For years, Brian Rosander was an artist on the inside and a brawny construction worker on the outside. He finally gave up concrete work to pursue his passion, and now spends his days glazing pears and squash, and filling tender ravioli with Asiago cheese and figs.

Brian’s canvas is a dinner plate and his atelier is Rosander Event Kitchen, which he and his wife, Christine Wentzel, opened last November in Berea.

The business is a combination restaurant, event space and cooking school. It is housed in a former art gallery, which it still resembles. That’s intentional.

“It’s an art is food, food is art concept,” Brian explains.

Brian spent two years training at Loretta Paganini’s International Culinary Arts & Sciences Institute in Chesterland in addition to working there in the kitchen. He also cooked at restaurants across the Midwest before landing back in his hometown of Berea. He and Christine decided it’s a good place to raise her four children, ages 5 through 12.

“My partying days are done,” Brian says when asked what he does in his free time. “I like to play with the kids. I probably go to the zoo more than most adult men.”

He takes great pleasure in his work, too, creating such dishes as braised pork belly over those luscious-sounding cheese and fig ravioli, and seared mustard-glazed pork loin over lavender rice.

“My kitchen is where I focus all my energy these days,” Brian says.

Lucky us.

Rosander Event Kitchen is at 44 Front St. in Berea. The website is RosanderBerea.com. To schedule a class or make a dinner reservation, phone 440-826-0422.