THE BULLETIN • MARCH 4 - 10, 2021
TV • PAGE 21
BY GEORGE DICKIE
Serena Wolf: From Ivy League
to culinary creator in 12 years
Serena Wolf is a multi-hyphenate culinary
personality with a blog, a website, two cookbooks,
video presences on YouTube and Instagram and
online classes, all devoted to food and cooking. All
of which came within the span of 12 years.
The daughter of “Law & Order” and “Chicago”
franchise creator Dick Wolf, she graduated from
Harvard in 2009 with a degree in sociology and
no clue about what she wanted to do with her life.
But a cooking class at the famed Le Cordon Bleu
cooking school in Paris pointed her toward her
future. She fell in love and a culinary career was
born.
Now, on her blog and website, domesticate-me.
com, and in her live classes, she shows viewers
how to make delicious, tasty recipes, breaking
them down to make them more accessible and less
intimidating. She also preaches to not be afraid to
experiment.
“My overarching philosophy is always to foster
creativity and build culinary confidence through
empowering people with those basic skills that they
need,” Wolf explains. “And I sort of think one of my
strengths is the fact that when I did go to culinary
school, I had no cooking background so I really had
no bad habits to break. I was kind of a sponge. I
was literally learning everything, I was building my
culinary knowledge from the ground up. And so I
was kind of hyper aware of how things were taught
effectively.”
Which is what she endeavors to do in her
subscription online classes. Breaking her recipes
down into teachable pieces in her classes over
Zoom, the Long Island, N.Y., resident has her
students cook along at home as she prepares a meal
that can then serve as the family dinner. So in the
end, her students can have a meal on the table and
learn something at the same time without having to
leave their kitchen, while Wolf gets access to a far
wider audience than if she were to rent a facility for
an in-person class.
It’s a major convenience and win-win for all
concerned.
“You have to make dinner anyway,” she reasons.
“Why not make dinner with a professional and
a bunch of other virtual friends once a week and
make it part of your weekly traditions to try a new
recipe and pick up some new skills?”
The inspiration for many of her recipes is her
husband, Logan. She wanted to create healthier
versions of foods he loved like chicken fingers
and lasagna using leaner meats, whole grains and
vegetables. In a blog post, she dubbed it “The
Dude Diet,” which also became the title of her first
cookbook. It caught on and eventually got her hired
to create a menu for several members of the New
York Giants. That led to a second book, “The Dude
Diet Dinnertime.” And a whole lot more exposure.
It’s been a dozen years since she took her first
class and her career continues to grow. Not bad for
someone who came out of college with no culinary
experience and little in the way of skills.
Viewers can check out her recipe ideas
on YouTube (www.youtube.com/channel/
UCUUSQgyoDX4j3HtvpIzv1IA), Instagram
(www.instagram.com/serenagwolf ) and her website,
domesticate-me.com, where they can also sign up
for classes.
BY JAY BOBBIN
Erin Krakow
OF ‘WHEN CALLS THE HEART’ ON HALLMARK CHANNEL
Serena Wolf
WebLinks
Tyler Florence hosts as a new
group of contestants will have
more than just each other to
compete against as a fresh round
of “The Great Food Truck Race”
rolls to Alaska Sunday on Food
Network. Stay on top of the latest
news at www.foodnetwork.com/
shows/the-great-food-truck-race
The stakes have never been
higher for suburban moms Beth
(Christina Hendricks), Ruby (Ret-
ta) and Annie (Mae Whitman), as
the Secret Service closes in on
their counterfeit ring in the Season
4 opener of “Good Girls,” debuting
Sunday on NBC. Check out the
most recent clips at www.nbc.
com/good-girls
Though you’ve appeared on such other
shows as “NCIS,” Hallmark Channel has
been your main television home, thanks to
“When Calls the Heart” and movies you’ve
done. Is it safe to assume you’re still happy
in that comfort zone?
I‘m incredibly comfortable there, because they’re
so loving and supportive. It really does feel like
a family, especially with “When Calls the Heart.”
On my hiatus, I do look for things outside the
Hallmark world, just to keep things fresh for me
in different roles on different styles of shows, but
I hope my relationship with Hallmark continues
for years to come.
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