My First Cooking Class

This past Thursday, I attended my first cooking class at Kiss Z Cook, a local store that specializes in offering "tools and techniques for the home cook." I intentionally signed up for their Vegetarian Class to see if I could learn some new techniques or get new ideas for some tasty vegetarian meals. The classes are normally around $75 for a two hour class. All tools and ingredients are supplied for you, there is a staff on hand to do the clean up, and the class is led by a local professional chef. After finishing the meal, everyone sits down and eats what they've just created.


Not knowing what to expect, I got there early. It immediately struck me how hot it was - makes sense, given that we're going to be in an industrial kitchen - but I immediately questioned my sanity for doing this on one of the hottest days of the year (this was during the recent heat wave). I also was a little surprised that the dining area wasn't air conditioned.


Before class, the students are offered water or iced tea, or we could purchase beer or wine. Some people came with friends or spouses, others, like myself, were flying solo.


We were led into the kitchen by the chef, a very affable gentleman named Dwight, and were told that we would be sharing the stations in groups of 3 or 4. Each station was supplied with recipes, a basket of produce, cutting boards, knives and an assortment of bowls and measuring utensils. There is a 4 burner stove and oven at each station as well. In the back of the room is the "common kitchen" where the students could find other pantry items, herbs, stock, etc. to be used in their preparations.


I was grouped with another guy who had taken one other class here, and who seemed to have some cooking experience, and two women who were also both first-timers like me. One of the women was a VERY inexperienced cook, and the other woman seemed like she is the primary cook in her house. We were instructed to look at the recipes, and decide who was going to be cooking what. There were three recipes - grilled eggplant with a vinaigrette, spinach salad with sauteed red pepper and asparagus, and wild mushroom risotto. I was psyched. I've never made risotto, and have always wanted to learn how!


Chef Dwight asked us to all gather around the main teaching station at the front of the room so that he could explain where things were, some tips on strategy, and to demonstrate some basic knife techniques, and how he wanted the vegetables to be cut. He made a special point of noting that he wanted to personally approve our mince of the garlic. He showed us basic onion dicing, and a GREAT technique for breaking down a red pepper that I hope to implement. Then he returned us to our stations.


We all gathered and discussed who would work on what. I mentioned that I'd never done risotto before, and would love to work on that, but for some reason the more experienced woman in our group said that she would do the risotto since she'd made it before. WTF?!? This is a cooking CLASS, not a COMPETITION. I came here to learn something. "You mince the garlic and do the grilled eggplant," she commanded. I didn't want to be a PITA, but I did say that I would really prefer to work on the risotto since I mince garlic and grill eggplant all the time. "You can watch me when I'm making it," she informed me. I was PISSED but decided that digging in my heels on this would just make me look bad, so I grabbed the garlic and started mincing.


I should mention that Chef Dwight wasn't kidding when he said that he was very specific on his garlic mince. I got it as small as I thought I could, called him over to check it, and was told that it still wasn't small enough. So, I minced some more. Finally, after several more passes over the garlic I got the approval. I was relieved to see that others had to redo their mince as well.


The other guy who was in our group was pleasant enough, but kept wanting to chat about what I did for a living, who did most of the cooking in our house, etc. He also kept calling the chef over to check every little thing that he did. The less experienced woman in our group didn't want to do a lot of cooking, instead she hovered over each of us trying to see what we were doing. She did take over sautéing the red pepper and asparagus. She couldn't understand why it wasn't browning, and I suggested that she let the veggies cook a bit between stirs. 


Finally, the time to make the risotto came. Having been busy mincing and grilling, I hadn't been able to observe the prep for the risotto, so I just assumed that "I've made it before" lady had actually read the recipe and understood what she was doing. I immediately realized that not only had she not read through the recipe completely, but that she hadn't even made sure all of her prep was complete.


I also realized that the risotto was not really going to be vegetarian as it was being made with chicken stock. Another "WTF?!?" 


So, risotto-woman cooked off the mushrooms, transferred them to a plate, then tossed the rice into the skillet to begin to cook it. She then started asking us what she was supposed to do next at each step. Totally understandable that she needed someone to prompt her on a recipe that requires a little timing, but she was completely lost. Chef Dwight came over to assist, and the risotto ended up coming out fine.


We all sat down to eat, and I must say that the food came out pretty tasty. That said, overall I was a bit disappointed in the experience, and not just because of my difficulty with my cooking partners. In some ways, it really wasn't their fault.


While Chef Dwight provided some guidance on basic knife techniques, and a good tip on how to determine if a grill is heated to medium, medium high or high, there was very little actual instruction. He circled the room, and jumped in whenever we needed him to, but I would have liked it if he would have been demonstrating as we cooked. At one point I asked him to check the flavor on a vinaigrette that I prepared, and he declined. I had tasted it myself, and thought it was missing something, but without some guidance, I didn't learn what it was. 


I will say that having the clean-up taken care of was a bonus, and Chef Dwight clearly knows what he is doing. He has a good personality for the job as he has a lot of people calling for his help all the time, and he moves around the room with ease. I just wish there were more teaching and instruction. Except for a couple of prep tips, I really didn't learn much.