The movie Julie & Julia inspired Paulina Vink of Riverton to do more home cooking. And that urge brought the 18-year-old Burlington County Community College student to Elise Fellinger Henry's cooking class at Kitchen Kapers in Moorestown last week.

"I really need this," Vink said, "because I want to learn all I can about cooking."

And what about Constance Vink, her mother, sitting in the next chair? Did she interpret her daughter's desire for cooking classes as an insult to her own home cooking? Had she failed on the home front?

"No, not at all," Constance Vink said with a smile. "I know that taking classes like this boosts your creativity. Besides, we like to do things together."

Interest in cooking classes continues to spiral upward throughout the region, in part because the economy has driven families to eat dinner at home more often and to carry their lunches to school and work. As a result, people who are new to home cooking are eager to learn the basics, and experienced cooks want to stretch their repertoires.

Cooking need not be a lost art.

In addition to a full range of classes offered at Kitchen Kapers Culinary Academy, there are classes at area high schools; in shops such as Foster's and Fante's; at the Chinese Cultural and Community Center on North 10th Street; in restaurants such as Normandy Farm in Blue Bell and La Campagne in Cherry Hill; in supermarkets such as Giant and Whole Foods; and at long-established cooking schools such as Albertson's Wynnewood and the Viking school in Bryn Mawr.

There are classes for kids at the Newtown Township Parks and Recreation Department; and training for future chefs at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in West Philadelphia and at the OIC's Hospitality Training Institute in North Philadelphia.

Kristy Kreizinger of Marlton said her busy travel schedule motivated her to take Henry's recent class titled "Cook Once, Eat All Week."

Kreizinger is a flight attendant who is traveling much of the time.

"So I want to have real meals ready for my fiance when I'm gone," she said.

Henry's students ate all night, tasting the dozen dishes she prepared in just two hours.

The chef/instructor, who also has a personal chef service called Spare Thyme, served up a rotisserie chicken; minestrone alla Milanese; chicken fajitas; a salad with chicken, spinach and bleu cheese; spice-rubbed flank steak with a spicy peach-bourbon sauce; Cuban-style beef and peppers; ginger beef stir-fry; garlic mashed potatoes; dilled potato vinaigrette; roasted tomato sauce; penne alla vodka; and a chocolate-chip coffeecake.

Henry had all four burners going at once, in addition to the oven, as she demonstrated techniques and gave shopping and cooking tips.

"This class will show you a way of thinking differently about cooking," Henry told the class of three women and two men, all from South Jersey.

She told them to make the most of their time by planning a week's worth of menus to make shopping more efficient. Use the oven wisely by, for example, roasting tomatoes in one pan, garlic in another, and a chicken in a third. And if you are taking the time to roast one chicken, you may as well roast two.

Shop smart by sticking to the perimeter of the store, where the fresh foods are displayed, and spending less time in the interior of the store where less healthy, processed foods are stocked.

"You'll save money that way and you'll feel better."

Henry does not rely on coupon-clipping.

"Most of the time coupons are usually for foods you don't need or shouldn't be eating in the first place," she says.