Rebecca Wheeler has been teaching cooking classes for ten years. Her friendly, approachable teaching style, combined with a passion for cooking, make her a natural for teaching home cooks and guiding students through the wonders of Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods.

For Rebecca, cooking has been the means to a lifetime of discovery. Her love of cooking and travel has taken her on culinary adventures to Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy, France and beyond. Among her greatest joys is bringing back the treasures of her exploration and sharing them with others.

Rebecca earned a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago with a focus on anthropology and is particularly interested in the link between food, culture, and family. Rebecca’s culinary education reflects her keen interest in authentic ethnic home cooking: she learned traditional pasta making from an Italian Grandmother while volunteering on an organic farm in Umbria, attended cooking school in northern Thailand, studied Indian cooking with acclaimed cookbook author and instructor Julie Sahni, and even commissioned her favorite Thai chef to teach her private classes in Chicago. In 2009 Rebecca was awarded the Barbara Tropp Memorial Internship in Beijing, China, by Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. While she strives to bring authentic ethnic cooking to the home cook, as a mom of two she is equally excited about making great weeknight cooking easy, and making great cooking easy and accessible to interested home cooks.

Rebecca’s professional kitchen experience includes Trotters to Go on the pastry team and Trio restaurant as an extern under acclaimed chef Grant Achatz. She was a personal chef for three years, which gave her inspiration for new recipes and classes. In addition to classes at Williams-Sonoma and Gallery 37, she taught at the Marshall Fields Culinary Studio for two years and is currently a staff instructor of six years at The Wooden Spoon. Rebecca is a board member of Blue Sky Inn, a non-profit bakery dedicated to serving at-risk youth and The American Institute of Wine and Food Chicago chapter, founded by Julia Child and Robert Mondavi.

Professional Organizations:
Slow Food Chicago
The American Institute of Wine and Food
Women Chef and Restaurateurs
Friend of Chicago’s Green City Market