About Us

Cooking teacher (he tries really hard not to call himself a “chef”) Kenneth Hulick is a product of his heritage and his life. His paternal great-great-great-great grandfather, John Hulick, fought in George Washington’s Continental Army during the American revolution, including wintering at Valley Forge. The Hulick/Gulick/Julich heritage comes from the Netherlands and Germany.

His mother (Garcia) was born in Venezuela to an American mother (who herself was descended from the infamous Dan Winter of Northern Ireland history) and a Venezuelan/Spanish father. Ken grew up in a household that served Pallela as well as Sauerkraut.

A year living in Tokyo, Japan, in his early teens infused him with a lifelong appreciation and fascination with Asian cuisine. And let’s not forget absorbing Southern California Hispanic (sorry to be politically incorrect, but it was called “Mexican” back then) culture and cuisine during his formative years while growing up outside L.A.

By his high-school days, family dinners might be Spanish Arroz con Pollo, Japanese Shabu-Shabu, Cal-Tex-Mex tacos and burritos, German pot roast, or Irish cabbage and potatoes.

And then there were his more-recent food travels to Scotland, France, Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Czech Republic, Austria), Cuba, the Caribbean, and other places around the U.S. and around the world.

Anyway, Ken’s cooking is eclectic, diverse, multi-national, and uniquely creative.

Ken has worked at an Italian deli. At an international cheesemonger. He’s written food and wine articles for national publications. He’s been a personal cook for clients in California, Colorado, Washington, and New Mexico. He’s taught the concepts of cooking to a diverse range of students. He is putting the final touches on his first food/cooking book (which he declines to call a “Cookbook”), The Cooking School of Life.

Over the years, Ken has been a teacher in many realms: Cooking (of course), but he’s also taught marketing, business writing, magazine writing, rock climbing, photography, and creative writing. There is creativity, variety, and a helpful esthetic to all his teaching methods.

Ken is a member of Slow Food USA, The James Beard Institute, the Open Wine Consortium, and the Personal Chef Association. His food & wine blog appears at AMealWithoutWine.com.