Cookeaze, Mohegan Lake
Photo credit: Neal Rentz
A new Mohegan Lake business opened in July to show how easy it is to cook. Cookeaze provides cooking lessons to individuals of all ages.
Owner Sonia Gonzalez, who resides in Mohegan Lake, explained recently the name of her new business is a play on the word cookies and states her philosophy that “cooking is fun and easy.”
Cookeaze provides children’s cooking lessons, which is nothing new for Gonzalez. For years she has been cooking with her daughters Arianna and Ashley at home.
Customers have the option of taking a single class or purchasing multi-class packages. Private lessons are also provided by Gonzalez at her new business or at homes. Girl Scout troops have also taken classes at a discounted rate.
Cookeaze provides children’s classes that provide instruction for children as young as age five who can be dropped off by parents, Gonzalez said, adding her facility has video surveillance cameras. A recent entrée created by the young children was chicken and waffles, using waffle irons.
One of the classes is called “tween chef” for pre-teens. “That group seems to be very, very enthusiastic,” Gonzalez said. A recent tween class made chicken and cheese stuffed calzones.
There are also classes scheduled for adults, typically in groups of eight. “It’s a very social, casual night out,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said she has two decades of experience as a caterer and she continues to cater. The Gonzalez family moved from the Bronx eight years ago. Gonzalez said he had a desire to own her own restaurant but being a mother of four is “very demanding” and owning an eatery would take away too much family time.
“You basically have to be married to the business,” she said. So instead of a restaurant, Gonzalez opened Cookeaze.
Gonzalez said she chose Mohegan Lake to open her new business because there are family-oriented establishments in the area, including dance and gymnastics studios and schools. “There seemed to be an influx of a lot of kids in the area,” she said. The family drove by the shopping center one day and discovered a restaurant that had occupied part of the now-Cookeaze property was vacant, Gonzalez recalled. The renovations took a month to complete, she said.
Gonzalez said in an era of microwave ovens, cooking is still popular. “I think the way to go in this day and age is healthy,” she said. “There’s nothing fried here.”
Gonzalez said she wants to teach her clients, particularly children, that healthy cooking, which can take only a few minutes, “is really a way of life.”
Cookeaze is located at 1885 E. Main St. in Mohegan Lake. For more information, call 914-743-1311 or send an e-mail to time2cook@cookeaze.com.
