Elevated cooking with authentic, hands-on classes at historic Maison Maitland

Rosanne Lake

Cynthia Peters stands among the cooking class students ensconced inside her stunning chef’s kitchen at historic Maison Maitland on a blustery Saturday. There is a lot chopping going on, sauteing, grinding of spices, measuring and mixing - and Cynthia is in the middle of it in her element. Like an orchestra conductor, she is remarkably keeping tabs on all eight participants at their stations, while gently progressing the recipe, making suggestions and giving tips on everything from how to properly use a mortar and pestle to cutting coriander, shaping phyllo pastry, and toasting spices.

The food is sizzling in the pans, while another dish bubbles in the oven. Yet another recipe is resting in the fridge. Under Peters’ keen and experienced eye, the cooking school class has brought together five Indian-inspired dishes from scratch in under three hours. The smells wafting through the kitchen from vegetable samosas, chickpea tikki, curries and more are heavenly, and as everyone gets seated around a wooden antique table in the dining room and Peters pops a bottle of local sparkling wine, it is agreed that everyone can’t wait to try the dishes just created.

Peters is the owner and chef instructor at Maison Maitland, located at 1258 County Road 2, near Brockville. Her authentic, hands-on cooking classes are a hot commodity with good reason. Each class sees participants work in teams of two and incorporates a different theme for unique menus. Classes vary depending on the season, such as Perfect Stuffed Pasta, Moroccan Magic, Dinner with Julia Child or Asian Dim Sum and Dumplings, along with other flavours from around the world.

“The recipes at Maison Maitland provide guests with easy entertaining menus that can be made again at home,” she said. To that end, participants leave with the recipes in hand, as well as a new approach to international and seasonal cooking.

Personal touches take the classes to the next level with harvesting from the kitchen herb garden and complimentary sampling of local wine with lunch in the dining room or outside in the courtyard during the warmer months. A Maison Maitland folder holds the recipes for each participant, and a branded tote bag is provided to carry everything home. The icing on the cake is the extraordinary view through the deep kitchen windows of this heritage mansion, peacefully overlooking the St. Lawrence River.

Perched on five acres and set grandly back atop a hill, Maison Maitland has a long history of welcoming people. The Georgian period stone home was designed and built in 1827 for Lord George Longley, and has taken on many reincarnations, but continues to be a fine example of Neoclassic and Regency design. The dining room is adorned with French and European antiques that Peters has collected over the years, while overhead chandeliers are sparkling, and an original fireplace is crackling in the living room.

Having been well-maintained over the years, that fireplace is just one of many heritage features still visible, such as the original intact foyer, intricately-carved crown molding in the sitting room and authentic interior shutters which still open and close. “In 200 years, this has been many people’s homes and interpretations - so this is ours,” she said, looking around the formal living room and smiling.

This will be Peters’ third year operating the cooking school at Maison Maitland, having come to the area from Prince Edward County. She is well known in the culinary world as an advocate of local food and wine, and is certified with Feast On through the Ontario Culinary Alliance, which lets participants know that Maison Maitland is committed to sourcing, serving and celebrating Ontario-grown food and drink. Prior to arriving in Maitland, Peters created From the Farm Cooking School in Hillier, Ontario, championing the farm-to-table movement for more than a decade and chairing the Taste the County program. “I enjoy building community and connecting through food,” she said, adding that she’s continuing with that mindset now in the Brockville region.

Participants at Maison Maitland Cooking School are coming from all over the country and even Europe to stay in the attached luxury villas and enjoy a remarkable cooking class. “It’s a unique experience for this area,” Peters said, noting that the cooking school and villas are taking on a life of their own as more people are drawn to them.

She’s working to tie together packages for her guests such as massages, boutique shopping, and even food photography workshops. “I try to look at this place as a destination unto itself,” she said. “To create that feeling of being in the French countryside and having an escape on the property.”

Peters knows that feeling intimately as she charters a group of women to France every fall for a wine and culinary adventure like no other. With a close friend who owns a large chateau and winery nearby (with stone buildings that share a likeness to those at Maison Maitland), Peters has created a little slice of France close to home near Brockville.