About Laurie's Culinary Camp

Laurie's Culinary Camp's mission is to introduce both adults and the next generation to the pleasure, nutrition and art of cuisine. The values and traditiions toward food found worldwide are the heart and soul of the business.

Our goal is to teach nutrition and health connected with food sources and culinary techniques while embracing family traditions for community through dining.

Find out more about how we started

Laurie Ongaro Zerga, President
Laurie Ongaro Zerga is a mother of two teens and has an extensive business background as a former officer of a fortune-500 company. In summer 2002 she began to combine her business knowledge with her passion for family issues such as nutrition and culinary arts. She created and held her first youth culinary camp and continued over the last five years. She has developed a team of locally renowned chefs to assist her to teach courses tailored to clientele of the culinary camp. Past instruction has been performed by Weezie Mott of Weezie Mott’s Cooking School, Linda Hillel, and Laurel Miller of Sustainable Kitchen. In addition Laurie has an extensive network through American Institute of Wine and Food as well as San Francisco Professional Food Society. Through networking she is able to expand her offering as well as provide interesting tours to her students.

Her passion for family issues is witnessed through her writing and volunteer work at schools in parallel with her twenty year corporate career. She has been planning menus and cooking for family and large groups beginning as a child during summers at her grandparents’ guest ranch. By age sixteen she co-chaired her first dinner for two hundred guests to raise funds for Sebastopol Methodist Church Big Sister, Big Brother Group. She shares her knowledge and strong family values with her clientele.

Laurie's Culinary Camp supports charitable and non-profit organizations in northern California. Click here to find out more