Yes, chef: A studio offering cooking classes is coming to downtown Raleigh

If watching Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri on “The Bear” has you thinking you need to brush up on your skills in the kitchen, you’re in luck.

A new business offering cooking classes for people of all skill levels is opening in downtown Raleigh’s Smoky Hollow next year.

Founded by Durham native Cherisse Byers , Hone-Sharpen will begin registration for classes and events toward the end of 2024, with events beginning in early 2025.

“Hone-Sharpen is really a direct reflection of me and my evolving relationship with food and me recognizing that I didn’t have to pigeonhole myself into one specific identity,” Byers told The News & Observer.

The 3,350-square-foot Smoky Hollow space will include demonstration and commercial kitchens. It will be able to host group cooking classes , professional training, competitions, wine tastings, lectures and culinary showcases , where those who have participated in a cooking class can invite guests to see and sample the dishes they have created.

“It’s not just come and learn how to cook,” Byers said. “It’s, ‘look at what we have made.’”

Instructors won’t all be professionally trained. There’s also room for individuals who specialize in a certain dish or cuisine to lead a class, with Byers providing home chefs guidance on how to teach, including making sure the proper supplies are accessible and giving recommendations about how and when to share anecdotes during the class.

“You don’t have to know everything about food to offer something amazing to others,” Byers said.

From cooking shows to cooking classes

Byers remembers watching cooking shows on PBS — “The French Chef with Julia Child” and “Louisiana Cookin’” among them — as a child as young as 4 years old, often after church on Sundays.

Food was important to her family, but “I wouldn’t say it was like a highlight,” she said.

Byers ended up at the University of North Carolina Greensboro , where she graduated in 2002 after double-majoring in finance and economics.

In the following years, she married and had children, and it wasn’t until almost a decade later that she decided to begin taking cooking classes.

“When I was talking about going to cooking school, it was just because I wanted to know more about food,” Byers said. At that time, she wasn’t considering a career as a chef, caterer or some other food-related profession.

As a student at The Art Institute of Raleigh - Durham , Byers began teaching a cooking class at a local high school through Wake Technical Community College’s continuing education program. She also worked in the kitchen at the Durham Convention Center , and after she graduated from The Art Institute in 2013, she was invited to come back as an instructor.

“Personally, that was a wow moment because I had been teaching home cooks, and I didn’t know if I would ever be invited into the space to teach aspiring professional cooks,” Byers said. “That was, to me, my sign that I kind of was developing range.”

Creating Hone-Sharpen

Byers had planned to continue working at The Art Institute and eventually become a full-time instructor. She never wanted to work on the line in a professional kitchen, instead preferring a schedule that would let her spend time with her kids before and after school.

Going to culinary school but not wanting to be a chef, Byers said sometimes people didn’t know how to categorize her. She sometimes felt embarrassed — especially during “the age of the rock star chef.” But eventually, she learned to be “comfortable” with her goals and experiences as an instructor.

“I just love food, and this is the way I am doing it, and it doesn’t make sense to other people, but at some point it will make sense,” Byers said.

Her plans to become a full-time teacher at The Art Institute collapsed when the school closed in 2017.

“It took me a while to regroup and figure out what next would be for me,” she said.

In spring 2020, Byers was, like the rest of us, at home. Helping her kids through virtual school wasn’t taking up the whole day, and she remembered an idea she had in 2019.

Having worked in different kitchens and with different students, Byers discovered elements of each environment that appealed to her, whether it was seeing people participate in a hands-on cooking class, leading a cooking demonstration and interacting with an audience, or teaching those pursuing a career in the industry.

“What if these elements were all in the same place? It was a big what if,” Byers said.

But in 2020, she began writing a business plan for Hone-Sharpen. By September of that year, she was pitching the idea to business consultant Brightleaf Consulting Group, which accepted her as a client.

Landing on Smoky Hollow

Byers was considering different locations to house Smoky Hollow, but the downtown Raleigh mixed-use development checked all the boxes. The physical infrastructure provided flexibility so that Byers could build out the space to meet her needs. Byers was also drawn to its central location , close to Glenwood South, Five Points and the Village District.

But there is also a surrounding community that Byers said she believes would benefit from Hone-Sharpen.

“When I say building a community, it’s a step above making them customers,” Byers said. “It’s me creating a place where they contribute, where as they come, they are helping to curate what we offer. And so, it is sort of this collaborative effort. Not like, I sell it, you buy it. But hey, what type of experiences related to food are y’all interested in?”

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