Facilitating Cooking Workshops and Classes

[David Ross]

Tommorrow I'm teaching my first class at a new venue for me, but a store that's been in town for many years. It's a local kitchen store that has a very dice demonstration kitchen. They sell everything from French cookery pots to local alderwood smoked salt. I have a class of 13 and I'll be doing Cioppino with Grilled Bread and Rouille. Most of the students will probably be at what I would say is the mid to advanced level of home cook. The store caters to pretty serious cooks and I'm sure the students will reflect that. I'll be doing the cooking and will have an assistant and the students are seated in a classroom type of format. They won't get involved in any cooking.

I've cooked for years on television, cooking demos in stores, cooking demos at large food events and taught some classes. I've found that regardless of the forum, format or audience/students, planning and organizing is the key. When I cooked on PBS one of the constestants cooked a duck recipe she hadn't tested-either for timing or for doneness of the duck. It killed her. She bought a huge Magret duck breast that was as big as a turkey and she served it raw to the judges. She didn't plan, she didn't test, she didn't time. Had she done those three things, she might have been more successful. Whether it's cooking on television or cooking and teaching, it's critical to plan, plan, plan. That way it eases your stress level and your students have the best chance of enjoying themselves and most importantly-learning something.

I start with my recipes. I go over them for about a month before my class. Then I break down the elements of each dish and assign an amount of time to do each task. Then I test the dish and timing to do any fine tuning. I rehearse and review the steps and write down notes on any questions that may come up, and I always anticipate questions about substitutions. "If I can't find fresh clams, can I substitute mussels." "What is the best store in town to buy seafood?"

I have about an hour and a half for my class, so this is going to be the general outline-

-Prepare saffron fish broth

-Prepare rouille

-Prepare Cioppino broth

-Grill bread

-Add shellfish to Cioppino

-Add seafood to Cioppino

-Spread rouille on bread

-Serve bowls of Cioppino with Grilled Bread and Rouille

Two last points that really help me-you have to have a constant dialogue with your students. You've got to learn to talk, and cook, at the same time. If you are too intense and go even 30 seconds with not saying something, )"we add the clams and mussels to the hot broth first and let them cook until the shells open") you'll lose your audience quick. They'll be disinterested and it's hard to get them back. Engage them, ask them questions, ask them if they've made the dish and tips they have. I think of it in terms of a tv show-the clicker is in their hands so if you aren't constantly talking, they'll zap you right away and go watch Bourdain.

Depending on the setting, this time a retail store, I have an obligation to support the store and the products they sell, like the Le Creuset pots I'll be using. But it's a fine line between suggesting to your students in a subtle way about the virtues of Le Creuset as opposed to sounding like Ron Popeil.

If you love cooking and are passionate about food, sharing and teaching others should come naturally.

[Darienne]

I'm wiped.

Yep, I took photos during prep, which I'll show in a bit. But that six hours -- from pickup to drop-off -- went by in a blur. The additional three hours of dishwashing and cleaning was also exhausting.

By their accounts, the students had a great time. Me? I'm loaded with criticisms of what I did and how I did it. More a bit later when the caffeine kicks in.

Hi there Chris...did the caffeine ever kick in? You never did get back to the thread with your photos and notes.

And thanks, David Ross, for renewing what was such a fascinating topic. I really enjoyed it.

And all best at your new venue. You have so much experience and obviously you are so well prepared that it should go well.

[David Ross]

In spite of setting cheesecloth on fire, (over the flame of a testy gas cooktop I hadn't cooked on), a derelict broiler (that took 30 minutes to roast red peppers), spilling a bottle of olive oil over the front counter at the feet of a student, today's class went well. At least that's what my students said and wrote on their class critique. So I should add to my above post that when you teach for the first time in an unfamiliar kitchen, (despite years of experience), expect the unexpected. Pick yourself up, keep the dialogue running and you'll be perceived in a positive light. We all make mistakes in the kitchen, even the teacher.

They liked the saffron flavors in the fish stock that was the base for the Cioppino. But they liked the "Rouille" the best-roasted red pepper, garlic mayonnaise. That was the hit dish today.

I'll post photos of the kitchen and the store tommorrow.

[JAZ]

When we teach, we call those unexpected occurrences "teachable moments" -- when the "low" setting on the induction range is so low that our students' rice is still almost raw after 15 minutes, or when the burner under the chicken stock goes off without our noticing it, so that the 10 minutes for chicken soup turns into 20. It's one of the most important things to learn to deal with, I think.

[Chris Amirault]

Agreed, Janet. It's why you taste, taste, taste during cocktail workshops: where do I need to adjust? You think you have the perfect set-up and then....

Oh, and sorry, Darienne: lost those photos!

[JAZ]

In spite of setting cheesecloth on fire, (over the flame of a testy gas cooktop I hadn't cooked on). . . .

In my experience, students love it when you set something on fire, intentionally or not -- in fact, it's probably more exciting for them if it wasn't intended.

[David Ross]

The store where I did the class is the only family-owned, independent cookware store in Spokane. We have a Williams-Sonoma, but as you can imagine, the products are the same in the Spokane store as the products in the Seattle, Boise and Portland stores. And Williams-Sonoma doesn't sell some of the unique products sold at the store where I teach. It's the only place in a metro area of nearly 500,000 that features products for serious cooks and bakers.

Like a lot of television studios and small stores, a teaching kitchen isn't always up to the standards of a professional kitchen or a good home kitchen. Sometimes we have to rely on the generosity of a local appliance store to donate equipment--and it isn't always a top of the line, brand spanking new Viking professional oven. But I've always made do with what I have, be it the portable electric cooktop at KXLY-ABC or this setup in the store, (which is one of the nicest kitchens I've cooked in given all the demos, classes and shows I've done).

The stove unit includes a microwave and oven with a convection feature. Unfortunately, the recent repairs to the broiler element didn't work as it took me about 30 minutes to get a char on the skins of the red peppers for the Rouille. Luckily, I had two roasted peppers that I had done ahead of time at home. The stovetop is gas, but I'm used to working on an electric range at home. I couldn't get the burners to turn on quickly, and once they did, the flame was either too low or too hot. I wasn't used to the "clicking" sound of the igniter, so that sort of threw me off worrying that the damn thing was a fuse waiting to blow. The top left burner spoke to the lower right burner so they both had to be turned on at the same time in order to work, another confusing curve ball thrown my way.

I had the luxury of using a VitaMix, brand new Cuisinart Food Processor, Kitchen Aid Mixer, and both All-Clad and LeCreuset Pots. I had a virtual medicine cabinet full of herbs and spices to use, including a bottle of Spanish Saffron that was enough to flavor about 100 gallons of fish stock. And imagine cooking in a store that sells literally thousands of tools and gadgets. If you can imagine it, it's there for me to use in the kitchen, (albeit with the understanding I will do my best to inform the students as to the magic properties of LeCreuset. If we sell a few $350 pots after class we're doing well). A very good selection of salts and peppers was literally two steps behind my display kitchen.

The owner of the store wrote me this morning and invited me back for another class in January. They are booked solid in November and December, so the Pork Loin with Litchee-Plum Conserve that I was waiting to do as a Holiday dish will have to wait. Apparently the focus of the classes in January is something "lighter" since we've all stuffed ourselves during the Holidays. Cooking "light" isn't really my forte, but I'm sure I'll come up with something interesting for my students.

Here are some photos of the kitchen. It's set in a back corner of the store and you can see how we set up the chairs in front of the cooktop. Each seat is set with a clipboard and pen so that the students can take notes and follow along with the recipe. We can also set up things with seats at the counter so the students can interact in the cooking process. You'll see that we have two overhead television screens that are capturing overhead shots of what I'm doing in the kitchen.