Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Cooking $ 🎓🎓 💪


Cooking is another great hobby that a lot of people love.  You don't have to take lessons, you can learn from cook books/the web.   But I have taken a lot of interesting cooking classes.

If you love to eat, then why not learn to make the food?  Eating is a major life activity, something you do multiple times a day, it makes sense to learn how to make the food worth eating.   And it's a great skill to show off for other people.


For most forms of cooking, you have already spent the required money on big ticket items  like a stove, refrigerator, etc.  Yes, you will have some extra costs, particularly if you take classes, but it tends to be a relatively cheap hobby.   It's not that physically demanding, people in wheel chairs can easily do it if their kitchen is set up correctly.

If you do take classes, Cooking, like dancing,  tends to be an equal opportunity event - you meet just as many women as men.  But there are exceptions to that rule - if you take a class on how to butcher a pig there will be more men than women.  Another advantage of cooking is that there is no age limit on either side.  Unlike dancing, Grandparents can easily do it with their grand-kids, no holds barred/.

In any major city there are a lot of classes you can take and we are not just restricted to the normal stuff.   'General' cooking classes are not my preference.   Instead I recommend focused, one shot workshops rather than a class you take every week for a month.  That makes them cheaper, easier, and you learn how to make one or two unusual things really well rather than a bunch of things acceptably.

There a lot of specialty classes available:   deserts, pies, sushi, dumplings, Vietnamese, Chinese, grilling, etc.  Good cook stores love to teach you these workshops cheaply because they usually get to sell you gear along with the lesson.   Obviously take a class on a food type you like to eat - because you may end up eating a lot of it.

Some of my favorite classes were Pizza, Cupcakes, Ice Cream and Molecular Gastronomy. 


Pizza making is relatively easy.  It's a simple food, mostly about making the dough.  The sauce and toppings tend to be simple to do.  The main problem is that it takes a long time to make it from scratch - hence people buy it more than make it. 

I enjoyed my class here:  http://pizzaschool.com/

Cupcakes are always a big hit.  They don't take too long to make (no dough rising), and are sweet. 

I took classes here: http://butterlane.com/classes/


Ice Cream is another big hit.  You get the flavors you desire and it's not that hard to make.  The main weakness is that it doesn't always travel well.  On the other hand, when you show up at a picnic with a cooler full of home made ice cream you get more bragging rights than with most stuff.   Particularly if you make "Bourbon Brown Sugar Ice Cream".  Can't get that at Baskin Robbins.  (Note you need to add other stuff and/or remove some sugar, to keep the ice cream solid if you want the alcohol to be more than just a flavor - take a class and learn how.)

The Brooklyn Brainery has a lot of good cooking classes, and that is where I learned how to make Ice cream:  http://brooklynbrainery.com/courses/ice-cream-how-to-make-your-own-history


Molecular Gastronomy is not as likely to be useful in your daily life.  But if you want to show off bacon flavored "caviar" on top of transparent ravioli can be very impressive.  The place that offered my Molecular Gastronomy class is no longer offering it, but you can find others.


One final place to check out is The Brooklyn Kitchen.  It has a lot of interesting classes, including that one on pig butchering I mentioned. http://www.thebrooklynkitchen.com/classes/pig-butchering-16062015901

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