Not content to be one of Austin’s legendary kitchen magicians, Alice Brimacomb now wants to share her food preparation knowledge.

Monday, October 30, 2000

Not content to be one of Austin’s legendary kitchen magicians, Alice Brimacomb now wants to share her food preparation knowledge.

Brimacomb is planning to start an in-home cooking school, proving women in business include seniors, too.

"It would revolve around the seasons of the year and, perhaps, be only two or three sessions, but I really feel this is something I could do and something people want," she said.

Brimacomb is an example of that home-based entrepreneur in the business world. For decades in Austin, she has prepared meals that were by any definition "feasts."

She went into homes to prepare a meal to order and it was a pleasant diversion through two marriages and raising her extended families.

More recently, she pulled away from the assignments she would receive; preferring to limit her grommet road show to a few clients.

Her one-woman private catering business earned her a spot in the food pantry pantheon.

She taught classes at the local community college and before that was the central attraction at a now-retired Austin Daily Herald promotion. With help from the ADH staff and then-Elden’s IGA Foodliner, Brimacomb took center-stage each fall at Austin High School for a food revue.

How did she achieve so much local fame?

Answer: practicing the simple, but also fine art of meal preparation … just like she saw her mother do when she was a little girl.

"My mother was a wonderful, basic cook," she said. "I was one of six children in the family and mealtime was a special time for all of us to eat and to share with each other. It strengthened our family."

When she grew older and married, she worked as a maid cleaning homes in Austin and when the women – Brimacomb calls them "the ladies" – for whom she worked discovered her cooking abilities, she was quickly recruited to prepare meals for special family occasions and other events such as parties and celebrations in the home.

"In the early years – and that was over 50 years ago – the ladies would do the shopping, because they had their preferences," she recalled. "I would just do the dinner."

"Do the dinner," indeed. Soon enough, ham, rib eye and crowned rib of pork dinners by Brimacomb were the talk of the town.

Now, the same skills that made her a coveted family friend can be shared by others interested in expanding their food preparation horizons.

"I’m thinking it would be informal with only a few people at any one time. All they would need is a pencil and paper to take notes. I would do all the work and teach them just like I did at the college and the Herald’s cooking schools years ago," she said.

"We would explore soups, salads and sandwiches. Main courses and entrees and desserts, too," she said.

This woman about to return to business knows the importance of a business plan. Thus, she is seeking input from anyone interested in participating in a genuine Alice Brimacomb Cooking School.

Anyone interested in participating in the new in-home business may call Brimacomb at 437-3577 for more information.