For Chef Walter Potenza, food isn’t just about feeding the body – it’s about nourishing the soul.

“I take cooking as a form of expression, of myself and for my culture,” he said. “I spend money on two things in life: food and shoes.”

Potenza started his cooking school in 1995, housing it in the same Federal Hill location as his Italian restaurant, Potenza. Classes exploded in popularity, and he decided he needed more space and more time to devote to educating Rhode Islanders about cooking and eating well.

This week, Chef Walter’s Cooking School reopens on Mayfield Avenue in Cranston, in a cozy, home-like storefront, where Potenza can take culinary education to the next level.

“With this new location, we added more programs,” he said, “and we’re going to be adding even more.”

Chef Walter’s took students only from September through May in the past, but at the new location, there will be summer classes available, too.

The school offers theme classes for novice chefs, touching upon topics like making your own pasta, risotto or dessert, for example, or creating 12 Italian sauces in eight minutes. There are culinary arts classes for children and teens, continuing education credits available in the culinary arts, educational dinners and seminars and a 40-hour course on the Italian culinary experience. In addition, Potenza offers team building classes, private cooking events, one-on-one training, wine tasting and parties. After each class, students get to eat what they’ve made.

“Cooking today has become a form of entertainment, and consuming good food is very important,” he said.

Many newlyweds come through the school, as do single people who are looking for something fun to do. Potenza jokes that they often find more than a few good recipes.

“It’s almost like a Match.com,” he said, laughing. “There is a social aspect of cooking, and that’s very important.”

Team building, in particular, has become very popular, with major companies like CVS and Ocean Spray signing their employees up. Coming in the near future, there will be a Cooking with the Mothers class, where real local mothers teach courses on their family specialties.

“This is a way to preserve some of the old heritage; it’s a way to reach out to a new generation,” Potenza said. “If my mother was still here, she would be in the kitchen with me.”

There is also a class in nutrition, run by a certified nutritionist, which Potenza said is more popular than ever.

“She teaches you how to purchase healthy ingredients, how to cook for yourself and how to manage your weight,” he said. “Americans are trying desperately to eat better.”

The emphasis in all of the classes is on using fresh, high quality ingredients.

“People often find a way to minimize food, and compare it to something of a lesser value, but when you prepare food, prepare it with pride,” Potenza said.

The state’s Department of Labor and Training has accepted Chef Walter’s Cooking School as a certified retraining program. Rhode Islanders who are out of work are able to attend the school for 300 hours of continuing education over 17 weeks in order to train for a career in culinary arts or hospitality.

Potenza is particularly interested in reaching out to young people who want to be trained in hospitality. While classes are available at night, the Mayfield Avenue facility doubles as a café at lunchtime. Potenza plans on hiring students to work there, allowing them to cook and learn alongside Potenza at the same time. In the future, he envisions running annual summits for students across the state, setting up an exchange program with his connections in Italy, and partnering with the culinary program at the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center. He also hopes to add an additional kitchen area as the new school location expands.

“They learn with me because they want to be a chef or work in the hospitality field. This is a great opportunity for them, and it’s important for me to do that,” he said.

Potenza knows how important education is. In his native Italy, young people begin training as a teenager, which cultivates that passion early on. He came late to the game, so to speak, as he first studied architectural design as a 19-year-old immigrant college student in America.

“I developed an interest in history and food, which has always stimulated my love of cooking,” he said.

Potenza then immersed himself in the industry. He continues to learn today, writing his own cookbooks and working as a research and development chef who sells recipes to American manufacturing companies. He specializes in recipes for people with diabetes and celiac disease – food sensitivities he is known for accommodating in his restaurants.

The café offers light lunch fare, including sandwiches, paninis, soups, salads, pizza and more. Potenza described it as a “little neighborhood place where people can have a quick bite to eat.” Next to the dining room, a small shop offers homemade sauces, pastas and other fresh groceries. The café is open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and on Monday and Friday nights for dinner, from 5 to 9 p.m., with a limited menu.

Potenza loves to expose his students, and his restaurant patrons, to new types of food.

“We try to stimulate excitement on new regions of the world,” he said, explaining that Rhode Islanders are generally open to learning about different styles of cooking. “Rhode Island has many of those integrated cultures.”

Always popular, he added, are topics dealing with Mediterranean and Italian cuisine.

“I think Italy, as a nation, offers the ‘mother cuisine,’” he said, as other European cuisines used Italian fare as a jumping off point. “From town to town, there is a difference in ingredients and in flavor profiles. I think Italian cuisine has regional diversity that makes the American consumer excited.”

He believes Americans are most attracted to the Italian approach to food, and to life.

“For an Italian, a Monday is just as special as a Saturday night. They take life for its importance every day, and I think Americans would love to learn how to live that way,” he said.

Potenza does live that way, and is eager to share it with others.

“You have to be leaving that heritage in order to share it.”

For more information, visit chefwalterscookingschool.com, or call 490-0999. The school/café is located at 162 Mayfield Avenue in Cranston. Gift certificates are available.