As Eileen Sherman, Ph.D., watched her late husband struggle to eat during his battle with esophageal cancer, she took a sabbatical from academic life to train as a professional chef.
“I wanted to be able to help create recipes that would be palatable for cancer patients,” said Sherman, who was recently named dean of the School of Business at Alverno College in Milwaukee.
Sherman has had a lifelong passion for cooking and enrolled in Sheboygan’s Marcel Biro Culinary School in 2005, partially to pursue that passion.
“The other part of it was a very personal mission in terms of trying to create foods and recipes that (my husband) would be able to swallow,” Sherman said. As his tumor blocked his esophagus it was difficult for him to eat.
Her husband was Dr. David Sherman, a prominent cancer doctor in Milwaukee whose memory today is marked by the David M. Sherman Center, a cancer care and treatment facility at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare’s St. Joseph Campus.
While learning to cook, Eileen trained a year under German Master Chef Marcel Biro in an immersion program. Upon her completion in 2006, she worked in Biro’s restaurants in Sheboygan and, after the death of her husband in 2007, started a business in Mequon called Live to Eat LLC as she worked to rebuild her life.
Inspiration for the name of the company came from her late husband, who often used to say, “Most people eat to live, but I would much rather live to eat.”
The business venture, which Sherman operated for about three years, was a personal/private chef company that specialized in cooking instruction, small dinner party catering, cooking demonstrations and personal chef specializations. Through the company, she also taught corporate culinary classes and promoted workplace skills with team building, conflict management and time management.
While she is no longer active with Live to Eat, the company was never dissolved and has the potential to take a new direction in the future, Sherman said.
Sherman says she still enjoys cooking for family, friends, intimate events and herself to relieve stress.
