(l-r) Ava Collins and George Hungtington have teamed up to open In the Kitchen, hosting hands-on culinary workshops about knife skills, wine tasting, pasta making, and more. Photo by Morgan Kraemer

By Heather Ray

Ava Collins, a Gen Z staffer at Goods for Cooks, is no stranger to the epicurean world.

 She and co-owner of Goods for Cooks George Huntington have teamed up on a new business called In the Kitchen, 115 N College, a place for the culinary curious to learn about food and build a repertoire of cooking skills. 

The school is downstairs from Goods for Cooks in the previous location of the Bloomington Cooking School and Monopole Tasting Room & Kitchen, although it’s not affiliated with either business. 

Collins’ experience extends to the time she lived in California, where she worked as a culinary instructor for Williams Sonoma. “I made the decision to come back to Bloomington while in discussions with George about an opportunity like this,” says Collins. “We kept in touch because I really liked working for Goods for Cooks when I was in school.” 

“Both Ava and I have picked up on the fact that people in Bloomington want to know more about food. It pervades the Bloomington culture,” says Huntington. “We have a lot of culinary talent, so wouldn’t it be great if we had a nice place to put those groups of people together and share knowledge?” 

The idea is to curate a list of local chefs and experts to host hands-on and demonstration-style workshops on things like knife skills, wine tasting, pasta making, and sourdough bread baking. Some courses even weave in food history, like the Medieval and Early Modern Fall Flavors class that took place in September. 

Collins anticipates teaching about half the courses herself. Her relationship to cooking is deeply rooted in her childhood. She remembers cooking for her younger brothers and parents if they were working late. “At the end of a long day, we’d all sit down and eat the food I prepared,” she says. “There was something so special about seeing them enjoy my work.” 

It’s a sentiment that aligns with the ethos of In the Kitchen — an environment designed to share and build knowledge, she says.