Osthoff chef Rod Schulz discusses the resort's cooking classes and his path to the kitchen

Chef Rod Schulz thinks anybody can cook. If you step into the kitchen with him, you might be a believer, too.

The kitchen is his happy place. Entertaining and teaching people how accessible cooking can be keeps him going. Every week he welcomes a new class to the cooking school at the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake. He curates a playlist, creates a menu, and provides easy-to-follow recipe cards. No one leaves hungry.

After decades working in department store security, Schulz found himself focusing on negatives. He looked at what made him happy, and cooking was at the top of the list. He never set out to be a professional chef or a teacher, but he’s found his patience and attention to people makes it a good fit.

The cooking school is a bit of a hidden gem within the resort, and the classes provide an experience, meal and a beverage. Current classes range from soups and pasta-making to French pastries and searing scallops (a recurring favorite). Classes typically sell out, including cocktail classes, and options change seasonally. Holiday cooking classes in December will feature gingerbread houses and cookie making. Schulz also teaches private classes and team-building activities, with prices ranging from $49.99 to $99.99 per person.

The Osthoff is also home to Concourse and Otto’s restaurants, plus Aspira spa, where a salt room is the newest attraction. You don’t need to be a guest to take classes or visit the restaurants or spa. Schulz began here as a line cook, and he now oversees all the classes, plus the spa cafe menu and the resort’s pastry program.

This year also marks the 25th anniversary of Osthoff’s Old World Christmas Market, held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 1 through Dec. 10. Look for Schulz’s work in the popular apple strudel sold at the market.

Schulz talked with us after a recent class, explaining how looking for what makes him happy led him to cooking and the Osthoff.

How his family food roots shaped his future

I was born in Texas; my family, I would call them Southern. They moved to Washington state when I was young. I grew up in wine country in Walla Walla, Washington. It was not wine country when I was a kid. It was more sweet onions, asparagus and wheat. My dad grew all his own vegetables. We had a cow, a pig. We were self-sustaining. I have five brothers and sisters, and my cousins lived next door. My grandmother lived with us. I had a choice to cook or clean. I chose cooking. I’d cook all the time with my grandmother.

The first recipe he mastered

My grandmother’s buttermilk biscuits. I’ve varied the recipe since then, because I learned some new processes. Hers are very Southern-style biscuits. I put a little laminated butter in mine. She called them drop biscuits. I cut them.

Finding security in food

I moved to Seattle at 17 and started working daytime as a security officer for department stores catching shoplifters. Then at night, because Seattle rent is insanely expensive, I worked in a bakery. I’d bake wedding cakes. I didn’t decorate them, just pumped them out. It was a small bakery, not a chain. I learned to make hundreds of wedding cakes in one batch, with a mixer taller than me.

Making a choice to be happy

I worked security for department stores, and Nordstrom is based in Seattle. ... The Nordstrom people were moving to Chicago and said they’ll be hiring. My ex, at the time his parents lived in West Bend, and some of his family lived in Illinois. We moved to Chicago. I climbed the ladder in security at Nordstrom. Then one day I thought, all I’m dealing with is the negatives. I don’t trust anybody.

I had to change something in my life. I thought, what makes me happiest? Two things, cooking and baking, and then dancing. I get to do both of them here now. I’m a club-goer, and I love to dance. I wanted a disciplined form of dance and started taking Latin and ballroom classes. I got certified to teach. I compete, and Badger State (Ballroom Dance Competition & Showcase) is done here at the Osthoff. John Michael Kohler Art Center offered me a position teaching there. I had those (classes) for 10 years, but after COVID they stopped them.

Now I teach ladies choreography private and do lessons for wedding couples, and I teach in the cooking school. I have the best of both worlds.

From line cook to lifelong learner

I started here (at Osthoff) doing front-of-house. When I was in culinary school I felt like it was important. I did well at it, and I like to host people. I like having guests. I wanted to know that part, and I’d get the VIP guests. Then I got back into the kitchen.

I started as a line cook here and just kept working. Pastry is where my heart is, and I said I wanted to be the pastry chef. They saw what I could do, and then COVID hit. We lost just about every employee here. After COVID they brought in an outside chef, and it didn’t go well. They needed someone to teach a class. I said OK, I’ll teach this class. Then it was, I’ll teach that one, too. Finally it just stuck. I love teaching.

His next goal

We started with just a few classes. Now I’m up to about 25 courses I can offer. There’s some international fare, next I’m working on a ramen one for Japan. I love making ramen and pho. It is a specialty of mine. We’ll make miso eggs and the noodles and the stock.

Who takes cooking classes

We get a little of everything. Right now there is a group of local people who come regularly, then some people from Green Bay have been checking things out. ... We get lots of people from Cedarburg, Mequon and Milwaukee.

People are willing to travel for the classes, and that’s part of the fun. It is 16 to 20 people per class. Eventually I want to do a Chef’s Table in this space. We’ve done some private events, cooking challenges and competitions.

These are the most popular classes

Italian food — the class with risotto, chicken marsala and the cannoli — is by far the most popular right now. Italian food, pasta, all of it is delicious and actually pretty simple. What you thought was so sophisticated is actually peasant food. Poor people made this food happen out of necessity. Everybody should be able to do it.

Over the summer we did ice cream making. It was really popular. I started out doing it for kids. It turned into something for kids and adults, which made it a lot of fun. We can do ice cream or sundaes on one side, then grasshoppers and brandy Alexanders on the other side.

Kids can cook here, too

I find there are a lot of young people who have this thing where they want to be a cook. They’re 4 and making custard on the stove while standing on a chair! It’s amazing. The interest in kids classes has grown so much.

Plan ahead for these classes

The scallops class always sells out right away. When I was cooking for Lola’s (now the resort’s restaurant, Concourse), I probably made 200,000 scallops. I’ve got it down. We’ve done grilling, where we put a wood-fired grill outside. We smoked briskets over Fourth of July. People loved that.

Strudel is a specialty

We’re a small bakery here, but we’re trying to make everything from scratch and by hand. We do the strudels all in-house; the German influence is big here, and we’ll always do that. Croissants are a big thing I’m trying to get in place now. It is a process to have them out by 6 a.m. every morning.

What he still wants to learn

There is so much in the culinary world to still explore, I’ll never stop learning. Right now, Persian food and Moroccan food are things I really want to delve into.

Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email clewis@journalsentinel.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Osthoff chef Rod Schulz discusses the resort's cooking classes