Emily Otis, the Creative Labs Librarian at the Bozeman Public Library, brings people together at The Kitchen Table. In this space, food creates community.
“My overarching goal as a librarian is to teach food literacy,” Otis says. “So not just how to eat healthy, but the impacts that our food choices make on the environment, things like that. How eating local benefits our community and builds those community connections around food.”
Thursday’s Table gives patrons a chance to watch cooks share their family recipes or demonstrate their favorite dishes, while on Saturdays, the Family Kitchen Lab offers hands-on explorations of kitchen skills, seasonal bounty, and food science. On Wednesdays, classes with What’s Cooking with Dr. Joe? and Amy Ferguson highlight healthier alternatives.
“The Kitchen Table opened in January 2024. It was added as part of a renovation across the library that was funded entirely by donations. So our friends and foundation paid for this space, and part of their process was talking to the community, and the community seemed very excited about the idea of a kitchen as well.”
With funding in place and community approval, the original coffee shop and café adjacent to the north entrance was converted to a teaching kitchen. With a large counter up front, anchored with a stovetop and two ovens, a sink, and a couple of large screens behind.
The Family Kitchen Lab is focused specifically on elementary-aged kids. Otis, who creates the curriculum and teaches these classes, shares, “So my big goal with that is to get in the kitchen and have fun, and get comfortable with the space, get comfortable with trying new things.”
At the library, Otis emphasizes that there is “not that rule, you have to eat everything on your plate.” “If you don’t like something, it’s fine. You tried it. That’s the goal.”
Otis coordinates and often teaches the Family Kitchen Lab classes. “Once a month, I do some kind of seasonal food, and I’ll try to prepare it more than one way. ”In her class on zucchini, they sautéed the vegetables and used them in chocolate chip cookies.
For Chinese New Year, celebrating the Year of the Horse, regular student Cash Quinn and his mother, Emmy, presented a program on making dumplings while sharing the traditions of their holiday celebrations.
“Everybody got a chance to fold their own dumplings, and that was an all-ages program, actually. Cash is this six-year-old kid, and he’s teaching adults how to fold dumplings, and everybody was so into it,” Otis says of this “heartwarming afternoon.”
Other local cooks have shared a stir-fried noodle dish from East Timor and Singapore, while another has shared shrimp and grits from the south. “And I just can’t keep that recipe (the shrimp and grits recipe) stocked,” Otis shares. The recipes are tucked into large binders found by the windows next to the kitchen.
Otis encourages community members, home cooks, and professional chefs to reach out to her at Emily.Otis@bozemanmt.gov if they are interested in teaching a class.
Recently, on a Tuesday afternoon, Pastry Chef Anna Mendoza, co-owner of Vienne Bakery, which was recognized by the James Beard Foundation in 2025 as Best Bakery, taught a class on making croissants. The audience had the opportunity to watch her fold and cut dough to taste a freshly baked croissant and pain au chocolat.
“I’ve been really wanting to do more community things, and I thought this would be a good opportunity,” Mendoza shares. “I think it’s important to show people the process of what it takes to make an artisan product like a croissant and what it takes to start up a bakery, and I just thought it would be a really fun thing to do.”
Amy Ferguson and her son, Dax Gauer, found it fun to share their recipe for Spaghetti Squash with Lentil-Walnut Plantballs, a vegan alternative to traditional spaghetti and meatballs.
Ferguson, a pharmacist-turned-health coach, explains why she has been teaching classes regularly on Wednesdays since last fall.She hopes students take away the “inspiration of trying something new, and trying to get out of their box, and realizing that it’s not that hard to go find joy in the kitchen and be creative and find fun ways to create meals for the people you love.”
