Hello—and welcome to PrepHoldCook!
I’m Lou Sackett, known to countless cooks and culinary students as Chef Lou. For as long as I can remember, food and cooking have been central to my life. Born into a restaurant family, I remember hanging out in my father’s kitchen and being put to work on the salad station at the age of eight. In my early teens I was tasked to help my mother make her signature pies—up to a hundred every week. I escaped to college, but restaurants were in my blood….
Soon I was caught up in Philadelphia’s first restaurant renaissance in the mid-1970s, working in some of the city’s most innovative kitchens and traveling to France to learn from emerging nouvelle cuisine chefs. Then as now, my true culinary passion is exploring world cuisines. I studied ethnic cooking with chefs and cookbook authors such as Paula Wolfert, Irene Kuo, and Diana Kennedy. Later in my career I had the great honor of studying both wine and cuisine with Chef Madeleine Kamman at the Beringer School for American Chefs. In the early 1980s I opened World’s Fare, a multi-cuisine restaurant and charcuterie. In 1989 I launched Zócalo, an award-winning contemporary Mexican restaurant. Zócalo introduced Philadelphia to authentic regional Mexican cuisine with fine-dining service, craft cocktails, and an international wine list. Although now long gone, our restaurant’s spirit lives on with the talented group of Zócalo alumni that went on to help make Philly cuisine what it is today.
As much as I loved running restaurants, I love teaching even more. As chef instructor at Philadelphia’s Restaurant School (now part of Walnut Hill College), I taught aspiring chefs and restaurateurs the basics of professional cooking and restaurant service. After moving to south-central Pennsylvania, I taught baking and pastry at the School of Culinary Arts in York, and then became chef instructor at Dauphin County Technical School. All of these positions allowed me the privilege of guiding students, both young and older, through the learning journey from novice cook to foodservice professional. Many of my former students remain friends and colleagues to this day.
Food writing is my greatest passion, and a foundational teaching skill. With years of practice I have learned to write clear, concise, easily comprehensible recipe directions that make even the most challenging dishes accessible to aspiring cooks. And writing about food is a true pleasure. For me, recounting the history of food and cuisine is endlessly fascinating, and evoking the flavors, textures, aroma, and appearance of a fabulous dish is the most gratifying form of the art. I’ve had the privilege of co-authoring two culinary textbooks: American Regional Cuisines, with Chef David Haynes; and Professional Garde Manger, with Chefs Jaclyn Pestka and Wayne Gisslen. On this site you’ll find a link to purchase these books through Amazon—or I’d be happy to sign and personalize a copy just for you.
After spending the first part of my adult life in the city, the country called. Now my partner and I live on a small farm in Adams County, Pennsylvania, near the Maryland border and the head of the Chesapeake Bay. This area is blessed to be at the crossroads of Mid-Atlantic, Southern, and Appalachian cuisines. We have Amish farmer’s markets, local orchards, and easy access to the Bay’s bounty of crabs, oysters, and striped bass. Each spring we eagerly watch our asparagus bed for the first tender spears to emerge, and then follow the seasons with our own herbs, peas, lettuces, beans, peppers, tomatoes, and brassicas. The recipes offered on this site likewise reflect the seasons, developed and tested in our farmhouse kitchen, and shared with you in hope that you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.
