About Food By Hand Seminars

Food by Hand Seminars offers a unique mix of business know-how and foodcraft expertise. Our intensive, information-packed seminars are designed for entrepreneurs who want to explore the possibilities for turning their passion for handmade foods into a new business – or to improve an existing business by changing or expanding the focus into artisan foods.

Taught by instructors who are proven experts in artisan foods and small business, the classes are a mini-apprenticeship that will give you a road map to follow on your way to a new venture.

Portland, Oregon, is the ideal location for Food by Hand Seminars. Hailed as one of the United States’ top “food cities,” Portland has a critical mass of artisan foodcrafters and retailers, small restaurants and farmers markets. Portland’s vibrant food community brims with people, places and tastes that will inspire you.

What former students say about Food by Hand Seminars.

Heidi Yorkshire, Director, Food by Hand Seminars

Heidi Yorkshire

For 25 years, Heidi Yorkshire, founder and director of Food by Hand Seminars, has had a unique view of America’s artisan food revolution as a journalist, author and entrepreneur. Heidi contributed travel, wine and food stories for Bon Appetit and many other publications for more than two decades. She wrote the weekly wine column for The Oregonian for five years, and is the author and publisher of two wine books, Wine Savvy (an IACP/Julia Child Cookbook Award finalist) and Simply Wine. She also worked as a restaurant reviewer, and was a judge for the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Awards for more than ten years.

Eventually, Heidi got a jones to start an artisan cheese factory, an odyssey that didn’t take her where she expected to go. The cheese factory never got off the drawing board, but Heidi started working as a business advisor helping entrepreneurs plan and run small specialty food businesses. She was also co-developer of “Bringing Your Recipe to Market,” a course for entrepreneurs offered by the Small Business Development Center at Portland Community College. Seeing how complicated it is to start a food-oriented business inspired her to create Food by Hand Seminars, to help people create financially and emotionally sustainable businesses.