Westport resident Nicole Straight is a professionally trained chef and mother of two young daughters who is on a mission to convince her peers-men and women alike-that good family friendly food can be a part of their every day routine. She is bright, enthusiastic, organized, and thanks to a Master's of Education from Smith College, well trained to instruct even the most recalcitrant moms and dads.

Straight prefers to work with small groups of people at a time- four to six- in order to have their undivided attention while she demonstrates six original recipes during her brisk 90 minute classes. She begins with a shopping list of items that she recommends having on hand in the pantry or freezer at all times, using a tray full of sample products to visually reinforce the idea. These include such basics as aluminum foil and ground black pepper along with less ordinary items such as frozen uncooked shrimp and tubes of garlic puree. Most of the things she calls for can be purchased at the grocery store while the majority of the specialty products some the recipes call for come from Trader Joe's. A second list of items that Nicole recommends be purchased fresh each week is comprised of the ingredients for the recipes she demonstrates during the class-boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced turkey, minute steaks and sliced mushrooms.

While keeping up a constant banter of cooking and parenting advice Straight adroitly begins her demonstrations. During one class she began with variations on a chicken breast recipe that she named “Moron Chicken” after her grandmother's claim that “any moron can make this dish.” Nicole placed a boneless chicken breast on a sheet of foil. She added, without measuring, some barbeque sauce instructing her students to “rely on your senses. If you like a lot of garlic, use a lot, if not use less. The more you cook the better you'll get at eyeballing how much of an ingredient to use,” she explained noting,” You have much more leeway in cooking than in baking.” That said, the written recipes she distributes do provide measurements- a reassuring must for beginners. Proceeding with the recipe, Straight added teriyaki sauce to a second breast and to a third a healthy sprinkling of lemon pepper. She cinched each breast in an envelope of foil, shaping the ends into a handle, popped them in a preheated 500 degree oven and voila! she had just completed her first recipe demonstration.

Throughout the class Straight encourages her students to gather around the stove while she demonstrates a technique for cooking shrimp or shows them how to fluff couscous before serving. Between each recipe she cleans the work area and students get to sample every dish the moment it is done. Straight points out that she uses “One pot and one pan so that clean up doesn't take longer than the meal preparation.” As she was preparing a dish that called for sea scallops one mom questioned whether she could actually get her children to eat them. Without skipping a beat Straight responded “I lie to my kids and tell them everything is chicken because I know they eat that.” She also encourages parents to involve their children in the cooking process because “kids invariably feel more compelled to eat something they actually helped in making.”

In addition to classes that teach busy, overscheduled parents how to put a delicious, healthful meal on the table in 15 minutes Straight teaches what she calls “date night” classes for couples. During these classes, husbands and wives learn how to make easy dinner party dishes that allow them to present a terrific meal and still have time to sit and relax with their guests. In another class, called “Not Your Mother's Soups and Casseroles” she demonstrates hearty dishes that take a bit longer to prepare but are sure crowd pleasers such as a polenta lasagna two ways- one a vegetarian version the other with meat. She happily goes to student's homes to give classes and will consider working with larger groups from time to time. “Once I did a class for 13 women that were in a book group together,” she says but on the whole she prefers to keep it imitate so that students feel free to chat and ask questions.

These classes are just the beginning for Nicole Straight who envisions a much more ambitious culinary career for herself. She has prepared a proposal for a cookbook that is being circulated to agents on her behalf by a former editor of House and Garden magazine. Her highest aspiration is to have her own cooking show on television. Once in the employ of Martha Stewart, Straight feels that her style and philosophy are closer to the real way that people live. “I remember one cooking demonstration Martha was doing she had a tape measure out to measure the strips of cookie dough she was cutting,” she says, her bright eyes wide, her expression incredulous. “ I mean who has the time to measure their cookie dough?”

 For more information or to register for a class, visit Nicole Straight's web site at www.time-to-eat.com or telephone “Time to Eat” at (203) 221-8306