EQ Instructors

Amy Tobin, EQ Culinary Director

Amy Tobin is the Culinary Director for EQ the cooking school @ The Party Source. Holding an extensive career in the cooking industry, Amy serves as a recipe developer and consultant to several national food brands. A former contributor to Cincinnati Magazine and Cincinnati Wedding, Amy's career has also included the roles of interior designer, caterer and cooking teacher, and she regularly leads European culinary adventures.

Host of Amy's Table: A Girl's Guide to Living on Cincinnati's WKRQ and a cooking program on CET, Tobin can be found weekly on local radio and television. She currently lives in Ohio with her husband, son and daughter. For more information, visit www.amystable.com.

Jay Dickerson, EQ Instructor & Class Assistant

When Jay Dickerson was eight years old he was hungry for a burger. Mom was busy so Jay grabbed a chair and stepped up to the stove. He's a firm believer in the premise that if you buy a man a burger, he'll eat for a day, but if you can cook your own, you'll never go hungry!! Jay wants all our students to leave EQ with the confidence to play with their food, to create and enjoy.

In addition to cooking, Jay does a little creating of his own - libation style. Jay is a master of creating new and interesting drinks for our Girl's Guide to Cocktail series. He loves to drink, come join him!

Jay Erisman, EQ Instructor

A native of Cincinnati, Jay has worked since 1997 in the gourmet food and alcohol beverage business, alternating between the retail and wholesale ends of those industries. Today, he works for The Party Source, something of a dream job for Jay, where he wears many hats, including wine salesman, fine spirits manager, and specialty food consultant.

Jay also has an unreasonable attraction to cooking and fine food. One of Jay's first culinary callings was a signature chili recipe; this quickly led him to taste the full breadth of the capsicum family, resulting in the Jay's Magic Hot Sauce line, which he brought to market in 1998. His list of Ten Favorite Dishes is always expanding, and includes Roasted Peppers with Anchovies; Thai Beef Salad; Chinese black bean stir-fries; Porcini and Truffle Risotto; and Pineapple-Habanero Salsa.

A compiler of knowledge and information since childhood, today he seeks to impart that knowledge to others. In his free time, Jay enjoys the Reds, playing his guitars loudly, and spending time with his wife Angie.

Jean Strasser, EQ Instructor

Jean and her husband spent five years in San Francisco where they shared many fabulous dining experiences. It was there that Jean worked with Judith Ets Hokin, a caterer and cooking teacher. That experience led her to create her own catering business, Tastebuds, which she has successfully run for nearly 20 years.

Jean wants her students to "learn and understand that cooking does not have to be a chore; it's such an easy way to enhance your quality of life and commune with friends and family."

Jon Stiles, GM and EQ Instructor

My mother was a great cook, but I never quite caught the cooking bug as a child. After a stint as a police officer, I returned home for a while and got enamored with a cooking show called "Were Cooking Now" featuring Chef Franco Palumbo. That and time on my hands opened the culinary floodgates. A new job at Culinary Emporium soon followed and that gave me plenty of time to start to learn about gourmet foods and cooking equipment. The store was located at a specialty mall in Tri-County called Market's International, and the cheese shop, beer tasting bar, and the wine shop, all located within the mall gave me ample opportunity to start to round out my food experiences.

After a couple of years of teaching myself cooking, I became the Cooking School Director at Culinary Emporium, teaching most of the classes myself, until the store closed about 3 years later. I joined The Party Source in 1993 as the Specialty Foods Buyer for the soon to open store, becoming the General Manager of the store in 1998. The passion for food and wine has never waned, and a love for travel to some of the world's best areas for food and wine has helped to expand my experiences.

My classes are focused on fun, and feature an informal atmosphere that allows for a lot of interaction with the audience, and a chance to provide a lot of information on cooking, food and wine, travel, restaurants, the store, and anything else that happens to come up while we're cooking and having a good time. When I'm not in the store, I hope I'm traveling somewhere in the world with my new wife and travel partner Connie.

Chef Philippe Audax

Chef Philippe Audax has food "in his blood." His father was chef for the governor of Paris at the Invalides and his uncle was the chef at Le Cercle Militaire, both in Paris. Philippe was also influenced by two of Paris' greatest chefs, Jean Jorda of Maxim's and Guy Legay of the Ritz plus two of his culinary teachers, Jean Planche and Jacques Sylvestre, who created virtually all of the culinary programs in Europe.

Philippe graduated from the Ecole Hoteliere de Paris and then worked at Maxim's and the Ritz in Paris. His efforts earned him a six month internship at the White House in Washington DC, and a stint at the Hamilton Princess Hotel in Bermuda. He then moved to Cincinnati to work at the 4 Star King Cole in Dayton, and then the revolving restaurant in Covington, for which he won awards at the Taste of Cincinnati for three years in a row.

Philippe left Cincinnati for Providence, RI to open the Bluefin Grille. It was there that he met with Julia Child on numerous occasions. Luckily for us, Philippe returned to Cincinnati to open the Five Seasons Country Club in Montgomery and is currently campus Executive Chef at the University of Cincinnati.