Hi I’m Sharon Glass and I have been cooking ever since I can remember. As a child I was always sitting on the counter watching my mom and grandmother (who were my mentors). I cooked (and baked) at every opportunity.
Food has been an integral part of our family and being Jewish, our home revolves around the kitchen. It is the hub of the house, where we always gather around and chat whilst cooking. I love playing in the kitchen and experimenting. My passion is to re-create a dish I have seen or tasted in a restaurant and then share my interpretation of it with my friends and family. I love feeding my family because it makes me happy to see them enjoy really delicious food.
Although I have always cooked as a hobby, I never had any formal training, and rather learnt everything from my mom and grandmother. After completing Grade 12 in South Africa, my family emigrated to Los Angeles and I studied a BA in French at UCLA. However, I was very fortunate to get a part-time job working for the actor, Danny Kaye and even more fortunate to find out that he loved cooking.
So, we spent a lot of time in the kitchen, and he was very good friends with many celebrity chefs. They came for dinner to his house and we would prepare dishes together for them. It was an amazing experience and fuelled my love of cooking.
After graduating and realising that I didn’t want to pursue my French career, I met my husband, we came back to South Africa and as a newly-married I wanted to work from home. I began teaching very small cooking classes in my home to family and friends who asked me to show them how to make beautiful food. And so began my cooking career. I love teaching. My greatest satisfaction comes from people making my recipes and having such success with them. My cooking school has grown in leaps and bounds over the years. I have been teaching for 31 years. I have a large following and am very fortunate that I have a beautiful kitchen from which to share my food.
In 2000 I wrote my first cookbook and have since written another 8 books. A natural progression from the books was TV and I collaborated with Home Channel to host 2 complete 13-part series. They were hugely successful and I loved every minute of them. I was also lucky enough to be a part of SABC 3 and cook with Noeleen Mahlwanga Sangqu for 5 years.
In between raising my 3 wonderful children, I am still passionate about cooking and I run the cooking school. My food philosophy is about making fresh, healthy food and teaching my students about ingredients and how to use them. I really enjoy all types of food and love incorporating them into many different dishes, whether it be Asian Fusion, Mediterranean, Greek or Italian. It’s all about blending flavours and knowing what works together. I keep abreast with trends by travelling, searching for new ideas and ingredients and bringing them back and teaching my students about them.