TRR photo by Tom Kane Sheelah Kaye-Stepkin stands in her kitchen in Hawley. (Click for larger image)

Culinary school flavors the village

By TOM KANE

HAWLEY — A culinary school is coming to Hawley this spring.

Behind Victorian-curtained windows of the closed First National Bank of Hawley building, on the corner of Main Avenue and Keystone Street, a first-rate culinary school and restaurant is quietly being fashioned with the latest in cooking paraphernalia and haute cuisine.

But what’s singularly unique about the venture is the gustatory panache of the master teacher who’s creating the school.

Sheelah Kaye-Stepkin comes from a varied background, which includes a 20-year acting career and operating an ornamental metal business.

“I’ve loved cooking all my life,” Kaye-Stepkin said. “I sometime think I was given jobs in the theater because of my cooking ability. Everybody knew they’d eat well if I was in the cast.”

Sheelah’s acting career took her all over the country with stock touring companies and provided her with a decent living, something that not many professional actors can say.