Chef Dan: Denver’s Seasoned Chef Is Spontaneous, Spectacular, and Available Online

Apr 27, 2021 by Chef David

By Chef David

Those who believe as I do that cooking should be fun focusing on tastes and flavors are going to love Denver’s Chef Dan Witherspoon, a seasoned foodie who’s been teaching for more than 25 years and loves to share stories based on his professional experience.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sample three different classes, all held remotely by Chef Dan’s Seasoned Chef Cooking School. Each class had a unique style but all of them were filled with the passion and relaxation Chef Dan brings to the kitchen. The first two classes I attended were led by the gregarious, spontaneous Chef Dan himself, the third was taught by another of the school’s master instructors.

My first class was Chef Dan’s “Cooking by Intuition” with no recipes to follow, instead, there is simply a theme and a bag of groceries. Chef Dan understands his craft and enjoys playing in the kitchen, his philosophy is that anyone can follow a recipe, the magic is to have fun.  The second class I attended was “Food Is Medicine—Vegetarian Spotlight: Eating the Rainbow,” and the final session was a traditional cooking class held in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

Removing Intimidation

Chef Dan removes the intimidation from cooking, and to that end, he creates a laid-back, relaxed environment no matter what skill level his students bring to the table. Both classes I attended with him were adventurous, uncharted kitchen adventures.

Chef Dan is classically trained in French cuisine and worked his way up from an apprenticeship under the celebrated Belgian Chef Henri Bergmans. Along the way, he picked up amazing knife skills and an intuitive grasp of what works and why.

Mix Match Make Take

In 2019, his cookbook, Mix Match Make Take: High Energy Food for High Energy People, showed readers how to “revolutionize leftovers into a nutritious lunch for the next day.”

The book is emblematic of why his classes are different from so many others. He himself is high-energy, and his non-prescriptive approach to food can be seen in his dedication to making cooking fun and healthy. He builds meals using four building blocks: fresh protein, fresh vegetables, flavor, and at least one grain or root vegetable.

Chef Dan understands that most people are time-constrained, and, therefore, his meals have a make-it, take-it, store-it-for-the-future quality. In his classes, like in his book, he focuses on how to mix-and-match basics to use in different meals.

His eye is always on health. Following what he calls his no-white-food syndrome, he omits refined sugar and most dairy. For him, “processed food is just a negative food value.” He encourages purchasing “real” ingredients, including vinegars, herbs, nuts, and seeds, and indulging in minimal waste. His classes are not always this strict.

Lots of Experimenting

As a teacher, he enjoys answering questions and explaining the cooking process, including whether or not any particular mixture of ingredients will work. He then goes on to present possible solutions. For example, during one class, a student wondered about inserting maple syrup into a salsa. Chef Dan stopped and thought a minute before explaining why the taste would not complement the flavor of the dish. He then recommended other modifications as well as possible uses for maple syrup.

No matter what his class’s theme, his approach is to teach the basic principles and then encourage experimentation, which means the classes move quickly from recipes to playful innovations as he discusses ways to modify dishes to suit individual palates and diets.

He utilizes a freestyle method of cooking and avoids measuring, explaining that cooking should be fun, not tedious. For example, he shows students how to check meat’s level of “doneness” just by touching without a thermometer. 

In general, his approach coupled with his wealth of knowledge makes him ideal for kosher cooks. His banter may reference bacon and shellfish, but his style does not tie the kosher cook to anything treyf.

The “Cooking by Intuition” class I attended was entitled “A Trip to the Southwest.” It was unscripted, that is, there were no recipes, but, rather, was built on techniques and instincts. Chef Dan teaches students to trust their guts, thinking the way Grandma did in the kitchen, adding a bit of this and a pinch of that. While dishes might come out different each time, the variation is spectacular.

For “intuition” classes, students are given a theme and a shopping list that includes one ingredient that doesn’t seem to fit. In my class, the outlier was noodles. Chef Dan doesn’t see the ingredients until the class is assembled, and he encourages students to add what they’d like (within reason) from their own pantries. If there is something on the shopping list a student doesn’t care for, Chef Dan’s suggestion is to substitute another food or flavor that is preferable. There is no recipe, no measurements, just creativity. Everything came together to form a colorful feast consisting of salsa, corn-bean salad, and proteins.

Vegetarian Class

In the vegetarian class, I learned a host of clever techniques, including how to clean asparagus as well as pickling recipes. Chef Dan is living proof of the power of healthy living, crediting his diet of fresh vegetables, lean produce, whole grains, and good fats (and exercise—he is a second-degree black belt in Kempo Karate) with helping him beat a rare form of cancer.

In general, I was comfortable with his relaxed attitude, and I appreciated that we share some favorite foods. He likes quinoa, which is a protein, and explained that it differs from Israeli couscous, which is wheat pasta. Like him, I gravitate towards root vegetables, especially parsnips and beets.

He is liberal with spices, using a wide variety, including bay leaf, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric (which he calls the anti-everything-bad spice), chili flakes, peppercorns, and star anise.

Did I mention that his knife skills are impeccable? Everything is cut into quarter-inch cubes and, as he says, “Boom Chucka Lucka,” it’s ready to cook.

The Chef Is Always Right

Chef Dan’s apron says: “The Chef Is Always Right,” a motto he endeavors to bestow upon his students, helping them master the craft of cooking and decoding it so that even beginners can produce balanced meals that are healthy and delicious.

An entertaining and informative evening can be accessed online www.theseasonedchef.com or email ChefDan@TheSeasonedChef.com or call 303-377-3222.

If I were to suggest a place to start, I think it would have to be the Vegetarian Spotlight, a class that will expand your repertoire by adding healthy substitutions.