a long day. Shying away from recipes, Purple Kaleâs systems-based approach is guided by principles and informed by ingredients on hand.â
by Carrington Morris
âAny lover of Google docs, index cards, and color-coded file cabinets will be over the moon for this brilliant tip from Ronna Welsh, a cooking instructor at Brooklyn, New Yorkâs Purple Kale Kitchenworks.
Welsh blew our collective minds this week with her dry-mix pastry prep kitâthe DIY version of the pricey, often ugly âcookie kits" weâve spied in a few knickknack-festooned, potpourri-packed shops.
âA kit-making session is a warm-weather activity that prepares you for cooler, nesting months,â Welsh writes. So spend one end-of-summer Saturday busting open every big bag of flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt youâve got. Measure and sift together those dry ingredients based on your favorite recipesâone for apple pie, a second for biscuits, and yet a third for cookiesâand package each one in a zip-top plastic bag. Label those suckers with their corresponding recipes (hereâs the moment to use those aforementioned index cards!) and store them in the freezer, âwhere they take up less shelf space than balls of raw dough.â Truth!â
by Alex Van Buren
âWhen it comes to dinner, the most difficult meal to assemble on a daily basis, we all have our quick fixes: leftovers, take out, frozen vegetables, pasta.
After her children were born, Ronna Welshâs default was cereal (for herself, not her kids). But sheâs since devised a system that has changed her last-minute routine, which in turn led to the founding of her new food business, Purple Kale Kitchenworks.
The Park Slope chef has worked at and consulted for restaurants like Savoy and Rose Water, and now offers workshops in her home kitchen (or yours) that teach the average cook what is common practice to a chefâthe mise en place.
The phrase means having everything in place: all the ingredients you need for a meal, prepped and ready to assemble. In your mind you may be visualizing spices measured out in little glass bowls like on cooking shows, or carrots diced and Ziplocked. But the gospel Welsh preaches is much more sophisticated.â
by Nicole Davis
âRonna Welsh is the owner and chef at Purple Kale Kitchenworks, a Brooklyn-based studio and business that organizes cooking classes, pop-ups, and other culinary initiativesâall based around a ârevolutionary, ingredient-driven, zero-waste strategy for cooking creative, delicious, and improvisational meals at home.â Food Tank sat down with Ronna to discuss food waste, sustainability, and home cooking.
Food Tank: How did you get involved in the food industry?
Ronna Welsh: Twenty years ago, I was in my last semester of a graduate degree in Rhetorical Theory and Criticism when I got my first cooking jobârent money while I finished my thesis. As I began to burn out on theories of argument and negotiation, I learned simultaneously how easy it was to build fast, lasting community in our tiny, tight kitchen and in the community through feeding others. I was hooked to this new life skill and ability to build community, so steeped in tradition and powerful enough to affect immediate change.â
by Food Tank Editors
âAs the season of farm-fresh vegetables arrives, gardeners, farm-share subscribers and green-market shoppers often find it hard to keep up with the bounty. Too often, an overload of vegetables winds up rotting.
The vegetable onslaught "can feel like a terrific, privileged burden," says Ronna Welsh, who runs Purple Kale Kitchenworks, which offers cooking classes in Brooklyn, N.Y. But home cooks can use the same strategies that help professional chefs manage kitchen inventory, says Ms. Welsh.â
by Sarah Rose