Baker's Profile

Claudia Ossa

Claudia Ossa describes herself as a "real foodie." She's passionate about everything that relates to food—preparing it, sharing it, eating it. Although she has traveled abroad in search of the next great bite, it's back home in the San Francisco Bay Area where she puts her passion into practice.

After a stint in culinary school, Claudia supplemented her kitchen know-how by watching the informative and humorous Alton Brown on Food Network. She must have picked up some of Brown's familiar enthusiasm and antics, too: Her warm manner is nothing short of infectious.

Claudia will be spreading that warmth around on her new social networking and review site, RealFoodies, which will launch early in 2011. Until then, she's posting weekly on the RealFoodies blog, TastyBits, where she chronicles her eating and cooking adventures. In her spare time, she shares her talents as a chef-volunteer Share Our Strength's Cooking Matters™, a national program that teaches families who face hunger how to prepare healthy and affordable meals. The program plays a critical role in Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry™ Campaign to end childhood hunger in America.

In the six-week Cooking Matters class Claudia co-taught, 21 women in their late 20s to late 70s learned how to shop for groceries and prepare family meals within their budgets. Claudia was the chef instructor; her co-teacher was a nutritionist. The class was facilitated by the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market, and everyone in class left with a big bag of groceries after each lesson so they could practice their new skills at home. "I got a lot of positive feedback from students who went home and prepared the recipes they learned in class," Claudia reports.

One of the primary lessons of the class "is to buy whole and pure ingredients as much as possible when you grocery shop," Claudia says. C&H Pure Cane Sugar fits the bill. "For a sweet ending to my last class, I decided to teach the apple crisp from the Cooking Matters cookbook," Claudia says. "It is a wonderful winter recipe because you get to use lots of apples that are in season. And nothing beats a nice and sweet oatmeal crumble!" You too can try the Apple Crisp recipe. Be sure to use C&H Pure Cane Golden Brown Sugar!

You can read more about Claudia's teaching experience on her blog, where she includes photos and more information about the class.