Ursula KNAEUSEL

KNAEUSEL, Ursula Ursula Knaeusel, born in Halle an der Saale (a small East German town two hours from Berlin near Leipzig) passed away in Atlanta on June 1, 2018.
Owner of Ursula's Cooking School (one of the longest running independent cooking schools in the nation), Ursula started her lifelong passion for cooking at the young age of three. She helped her grandmother, whom she lovingly called Oma, in the kitchen where food was scarce during the war years. Food rations meant learning to improvise, and making do with what little food one had. Her Oma would make burgers out of potato peelings not wanting to waste. Ursula, like her grandmother, did not waste a thing, but the memory of those burgers was the reason she refused to eat a potato with the skin on.
She fled from East Germany to West Germany in 1952. It took tremendous courage to wade across the river that day knowing she could have been shot trying to escape. She never looked back. When she saw a Coca-Cola sign (the product was forbidden under Russian occupied East Germany), she knew she was free and perhaps this was a foreshadowing event since she would later call Atlanta, the birthplace of Coca-Cola, home. For her first few months in West Germany, Ursula was employed yet homeless. If it rained, she'd pay fifty cents to sleep in the local theater. During her time in West Germany, she saved enough money to make her way to the United States. She spent a few months in New York where she worked at the Waldorf Astoria, headed down to Miami and finally to Central America and it was there the idea of starting a cooking school was born. She lived in Central America for five years teaching cooking classes before setting her sights on Atlanta. On July 28, 1971, Ursula taught her first class out of the kitchen in her Atlanta home and that was the beginning of Ursula's Cooking School. She started with just five students and grew the business to over 500. Over the years, she mingled with and/or cooked for celebrities including Julia Child, former President Jimmy Carter, First Lady Rosalyn Carter, glass artist Hans Godo Frabel, former Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat, and Henry Kissinger to name a few.
Her favorite recipes to teach students included her Dishwasher Fish, her favorite soups or how to make a full Thanksgiving dinner in three hours or less. She dished out practical, real-world recipes like fajitas, Grandmother's soup and baked artichoke hearts to the more complex dishes like pate, salmon canapes, and other baked delights. She used real ingredients like half-and-half, sugar and heavy whipping cream. Anything fat-free, or artificial made her wince. She loved butter and lemon pepper.
She had mantras she repeated time and time again. Quick, easy, but elegant is how she described her classes and cooking style. And she said the eye eats first so make it pretty. Burnt is beautiful. You are the boss in the kitchen. Kissing doesn't last but cooking does. And love goes to the stomach: It warms you up and it energizes you.
She had more than 400 kitchen witches hanging from her ceiling in her classroom for good luck, saying they ensured that her cakes and recipes turned out just right. She had more than 5000 cookbooks in German, English and Spanish lining her living room walls. Her students sat in yellow school desks and they watched her cooking demonstrations from her 24-foot long mirror.
In 1995, she filmed 13 cooking shows from her Atlanta kitchen that aired on PBS and she was the subject of newspaper articles around the world. She was also the author of many cookbooks. She had to close the school once in 2004 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but apart from that she ran her school continuously and successfully until she retired in 2016. Ursula spent 51 years teaching thousands of students how to make simple, easy yet elegant meals. She was most proud that in all her years she never repeated a recipe.
Ursula's other passion was animals and in particular dogs. Herman, Big Boy, Liberty, Rascal, Heidi, Itsy Bitsy, Daisie, Simba, and Shatzy are just a few of the over 40 dogs she cared for. In lieu of flowers, we ask that a donation be made to a cause nearest and dearest to her heart, Paws Atlanta. http://www.pawsatlanta.org.
Ursula was buried at Crestlawn Memorial Park in Atlanta. This wonderful lady had a youthful disposition. She was generous, courageous, and entrepreneurial. And her memory lives on through her recipes, and the great memories created by making one of her meals. Ursula was the ultimate "Boss in the Kitchen"