Adult cooking classes that aren't dates?
June 13, 2023 9:38 AM Subscribe
How does an adult learn to cook in an organized fashion?
We work with a wonderful nanny to care for our two young kids. Our kids are starting 5-day week school in the fall and our nanny pitched the idea of doing all of our cooking. The problem: she is by her own admission a pretty basic cook. We would like to pay for cooking classes for her, but have been striking out in finding something useful. Lots of cooking classes are basically couples-focused, or single sessions around cooking a single item or meal. Is there any resource for teaching an adult to cook?
We work with a wonderful nanny to care for our two young kids. Our kids are starting 5-day week school in the fall and our nanny pitched the idea of doing all of our cooking. The problem: she is by her own admission a pretty basic cook. We would like to pay for cooking classes for her, but have been striking out in finding something useful. Lots of cooking classes are basically couples-focused, or single sessions around cooking a single item or meal. Is there any resource for teaching an adult to cook?
Cooking is more than applying heat. It's planning, shopping, measuring, chopping, and then finally heating and assembling.
In this situation, meal kits would be a great set of training wheels. They take care of the first four steps and give clear instructions for the last. Once she gains confidence, she can start freelancing.
Source: this is how I accidentally learned to really cook and enjoy it.
posted by dum spiro spero at 9:56 AM on June 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
In this situation, meal kits would be a great set of training wheels. They take care of the first four steps and give clear instructions for the last. Once she gains confidence, she can start freelancing.
Source: this is how I accidentally learned to really cook and enjoy it.
posted by dum spiro spero at 9:56 AM on June 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
If you have a local community college, they may very well have some noncredit courses for cooks. Mine has a bunch of those one-off classes like soup class or pizza class, but they also have a "healthy cooking" multi-session class that might be good for a situation like yours.
posted by Stacey at 10:14 AM on June 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Stacey at 10:14 AM on June 13, 2023 [6 favorites]
Best answer: I 100% agree with the meal kit recommendation. I was a pretty good cook before we started HelloFresh, but I learned a lot from it. As a musical analogy, let's say I was a competent alt-rock rhythm guitarist before, but now I feel more confident playing lead, playing other styles like jazz or blues, etc. I made Korean food at home for the first time because of HelloFresh. I realized how much I love dill thanks to them. I marinated chicken in yogurt. The way I see it, there are three major benefits:
-No not cooking. When you buy your own ingredients, you can procrastinate. There's nothing in the fridge, you don't feel like going to the store, so you don't cook. Or you're not sure what you're in the mood for, so you don't cook. With a meal kit, it comes every week, multiple meals a week. You always have something to make, and you have everything you need to make it. There are no excuses. Getting better at anything requires actually doing the thing.
-Repetition. Meal plans don't have unlimited recipes; they cycle through them every couple of months. That means that you can cook the same things fairly regularly, which is a good gauge of progress. And meal plan meals tend to be a bit formulaic, which can be boring from an eater's standpoint but really useful from a beginner cook's. Even if you're not cooking the *exact* same dish, maybe you're still sauteeing chicken, just topping it with a different pan sauce and roasting green beans instead of carrots. Same techniques.
-Outside your comfort zone. This is what I was saying about cooking Korean food. Because your choices are limited, you'll likely end up cooking something you've never made before. Could be a new cuisine, new ingredients, new technique, whatever. You're doing something to expand your repertoire.
All that being said, though, you could probably DIY the curriculum by buying "On Food and Cooking", "Salt Fat Acid Heat", a kitchen scale, and a handful of various thermometers. More than anything else, technique is just managing time, weight, and temperature.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:18 AM on June 13, 2023
-No not cooking. When you buy your own ingredients, you can procrastinate. There's nothing in the fridge, you don't feel like going to the store, so you don't cook. Or you're not sure what you're in the mood for, so you don't cook. With a meal kit, it comes every week, multiple meals a week. You always have something to make, and you have everything you need to make it. There are no excuses. Getting better at anything requires actually doing the thing.
-Repetition. Meal plans don't have unlimited recipes; they cycle through them every couple of months. That means that you can cook the same things fairly regularly, which is a good gauge of progress. And meal plan meals tend to be a bit formulaic, which can be boring from an eater's standpoint but really useful from a beginner cook's. Even if you're not cooking the *exact* same dish, maybe you're still sauteeing chicken, just topping it with a different pan sauce and roasting green beans instead of carrots. Same techniques.
-Outside your comfort zone. This is what I was saying about cooking Korean food. Because your choices are limited, you'll likely end up cooking something you've never made before. Could be a new cuisine, new ingredients, new technique, whatever. You're doing something to expand your repertoire.
All that being said, though, you could probably DIY the curriculum by buying "On Food and Cooking", "Salt Fat Acid Heat", a kitchen scale, and a handful of various thermometers. More than anything else, technique is just managing time, weight, and temperature.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:18 AM on June 13, 2023
N-thing meal kits. I went from "sometimes preparing a very simple meal" to "cooking nontrivial dishes regularly" because meal kits gave me a very contained world to work in - here's all the ingredients, do exactly these things, as little judgement on my part as is possible in cooking. I started with Plated (now defunct) and now I basically manage our Marley Spoon process; typically I cook 2 or 3 of our meals each week from the kits. It also solved a lot of our meal planning challenges, which also reduced household stress and food waste (at the expense of more plastic waste, can't win 'em all.) If one of you can be available for her first few meals to help explain any novel terms ("how the heck do I simmer"), this could be a great path for her too.
posted by Tomorrowful at 10:24 AM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Tomorrowful at 10:24 AM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
Just as an aside, you might also want to pay for a food handlers class and license (generally not expensive or hard). It's not a bad idea for someone to learn basic food safety things like the temps to cook meat, proper refrigeration, cleaning, etc.
posted by brookeb at 10:46 AM on June 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by brookeb at 10:46 AM on June 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
It would help to decide on your household food handling policy ahead of time, and communicate it clearly.
The balance between food safety and frugality is so variable and personal. (This is seen in the range of answers to the ever-present "do I eat it?" questions.) It will save a lot of angst all around.
posted by dum spiro spero at 12:41 PM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
The balance between food safety and frugality is so variable and personal. (This is seen in the range of answers to the ever-present "do I eat it?" questions.) It will save a lot of angst all around.
posted by dum spiro spero at 12:41 PM on June 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by beagle at 9:54 AM on June 13, 2023