T-L Photo/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH Preparing to cook up a fun and educational event are some members of the Sons and Daughters of Italy lodge’s Culture Committee in Bellaire. They include, from left, Cindy Hartlieb, Anita Smigill, Bill Ault, Rosalind Fitch, Irene Louda, Theresa Mowery and Brenda Ault. They will offer an Italian cooking school April 14.

BELLAIRE — What better way to help keep the Italian heritage of many local residents alive than by preparing a traditional, authentic meal?

That is the thought behind the Sons and Daughters of Italy’s “Cooking Italy’s Regional Recipes” cooking school, set to begin at 2 p.m. April 14 at the Uguaglianza Lodge 754, located at 3348 Belmont St. in Bellaire.

Tickets can be purchased at the lodge bar during its regular Thursday Spaghetti Nights or Friday Lenten Fish Frys.

Members of the organization’s Culture Committee are still finalizing the menu for the school, but it will provide complete instruction and a demonstration of how to prepare a seven-course Italian meal. Committee members include Cindy Hartlieb, Anita Smigill, Bill Ault, Rosalind Fitch, Irene Louda, Theresa Mowery, Brenda Ault, Lillian Siebieda, Annette Ice, Arleen Sabatino, Debbie Habursky, John Gianangeli, Larry Siebieda, Vince Gianangeli and Tony Polsinelli.

“The meal will be seven courses, from drink to dessert,” Hartlieb said, noting that people who enroll in the cooking school will watch a livestream of the food being prepared in the lodge’s kitchen. “They will get the recipes, and they get to sit down and eat.”

Some of the recipes will come from the committee’s latest cookbook, “Our Regional Recipes,” featuring old family favorites handed down through generations to the current lodge members. The books will be available for sale during the event, but the school is not designed to be a fundraiser for the lodge. Rather, it aims to bring awareness to and preserve Italian heritage.

Committee members noted that such sessions have been offered to the public in the past, but that was several years ago.

The last one, an Italian cookie class, was held prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the committee has decided it is time to revive the tradition.

“They were always a lot of fun, and everyone got to learn to make something neat,” Hartlieb noted.

In the past, committee members set up stations where participants got some hands-on experience making the featured recipes, kneading dough and mixing ingredients. Current regulations regarding food safety, however, prevent the group from making things quite so interactive this time around.

Instead, the livestream will feature step-by-step instruction “like a cooking show,” according to committee members.

“There are no bad seats,” Hartlieb stressed.

Enrollment is limited to 50 people, so members urge those who want to participate in the school to buy tickets soon. Call 740-676-3178 for more information.