CLEVELAND, Ohio — After just over a year in business, a new cooking class in Cleveland is expanding to its second location.
Ohio City’s “Stir Studio Kitchen” was created by Charlie Denk. Daisy is one of Charlie Denk’s six chickens. In a way, she saved his life.
“We use little wood chips to seal the gaps in the fence or else these chickens will end up down the street in no time. They are pretty adventurous little creatures,” he said.
For years, Charlie abused alcohol and drugs. His addiction nearly destroyed his life.
That is until he discovered food.
Now to be clear—his chickens, their eggs, and his homegrown backyard tomatoes are just for him and his wife.
“I had nothing to do during quarantine. So, just kind of an impulse buy. And like every impulse buy we’ve now spent a fortune on them and we’ve become so emotionally attached to them that it kind of dictates our life now,” said Charlie.
Charlie’s home, job, and high school are all within walking distance and that’s on purpose.
Charlie attended Saint Ignatius High School and currently he teaches both business and cooking classes there.
“I swore to myself that I wouldn’t get a car for the rest of my life, but I already got one after just a year,” said Charlie.
Cleveland’s Ohio City is home.
“It’s just really historic; I’ve lived here physically and emotionally for the majority of my life,” said Charlie.
The 27 year old had a career in engineering after graduating from Penn State University. But he didn’t love it the way he thought he should. So in June 2019, he trusted his gut and officially switched gears.
He calls his studio kitchen “Stir.”
“Single syllable, English word, verb,” Charlie explains.
Charlie’s not your typical chef in the sense that he didn’t have some intense passion for food that he developed as a child.
“I don’t think anyone needs to teach you how to cook as much as you need to teach yourself at the end of the day, just like a lot of things in life,” he said.
Stir offers private and small group kitchen classes for families, couples, and corporate businesses.
“Tonight’s menu is hot and sour soup, actually chicken masala, mango sorbet and naan. So, it’s a little bit of everything. Crossing cultures, I suppose. But it was at the request of the guest.”
The entrepreneur’s then high school girlfriend and now wife, Lizzie, has been with him every step of the way. Believe it or not when they were 15, he took her to a cooking class for date night.
Right then and there, he says he knew he could make a more engaging experience.
Before Stir, things weren’t always sunny.
Drugs and alcohol dictated his life. Charlie says he lives in extremes.
“Absolutely poisoned my mind. And yeah, I mean it led to a pretty severe breakdown at one point and that sort of was the catalyst to wanting to start Stir and just fix my life a little bit,” he said.
Now, he’s driving out of his comfort zone on his way to the suburbs, getting ready to open up another location in Chagrin Falls.
It’s something he couldn’t do alone.
“I mean, she is so talented and this job is not as easy as people think. People think it’s just throwing a dinner party and you just need to cook a little bit and laugh, but it’s a lot of work behind the scenes,” said Charlie.
He’s talking about Madison Smith.
“He’s a nut and I’m very outgoing, so we get along great and work together just perfectly fine,” said Smith, a co-worker who also teaches cooking classes.
The two have a lot of fun working and creating together, whether it’s food or the perfect Instagram post to announce the new location.
Coming soon this October is Stir Studio Kitchen number two.
And that’s hardly the end. For Charlie, the future holds “a lot of nonsense, and a lot of fun, and a lot of childish behavior.”
