Listen to the interview here!
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Linda Bell with me. Hi, Linda.
Linda Bell: Good morning.
Toni: How are you?
Linda: I’m fabulous, thank you.
Toni: Fantastic. So, Linda, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Linda: I have a cooking school that I am running. I do small group classes. My school is called The Culinary Classroom, and you can get all my class descriptions and find out the dates and everything you want to know at www.theculinaryclassroom.com. In a nutshell, we do small group parties, cooking classes, girls’ night out, couples date night, bachelorette party, a great way to entertain a client, small group team building. We have a lot of fun. We cook, we eat, we laugh and when we’re all finished, we have our wine and eat all of our goodies. It’s a fabulous three-hour experience.
Toni: It sounds it; believe me. Let’s go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Linda: Inspiration to me is something that comes beyond myself. I really see it as a creative spark from the Universe. That being said, I think that we have to really pay attention to feel it and hear it. I think we really need to get in touch with ourselves and believe in ourselves and in that feeling that we get. I think it’s really linked to our God-given potential, but I do think it’s something that’s a spark of creativity beyond ourselves.
Toni: Do you think that it’s a learned behavior to pay attention and really receive something like that?
Linda: Absolutely. I think our minds typically are so cluttered up with the day-to-day duties and obligations that we have, and the little jibber-jabber voice that’s always going on, so I think it really does take practice and a sense of will to slow down and really listen to it and believing yourself enough that what you’re hearing and what you’re feeling has merit and value, and not to ignore it.
Toni: You obviously have had moments where you intentionally received that spark of creativity, so how have you put that inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Linda: I think it was a slow process, and I think it came to me in bits and starts, so to speak. I think it had to do with my passion. I love to cook, and I’m really about all things culinary. My background is in teaching. I’m a retired educator, very recently retired, and spent my whole life devoted to teaching adults as well as younger children. I just inspired myself to continue being a student by going back and taking culinary classes and expanding my culinary knowledge and becoming more and more deeply involved with that, and then felt inspired to want to share with others.
I want to teach people what I’ve learned in culinary training, because I truly believe that the best way to control your own health is to learn how to cook and control your ingredients.
Toni: Do you remember the moment – or maybe several moments – but one that you can give us as an example of that time where you said, “This is it. This is what I’m going to do.”?
Linda: Again, I don’t know if it was exactly a moment, but it was a period of time where I just felt that burning feeling inside of me like, “This is what you’re going to do. I don’t know how you’re going to get there.”
At the time, I was still teaching full time, so I really didn’t know how it was going to happen. I didn’t know how it was going to unfold. This is not unique; you read about this all the time. People experience this. Take one step, one foot put in front of the next, and then the next thing you know, you’re putting the next foot there.
The first thing I thought was, “Maybe I should have a business card.” Then I thought, “I better get a website.” Then the next thing evolved. I think that you begin with an attitude that it’s already done.
Toni: Oh – I like that!
Linda: Yes. I felt that. I started with an attitude that this already has happened, and then I was just following the path.
Toni: So you took your inspiration and said, “Okay, this is it. It feels right. I’m going to do it.” But there’s a bravery that comes along with that as well.
Linda: It was scary. I mean, there were some times where I thought, “What are you doing? Why are you doing this? Are you out of your mind?” I just put that aside and just kept moving with that vision. I just kept thinking, “This has already happened. Now I’m just going through it.”
Toni: What a great thing for other people that are listening to this Project to hear. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Linda: I had to think about that. First of all, I must say my mother, although she’s passed away, was a fabulous inspiration, because that woman always chose to see a glass half full. I think that’s very important. I have so many wonderful friends, outstanding females that are friends, and mentors and inspiration. I’ve of course patterned and drawn from so many, but there is one that stands out.
Her name is Sicily Masciotti. Sicily is a woman that has incredible energy. She’s a long-time friend. She’s shared her talents and zest with so many people. She is a Shiatsu massage therapist, and she has her business, but she never stops learning. She has never slowed down. She has focus, vision and a work ethic, and just such an amazing quality of life with her family and all of her friends that she shares, and I really think that her zest and her energy for life and her willingness also to always be a student and learn something new, no matter what age, and never stop, has really been a very clear inspiration to me.
Toni: That is fantastic. You obviously have been inspired by her, because of the way you speak to the number of classes that you’ve attended. You said that you went to New York and attended classes, Rome, and did all of that before you actually said, “I’m going to do this,” right?
Linda: Right – because I think all of us are lifelong students. We teach; we learn; we share. We learn some more. I don’t ever want to be at that point in my life where I’m not really opening up my mind and trying to learn something brand new and improve my life, because I think that’s what it’s all about.
Toni: It reminds me of that great saying, “We teach what we need to learn.”
Linda: Right. That’s really true. A saying Julia Child also had – it was, “Find something you love, and become terribly passionate about it.” I think that’s it, no matter what age.
Toni: Absolutely; and stay inspired. What would you like your legacy to be, Linda?
Linda: I think that I’d like my legacy for the students that come to my classes to be something along improving their lives and understanding and appreciating the quality of good food and how to serve it. The ultimate act of self-love and valuing yourself is cooking for yourself and taking care of your body, and to prepare food for those you love is an act of love. On my website, I have something that I really like. It says, “We don’t pass out money to our friends. We typically give them food to show love.”
Toni: Absolutely.
Linda: So I would give them a dish of paella, but first I better know how to make it. I think that’s what it’s all about – if I can help people to move a little further along that and appreciate the quality of daily living by improving their eating habits not only for their health, but for their overall well-being.
Toni: That is fantastic. Linda, thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project. This has been a delightful interview.
Linda: Thank you.
