40 replies to this topic

[mskerr]

First post!

I've been looking up cooking classes for a while now, mostly one-day or weekend classes on different cuisines (New Mexican, Moroccan, Italian...), bread baking classes, knife skill classes, fermentation, dutch oven camp cooking...

For those of you who have taking recreational cooking classes (whether a 3-hour class or a weeklong workshop), do you think they are worth the $? I've worked a little bit as a line cook, and have been teaching myself about cooking, quite intensively, for the last two years. My goal is to start a food truck in a year or 2. I learn pretty quickly from reading, videos, lots of kitchen experiments, etc, and have definitely improved my skills over the last couple years without any classes or training. When I see weekend workshops that cost $700, or one-day classes that run over $100, I can't help but think I should just spend that $ instead on books, ingredients, some choice kitchen equipment. Then again, a good knife skills class could help me out heaps in the kitchen, and for baking I think it would be great to learn from an experienced baker... I should also note that I have just about no disposable income so I try to make the most of it.

Any insight? Cheers!

[mgaretz]

It really depends a lot on the teacher. Some are good, some not so, even at the same school. You could take one of two approaches: take a class that you already know the subject and use it as a gauge as to whether you know more or less than they do, or take something you know nothing about and see if you learn anything useful.

[ElsieD]

Where are you? If you are in Ontario, Canada I can suggest something for knife skills.

[djyee100]

What recreational classes are you considering? Classes taught by prominent chefs attract both skilled home cooks and professional cooks. Otherwise, recreational classes attract students of varied skill levels, even basic skill levels, and that's probably not where you should be.

If you've already had some professional experience, and you're planning to be a professional cook, you may find the level of most recreational classes to be below your level. Remember, the people who go there want to learn something new, and they want to have fun. Depending on the teacher, the class may not be that careful about technique.

I've known so many superb professional cooks who have learned totally on the job. Is there any reason for you not to take that route? You'll learn, you'll make money, you'll be around other professionals, and you will also meet helpful people for what you want to do.

If you want to be involved in recreational classes at all, I suggest you work them as a sous-chef or assistant, even as a volunteer. Then you'll work more closely with the teacher and you'll get more out of the experience.

If you live near a cooking school, it may be possible to take a cooking class on a particular subject that interests you, without enrolling in the full program.

good luck!

[Shalmanese]

A cooking class is geared at the pace of the average student so if you're significantly above average, you're unlikely to get much out of it. Cooking classes are either short courses geared towards dilettante amateurs or degree length courses geared towards working professionals. The economics of it make it very hard to provide offerings for anyone in the middle.

If you're approaching something as a complete novice, like a new technique or a new cuisine, cooking classes may be helpful. But if you possess a medium degree of cooking skill, most classes are probably not going to be too useful compared to just learning on your own.

Far better than a cooking class is to hook up with a clan of equally knowledgable cooks. That way, you're teaching each other and at a personalized pace. Bonus is it's far cheaper and more fun to book.

[ScoopKW]

And depending on where you live, community colleges and reputable culinary schools might be a better option. But not all of us are lucky enough to live within driving distance of Hyde Park, St. Helena, San Antonio or Singapore. And not every community has a college with a good culinary program. Just watch out for the "schools" that do a lot of TV advertising. Tuition is far too high for what they offer, in my opinion.

But even with school, there's no substitute for actually cooking in a professional environment. You'll learn more nuts-and-bolts technique quicker that way.

Edited by ScoopKW, 12 November 2011 - 07:58 PM.

[Jenni]

Can I ask, are you trying to learn general cooking skills and techniques such as knife skills and so on? Or do you want to do classes on different cuisines?

I'd say that if it's the former, then a class may be worth it as you'll get hands on training plus the instructor can check you are doing things right - and this kind of feedback is harder to get from a book.

On the other hand, if it's the latter I would say don't bother. There are loads of "Learn Mexican/ Thai/ Indian/ Morrocan/ etc." classes all over the place these days, and although some may be fun and you may learn a little, you are not actually going to learn a whole country's cuisine in a day or two. You may learn a few tasty dishes but teaching quality can vary and you may end up going home with more misinformation about a country's food than when you started. Far better to invest in some books, researching online and saving up for a holiday to the country itself!

[Lisa Shock]

In the US, many community colleges offer culinary programs. They are affordable and you can often just take the classes you want without having to enroll in an entire program.

[dcarch]

I will pay high price for cooking lessons for information I cannot get from youtube, from Googling, from the hundreds of cooking shows, or from eG Forums.

dcarch

[mskerr]

Cheers for all the replies!
I live near Yosemite in California right now but am also sort of based in Santa Cruz, near San Francisco although I try to avoid the place if I can!
Training on the job would be awesome, but with the recession, there's a helluva lot of people out there with more than 6 months line-cook experience on their resumes, especially in California. My kitchen experience was back in Maine, so unfortunately all the pro cooks I know are 3000 miles away.

As far as classes go, I am potentially interested in three different things:

(1) knife skills and general cooking technique, to save prep time and because I still bungle a lot of my attempts in the kitchen,

(2) specific techniques like rustic bread baking or pasta-making, and

(3) different cuisines, especially American regional ones like New Mexican, New Orleans, etc. I'm interested in starting a food truck that features American regional specialties but also has dishes from other countries (Italy, Lebanon, Morocco...) as specials (to keep it interesting as a cook, and because I love a lot of different food). Nothing too complicated though, especially to start! American regional classes are also a good excuse to travel around and see new states, which is my favorite thing to do when I can afford it.

Can anyone recommend a really good knife skills or bread-baking class in the states? Or a good regional class, esp. in Texas, New Mexico, or Louisiana? I guess I'm aiming for classes that are more instructive than something purely for casual home cooks, but not necessarily CIA level. And I'd prefer to take a less-expensive class from a really solid, non-famous chef than an expensive class from a famous one, unless it was someone I was a huge fan of. But, if I don't find any classes that fit the bill, I'm quite happy to invest the $ instead on cookbooks and ingredients and I'll just get in the kitchen and try to work it out myself! When I was in college, I would look at classes and think they were going to be mind-blowing or something, only to think "I could've just read a couple of books for free" after they were over.

For reference, some of the classes I've been looking up include Cooking Studio of Taos, Santa Fe School of Cooking, and Portland Culinary Workshop.

The places I would most like to visit are: Santa Fe, Taos, and Hatch, NM, Austin and the Hill Country, San Antonio, New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, western Montana, Portland, and Seattle. I'm pretty much up for anywhere in the western US though (I'm an east coast native, quite happy to be west of the mississippi).

Cheers again for all the input! It's really helpful, especially since I am currently living a bit isolated in the mountains with no fellow cooks to talk to!

[djyee100]

The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite hosts cooking classes in the winter. The classes are taught by prominent chefs. Those classes are expensive, and for vacationers. However, the program may need some help with the classes (paid or otherwise), and you could check into that. Ideally, you might find some way to attend the classes, assist the chefs, whatever, without paying for the classes. I don't think enrolling in these recreational classes is for you.

The Sierra foothills area is burgeoning with some fine wineries that have people sitting up and taking notice. I suggest you connect with the winemakers there. Where there are good winemakers, there are good cooks hanging around. You could learn from them, and they could point you to opportunities. I'm familiar with the Crystal Basin Cellars. Note the events calendar on their website, which also lists foodie events in the area. Even in the mountains, there are ways to meet people and network.
http://www.crystalba...s_calendar.html

[mskerr]

Cheers for that, djyee100! I've heard about Ahwanee but didn't know they held classes. I never thought about assisting with classes, that is an awesome idea! I will definitely check out wineries too. I'm not particularly into wine, being a beer-drinking girl, but I know it's ridiculous to live in California without somehow taking advantage of the wine scene.

[mskerr]

I should add, I'm also really interested in wild food/ foraging classes - something I would love to know how to do, but don't exactly want to learn all on my own with a guidebook. Would be way more fun to learn with people! Or maybe join a group instead of taking a class?

[Shalmanese]

(1) knife skills and general cooking technique, to save prep time and because I still bungle a lot of my attempts in the kitchen,

Once you've eliminated bad technique, the only thing that improves knife skills is practice and grinding those pathways into your muscle memory. First, make sure you have a sharp, comfortable knife, it's impossible to build a good foundation of knife skills if you're fighting the knife the entire time. At the minimum, buy a new $25 victorianox and use that as a benchmark of minimal acceptable sharpness. If the knife you're using is any less sharp than this, you're not learning anything useful. Next, read the eGCI Knife Skills class and practice your cuts. If you have someone knowledgeable who can watch you, they can correct some subtle deficiencies in form. But then, after that, instead of taking a cooking class, find the best restaurant in the area and volunteer to work for free as a prep cook for a week. After you're 10th case of onions, you'll have your technique down far more effectively than via any class.

(2) specific techniques like rustic bread baking or pasta-making, and

There are some very good technique based classes and I can imagine bread being one of them but fresh pasta is not rocket science to make and, again, just make it 4 or 5 times and you'll pretty much have it down.

(3) different cuisines, especially American regional ones like New Mexican, New Orleans, etc. I'm interested in starting a food truck that features American regional specialties but also has dishes from other countries (Italy, Lebanon, Morocco...) as specials (to keep it interesting as a cook, and because I love a lot of different food). Nothing too complicated though, especially to start! American regional classes are also a good excuse to travel around and see new states, which is my favorite thing to do when I can afford it.

The problem with most regional cooking classes is that, if you have a single day, about the most you can practically do is babysit a bunch of people through cooking 3 recipes, max. That's not a very broad or deep exposure to a culture. For the cost of a day long class, you could instead buy the seminal cookbooks of that cuisine, eat several times at the best ethnic restaurant to dial your palate in and then enough ingredients to cook a dozen dishes from your cookbook. For the price of a week long class, you could afford to fly to that region for a week and eat whatever you want.

Can anyone recommend a really good knife skills or bread-baking class in the states? Or a good regional class, esp. in Texas, New Mexico, or Louisiana? I guess I'm aiming for classes that are more instructive than something purely for casual home cooks, but not necessarily CIA level. And I'd prefer to take a less-expensive class from a really solid, non-famous chef than an expensive class from a famous one, unless it was someone I was a huge fan of. But, if I don't find any classes that fit the bill, I'm quite happy to invest the $ instead on cookbooks and ingredients and I'll just get in the kitchen and try to work it out myself! When I was in college, I would look at classes and think they were going to be mind-blowing or something, only to think "I could've just read a couple of books for free" after they were over.

Learning to be a good cook is far more expensive in time than in money and there are not many easy shortcuts for trading money for time. Unfortunately, for cooking instruction, time is what's most expensive to provide so they're actually a poor fit. Read voraciously, experiment ceaselessly and always look for ways to improve.

[Will]

Even having read about / seen pictures of the right way to hold a knife, having someone guide me through the motions in person was really helpful (three hour or so knife skills class at Sur La Table in LA), and immediately helped me to understand the way the motion should feel. For me, that $60 or so did a lot to improve my skill in the kitchen. Beyond the basics, though, I agree that practice and patience are more helpful than a class for knife skills. Most of the standard western style knife cuts are variations on a few themes, and you probably don't need an instructor standing over you to know whether your brunoise are up to snuff.

Edited by Will, 14 November 2011 - 02:30 AM.

[mskerr]

For the cost of a day long class, you could instead buy the seminal cookbooks of that cuisine, eat several times at the best ethnic restaurant to dial your palate in and then enough ingredients to cook a dozen dishes from your cookbook. For the price of a week long class, you could afford to fly to that region for a week and eat whatever you want.

Exactly.

So regional classes are out, but what about a good bread-baking class? I like the idea of volunteering as a prep cook. I used to do prep as part of a cooking job, including lots of onions, but I basically went at it haphazardly, having no job training or supervision. Do you think a restaurant would find it more of a hassle to oversee a volunteer than it's worth?

[djyee100]

I should add, I'm also really interested in wild food/ foraging classes - something I would love to know how to do, but don't exactly want to learn all on my own with a guidebook. Would be way more fun to learn with people! Or maybe join a group instead of taking a class?

The Mycological Society of San Francisco is pretty active. They arrange dinners for their members and also do demos, etc, to educate the general public. Off the top of my head, that's the only foraging group I can think of. If you contact them, they may be able to point you to mycological or other foraging groups in your area.

For some reason, I think of Slow Food as involved with foraging. You can contact your nearest local chapter. Again, these people may be able to point you to others who share your interests or who can answer your questions.

[ElaineK]

ForageSF does wild food walks. I haven't been on one, but they seem to sell out with regularity. They do plants, mushrooms and seafood.

[threestars]

I think it really is worth the price tag if you really have no experience at all and just starting out to cook your own. Lots of knowledge to gain compare to just reading and learning it just by yourself. :)

[David Ross]

Tommorrow I'm doing another cooking class at a local kitchenware store. This class is $39 per student. Most of the classes run $25-$40. My classes are limited to 16 students in a display kitchen format---meaning the students sit out front while I cook. When we do interactive classes we limit the class size to 8 so each student has the opportunity to get in the kitchen and gather around the counter. Those classes are much more hands-on and we charge about $10 per student more than a regular class. Typically about half the students spend money in the store after the class. There are about 15 Chefs that come in and teach classes---everything from basic comfort food to pastry, sushi and fresh pasta.

Most of our students fall in the avid, serious home cook level. Certainly not the type of person who experiments with Modernist cuisine or compressed watermelon salads, but they aren't interested in making pot roast. The store is on the level of a Williams-Sonoma, yet locally-owned. Thus the store attracts a demographic at a level of income and interest in cuisine that justfies the fees we charge. In fact, our students see the cost of the class as a bargain compared to the knowledge they gain.

[Jesica]

I also agree with what mgaretz says. Every teaching depends on the teacher who is teaching you. If he/she has good ways of explaining you then you will surely get benefit of classes.

[jrshaul]

I've been to one or two consumer cooking classes, and wasn't hugely impressed. They tend to focus more on novelty than solid technique, and I didn't feel qualified to reproduce the items demonstrated. You'd be better served with some Alton Brown DVDs.

In contrast, the cooking classes at the local tech school are often very, very good. Many of these are geared towards professionals and meet twice a week for a few months, but the cost per class is often lower than some demos and the quality is very good.

[Pierogi]

From my experience (admittedly limited...), I've found that classes with a narrow focus are far more valuable to me than the broader, "laundry-list" classes.

I took a bread-making class when I first started to get into baking bread that was extraordinary. It really lit the fire in me to give bread baking my attention and efforts. The instructor was excellent, and very hands-on working with the students. That was what I needed. I'm taking a class on macaron-making in a month or so that I'm hoping will have the same results, since I've tried to make them on my own with pretty dismal results. Many years ago, I took a series of Indian cuisine classes, as well as a Thai series, offered by the local Parks & Rec department. They were also outstanding, and I walked away with recipes I use to this day.

On the not-so-great side, I took another class called something like "Cooking Without a Recipe". The instructor was good, but the class was too large, and far too general. I learn more reading "Saveur" or "Fine Cooking" than I got from that class.

Small groups and tight focus are key, I think.

[AAQuesada]

Exactly.

So regional classes are out, but what about a good bread-baking class?

The San Francisco Baking Institute Is prolly the top baking school on the west coast.

http://sfbi.com/weekend_workshops.html

[Shalmanese]

Exactly.

So regional classes are out, but what about a good bread-baking class?

The San Francisco Baking Institute Is prolly the top baking school on the west coast.

http://sfbi.com/weekend_workshops.html

It's also $400 for a 2 day course which reflects the degree of commitment they need to put in to offer something worthwhile.

[Lindacakes]

I take classes at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York from time to time.

I try to choose carefully and take classes that will teach me a skill not easily acquired on my own and when I get in class -- I work. Hard.

Most people who take classes are not overly interested in pushing their skill level, they want to have fun or pass the time. The smaller number of students, the better, and if you can get near-private instruction, all the better.

It helps to talk to the teacher about what you want. I took a pie class with Carole Walter, not because I wanted to learn how to make pie, I wanted to push my skill level through the roof. When we had a lunch break, and we were sitting around the table, I told her this in the form of the story that I wanted to make pie like my mother -- who made the best pie I've ever had and ruined a lot of pie for me.

Carole took me under her wing and helped me, pushed me, and at the end of class said to me: "I want you to go home and make six more pies this week." It took me a couple of weeks but I did it.

And I accomplished my goal -- I'm an accomplished and confident pie baker and my pies are better than anything I could possibly buy and as good as my mom's.

I was lucky with Carole, she's an excellent teacher. Not all of them are, and you have to be aggressive in the class, making sure you can see the demonstration, making sure you get to try everything with your own hands.

[Todd in Chicago]

Folks....

I'm lucky enough to live in Chicago and have several choices. I recently found Kendall College which specialized in culinary degrees. They also offer "non-professional" courses as well and thus far I have taken a 6 hour "Sauces" class @ $120 and a 3 hour "Knife Skills" class @ $60. Both were well worth it. Below is my play-by-play of the "Sauces" class, and hopefully you can see why I think it was worth it. It may very well be worth someones while to seek out a similar institution in their area.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago


I had a great time today attending a 6 hour “Sauces” class at Kendall College in our neighborhood. Kendall College is known for their culinary program and offers full career training as well as these “Enthusiast” classes. I was very impressed with the quality of the entire process of the class - from Chef Brandy who was our teacher, the four (yes FOUR) additional assistants who made everything run smoothly, the facilities themselves (cool to work in a professional kitchen), the organization and quality of the content. Oh yeah, and the tastes and smells! I would rate this overall experience very high.

I arrived about 5 minutes prior to the class and checked in at the lobby. Everyone meets in the lobby and then they take you up to the working floor when everyone has arrived. Before they take you up, they go over some of the ground rules; such as where the washing stations will be, restrooms, and things like if you use your phone or camera to take a picture, you are supposed to wash your hands at the washing station. They also passed out the recipes that were going to be covered in class. **Note….at this point I realized I was the only male in the class since my cooking buddy Rex decided to head to Mexico…<sigh>.

Once in the kitchen, everyone was provided with a workspace and a place to put their jackets, etc. Each workspace was set up with a cutting board, a chefs knife, and a wooden spoon. Also, chef’s hats, an apron, and a side towel were provided. Once everyone put on their “Chef” gear and washed their hands, class started.

We spent about 15 minutes introducing ourselves and covering the basics of sauces such as that there are 5 mother sauces:

• Sauce Bechamel
• Sauce Veloute
• Sauce Tomat (AKA Tomato Sauce)
• Sauce Espagnole (AKA Sauce Brune or Brown Sauce)
• Hollandaise Sauce
Most all other sauces are derivatives of the mother sauces or derivatives of derivatives of the mother sauces.

And with that, we jumped right in.

First up was to create our first mother sauce, Espagnole. Lucky for us, they already had the brown stock so we didn’t have to waste several hours making this. ;-) Chef Brandy split us up into teams and I was working with Joan (a personal chef who cooks meals for families, etc) and Tracy (just a gal from Lincoln Park who wanted to learn how to make sauces!). I think we made a great team. We chopped our veggies and got it started and made our roux, and then put in our stock. This would now need to simmer for 45 minutes.

While our Espagnole was simmering, Chef Brandy taught us about vinaigrettes. A vinaigrette typically has 3 components, an oil, and acid, and seasonings. The usual ratio is 2-3 parts oil to 1 part acid. Different types of oils can be used (for example olive oil for Italian, Canola with Sesame or Mirin for Asian, etc) for different flavor profiles. The acid can also vary from vinegars to citrus. Most often a touch of Dijon mustard is also added as an emulsifier. Chef Brandy seemed to think that you can almost never miss by adding a touch of shallots and garlic as well. The teams were then provided access to many different oils, acids, Dijon, and seasoning (fresh herbs, etc) and each team was to create a vinaigrette which would then be tasted by Chef Brandy for critique. We chose a standard red wine vinaigrette with shallots, garlic, thyme, parsely, Dijon, olive oil and red wine vinegar. I thought it was just “ok” and for some reason didn’t blow my mind. The rest of our team thought it was the best of the class.

By then our Espagnole sauce was about done simmering and we would move on to our next sauce. This sauce would be a derivative of the Espagnole sauce and is another classical French sauce – a demi glace. All of the sauces that we would make today would follow the traditional techniques, and actually the demi glace was an easy one. Simply mix 1 part Espagnole with 1 part brown stock and reduce by half – i.e.; more simmering.

While our Espagnole and brown stock mixture was simmering and becoming a demi glace, we began our next project – a caramel sauce for Mexican chocolate soufflé. For this we had to create a double-boiler to melt the Mexican chocolate and the butter, and whip the egg whites with the mixer (this was one part of the class which was not perfect as we had some delays as the mixer was refusing to cooperate – eventually we got it work and everyone got there whites whipped). I also got the opportunity <sigh> to butter and sugar 8 ramekins. My teammates were making the caramel (very easy) and mixing the chocolate and butter. I also whipped our whites into shape and Tracy then folded in our whipped whites into the chocolate/egg mixture. I then filled the ramekins while our caramel sauce finished.

By this time we were just heading into our lunch break, but one last thing to do. Create two last sauces! Turn our demi glace into a Madeira wine sauce! Ok…this is hardly a new task/sauce, but it really does make a difference – when the demi glace is complete, stir in 2 ozs of Madeira wine and reduce to sauce consistancy. Voila! Madeira wine sauce!

The other sauce we made right before the lunch break was a classic (and another mother sauce) – Hollandaise! This actually is a bit tricky for one person and it is recommended that two people do this one. Although I’ve made it at home by myself, it is much easier with two people (or even easier using the blender method!). We mixed our egg yolks with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and over a double boiler added our melted butter. Everyone in the class had success with making the Hollandaise….yay! Chef Brandy and team checked all sauces at various steps in the process offering us valuable insights and tips not found in the printed recipes – they were fantastic! For this sauce I worked with only Joan as this was a two person sauce and Tracy paired up with someone else. Joan and I had great team work on this one and actually had enough time for her to do a batch and for me to do a batch.

Time for lunch and to sample our work!

Lunch consisted of Beef Tenderloin cooked by our great kitchen assistants, topped with our own Madeira sauce, a salad with our own vinaigrette, and grilled asparagus with our Hollandaise sauce! How fun…..and good!

We had about 30 minutes or so for lunch and upon our return we had our chocolate soufflé’s with our caramel sauce. I was not as impressed with this one – maybe it wasn’t sweet enough for me.

Time to start our after lunch session. The first sauce after lunch was a Gastrique! The recipe we were making was for an Orange Gastrique. This is done by adding sugar, water, orange zest, star anise, orange juice, AND of course, the ubiquitous brown stock. This gets boiled and reduced to a syrupy consistency. While this was reducing, off to our next recipe/task!

This was a simple and fun one – we got to make compound butter. Everyone got slab of butter and access to fresh herbs and veggies. This was an individual task and everyone would end up getting their butters rolled tight and stuck in the icebox for them to bring home. I used Thyme, Shallots, and a bit of Garlic in mine. Smelled wonderful!

Our next sauce would be another mother sauce – Sauce Bechamel. Lucky for us Chef Brandy had already started part of this which was to create an onion piquet (a half an onion with a bay leaf “nailed” to the cut side of it using cloves) and simmer it in whole milk for 20 mins. All we had to do was to make a light roux, add the warm milk and whip into velvetiness – and then for the coup de grace, we added cheddar cheese and cayenne. Of course, everyone’s béchamel based cheese sauce was critiqued by Chef Brandy and then all were emptied into a giant pan of pre-cooked macaroni. Those were then mixed well, covered with breadcrumbs, and yes, more melted butter and popped into the oven.

At this point, our Gastriques were just about done and Chef Brandy seared up some duck breasts and sliced into thin slices and plated them for tasting. At the very end of our reduction of the gastrique, it was pressed through a chinois and then honey and butter were added. This was the most AWESOME sauce (I think) of the class. This was then drizzled over the duck breasts. OMG…..delish! And my teammates Tracy and Joan didn’t really want their samples – so I lucked out and got them. YUMMO!

We then moved on to our last sauce and project of the day – Poached Sole with a Beurre Blanc sauce. We poached extremely thin sole fillets in a liquid of Clementine juice, white wine, butter and shallots. Chef Brandy showed us how to use parchment paper to make a “poaching lid” so that the fish would be cooked from not only below but from above as the steam built up under our parchment paper lid. The fish cooked very quickly and was removed. The poaching liquid was then pressed through a chinois and was put back into another pot and was reduced. We then used this to make the beurre blanc. Chef Brandy really indicated the importance of using cold butter when making the beurre blanc. Cold butter was added slowly to the reduce poaching liquid over gentle heat. The sauce was then ladled over the fillet of sole and the plates were garnished with Clementine supreme’s and mint chiffonade. This was very good…..how could it not be?

Oops we forgot about the mac ‘n cheese! It was pulled out of the oven in the nick of time and everyone got to sample that as well. We thanked Chef Brandy and our 4 assistants and everyone agreed what a great time it was.

Woohooo! What fun!

Cheers....

Todd in Chicago

[ElsieD]

Todd, what a great write-up!

[Alex]

So regional classes are out, but what about a good bread-baking class?

Come to the next Heartland Gathering if tino27 will be there -- like this one in 2010. (Actually, come to the next one anyway.)

[mskerr]

So regional classes are out, but what about a good bread-baking class?

Come to the next Heartland Gathering if tino27 will be there -- like this one in 2010. (Actually, come to the next one anyway.)

Wow, Heartland Gatherting sounds like a great time. Will keep an eye out for updates on the next. I have passed through the heartland quite a few times, but I don't think my road food experiences so far have done the slightest bit of justice to the region. I can't wait to try some proper regional specialties!

Todd, cheers for such an in-depth account of the classes! I am occasionally in Chicago, and am also very keen to travel whenever I can afford it, especially when it's justified by some sort of food education. I think a good knife skills class is definitely in order. Thanks!

Edited by mskerr, 06 March 2012 - 08:36 PM.