About Amy's
History
about Amy's at Woodhaven
Amy Donaldson has always had a
love for food and cooking, based on happy times centered around the family
kitchen back in Ohio. She opened The Stomping Grounds Café in 1998 in
Lakewood, Wisconsin and began teaching cooking classes through Northeast
Wisconsin Technical College. She found a love of sharing food, recipes and
stories in that experience and has been doing some form of food teaching ever
since.
Amy pursued formal training at the Marcel Biro Culinary Institute in Sheboygan,
Wisconsin, under the direction of East German European Master Chef, Marcel Biro.
She was the first to graduate from the Biro professional certificate program in
2006. She continues to learn new things through continuing education classes,
but mostly through her guests and clients.
Amy Donaldson and her husband Gary, purchased the property, formerly known as
the Wintergreen Inn, just south of Lakewood, Wisconsin, in 2005. They re-named
it "Woodhaven" after the near-idyllic childhood neighborhood that Gary grew up
in near Troy, Ohio. Though the couple didn't wish to operate the bed and
breakfast portion of the business with two small children to raise, Amy saw the
potential for a place to teach her classes and pursue her love of sharing food
experiences with others. One of the buildings had an existing commercial kitchen
and dining room, but lacked the space for cooking and teaching that Amy needed
in order to share culinary experiences with others.
She designed an interactive
teaching kitchen that seats 14 guests in a u-shaped bar around the cooking
facilities. Here, guests can participate in demonstration classes, observe while
Amy prepares "Chef's Table Dinners", or get hands-on experience with one of
Amy's "Intensive" classes.
