Resident Chef Shows Farmers' Market Visitors How To Cook

It’s always fun to grab the fresh and colorful produce and organic food at the Huntley Farmers' Market.

To give you some ideas of what you can do with those fabulous finds, the resident chef Denise Gray has some answers for you.

A couple of times a month, Gray does cooking demonstrations at the downtown Huntley Farmers' Market, using the very food the vendors around her are selling.

She’ll be there again Saturday, Sept. 17 making two creations with the antibiotic-free chicken sold at the market.

Gray works wonders with a table, a cutting board and chopping tools, not having access at the market to a stove or a grill.

“I have to be extremely creative every time I do it. I try to come up with ways to use as much from the Farmers' Market as I can,” she said.

This week, she’ll show spectators how to make chicken wings.

She’ll have the chicken prepared ahead of time, but will show everyone how to make the sauce. She’ll also talk them through preparing the entire recipe.

Her second dish will be mini chicken tacos.

“I’m going to show them how to do the fresh salsa I put on top of it, and talk them through how to do the chicken and use fresh limes and more,” she said.

She’ll also have her recipes available for spectators, and answer any questions people might have.

The presentation this week will begin at 11 a.m.

The self-taught chef, who hails from Elmwood Park, but has been in the Huntley area since 1997, has accumulated quite the following.

She not only offers her demonstrations at the market, but also goes into more depth at cooking classes in her own Huntley home.

“What I do is come up with a few different themes depending on the time of the year,” Gray said. “I have repeat customers that come back to learn more each time.”

She says she works with different sized groups. She’s done as small as one couple that wanted to learn to cook together, to groups of 12.

“It’s like watching the Food Network, but you get to eat the food and learn and ask questions. People love it and they love the intimate setting.”

She says she started cooking around the age of 15 or 16, and taught herself.

Over the years people would tell her how fabulous her meals were, and how she needed to start teaching others how to cook like that.

So, she says, she got into the business, which she does in addition to her regular job of implementing wellness programs for companies.

Gray is also hoping to bring her culinary skills to a larger audience.

For the second year in a row, she’s trying out to be a contestant on the “Food Network Star,” show.

She says it’s not easy when thousands and thousands submit their applications each year, but she’s keeping at it. She knows that some of the others who’ve appeared on the show in the past have tried numerous times, before getting on.

“I’m not discouraged. I’m turning it in, seeing what happens,” she said.

To contact Gray call 847-791-4059.