Like a yeast starter that already has risen in several batches of bread, Spokane-based retailer Cooks Dream Inc. has grown from an eBay startup to a multifaceted Internet, brick-and-mortar, and culinary-education business.


The companys two outlets, in the Lincoln Heights Shopping Center on 29th Avenue and at 14208 E. Sprague in Spokane Valley, feature scads of high-quality kitchen products that help amateur cooks whip out dishes as professional chefs do. Cooking classes, many led by chefs at local restaurants, are a Cooks Dream staple. The business still is tied to its Internet roots, though, and sells its products through two Web sites it has.


Theres definitely a growing demand because of the (televised) Food Network and the nesting phenomenon that has happened from 9/11, says Cooks Dream founder Rick Wilcox. Plus, he says, Baby boomers are starting to have more time, and more of them are picking up cooking as a hobby.


Last month, Cooks Dream opened its Spokane Valley outlet in a 4,200-square-foot space, and it now employs five people in addition to its owners. Its overall revenues were about $800,000 in 2002, and Wilcox projects that figure will climb to about $1.2 million this year.


More is on Cooks Dreams plate, though, than its two outlets and two Web sites. It plans to open three more corporate-owned storesin North Spokane, Liberty Lake, and Coeur dAleneby 2005, then begin offering Cooks Dream franchises.


Cooks Dream plans for all of its new stores to have kitchens, just as the South Hill store does and the Spokane Valley store soon will, says general manager Todd Tuflija.


Tuflija says its also possible, though, that Cooks Dream will be acquired within the next week. He says a local buyer has expressed an interest in buying the retailer. If Cooks Dream is acquired, its name could change, but the companys plans to open more stores and its product offerings would remain, he says.


Cooks Dreams customers like cooking equipment, and many are on a quest for a particular tool or gadget. Its often something they saw used on the Food Network, Tuflija says.


We have Wolfgang Puck and Emeril (Lagasse) to thank for that, he says, referring to celebrity chefs with programs on that cable channel. Zesters are really big right now. All the chefs are using them on the Food Network right now. Zesters, which look like metal cheese graters, are used to shred the peel, or zest, off of fruits to flavor food.


The customers also want quality items, Wilcox says. While some cooks are satisfied with a three-pack of pans sold for $20 at discount stores, many Cooks Dream customers spend $100 or more for a single professional-grade pan made by All-Clad Manufacturers LLC or other makers. Other popular products are Bosch food processors, which sell for about $240; 1950s-style toasters by DeLonghi, which sell for about $80; and Le Creuset of America Inc.s well-built cookware, which ranges in price from about $50 apiece to almost $300.


One need not have Wolfgang Pucks bank account, though, to purchase something at Cooks Dream. Rookie Stix, which are plastic chopsticks connected at one end making them easy for beginners to use, sell for $1.99, and a set of tiny stainless-steel measuring spoons that scoop up pinch-, smidgen-, and dash-size portions sell for $3.99.


People come to our store looking for stuff they cant find anywhere else, Tuflija says.


That includes cookie cutters. Cooks Dream carries more than 1,000 different cookie cutters, in the shape of everything from penguins to Santa Claus to the continental United States.


Cooks Dream also sells barbecue products from Highland, New York-based Danger Men Cooking.On a recent Monday, customers at the companys store on 29th were looking for a variety of things. One needed a metal biscuit ring, because he was in the mood for crumpets. Another was after a saltshaker that would grind sea salt into a fine dust. Someone else called looking for an umbrella-shaped cookie cutter.


Wilcox never intended for his store to become, well, a store. He was studying to become an elementary school teacher three years ago when the idea for the business grew out of a conversation with his neighbor, Greg Skipper. Skipper was general manager of Paul Eryaud Co., a Cheney-based business that made commercial baking products, and the two thought that selling those products on eBay could be a successful venture.


We were talking over the fence one day, Wilcox says. He said he didnt have the time (to sell the products online), and I did.


Before long, Wilcox had 70 online auctions closing a day. Lloyd Industries Inc., a Spokane-based pizza pan and baking equipment maker, has since bought the Paul Eryaud Co.


Wilcox sold the products on eBay and on a Web site he developed called ultimatebaker.com, but also wanted to sell upscale kitchen equipment such as All-Clad pans.


When we went to the bigger name-brand companies, it was the time when all the dot-coms were crashing, he says. To allow a vendor to carry their products online, those manufacturers wanted us to have a store along with it.


In September 2001, Wilcox and his wife, Becky, opened the first Cooks Dream, which still occupies a 2,700-square-foot space at Lincoln Heights. Last summer, Gareth Oxford, of Spokane, bought an interest in the company. He originally was hired as Cooks Dreams Webmaster, but Wilcox says he respected Oxfords work so much, he asked him to be more involved. Oxford now manages ultimatebaker and the companys second Web site, mixersnmore.com, which offers mostly small kitchen appliances as well as other products.


Jay and Linda Holliday, also of Spokane, bought an interest last October after Cooks Dream acquired their 12-year-old company, Jays Bosch Kitchen Center, last August.


In addition to its cooking classes, Cooks Dream offers less-involved cooking demonstrations, also sometimes led by chefs from local restaurants.


Cooks Dream has a reciprocal marketing plan with restaurants that participate in the cooking classes. For one month after chefs demonstrate their signature dishes, Cooks Dream offers a 20 percent discount on its products to that restaurants patrons, who obtain a coupon at the restaurant, Tuflija says. In return, Cooks Dream customers can get the same discount at the restaurant using a coupon given to them at the classes.


In addition, Cooks Dream also offers healthy-cooking classes taught by registered nurse Debbie Nelson-Judd, who owns a Spokane-based business called Nutritional Wisdom Inc., and cooking classes for kids.


The demand for classes is overwhelming, Tuflija says. The three-hour courses are held roughly every other week, cost about $40, and usually are limited to 12 participants. Food demonstrations, which are shorter and less-structured cooking instruction sessions, are offered on most Saturdays free of charge.


In addition to its plans for more brick-and-mortar outlets, the company also plans to launch more Web sites over the next few years, Wilcox says.


The Web sites will be very niche, like the bakeware and appliance Web sites, he says. We would like to add a gadget site, a cutlery site, and others.


In the meantime, Cooks Dream plans to continue cooking up business by selling top-quality products and educating customers. To accomplish that, many of the companys employees bring to the table a background in food. Tuflijas father was a chef. Kathleen Oliver, a professional chef, is employed as Cooks Dreams chef-in-residence. As for Wilcox, he likes to cook, especially if it involves a grill, he says.