Cooking Classes

Cooking classes

I turned 40 this year and as a gift my wife signed me up for some cooking classes at the local Sur la table store. Unlike standard cooking classes these are individual stand alone classes on how to make a particular item. Since I worked in restaurants during college and I otherwise enjoy cooking, I didn’t need introductory classes. If you already know how to hold a knife and have done some cooking on your own I think you’re the target audience, although they do offer classes on knife skills and basics.

I have 3 classes to attend so I signed up for: Fresh Pasta and sauces, Making Cheese and Grilling Seafood. I was going to attend all three and then blog about the experience, but after the first one I changed my mind. Earlier this week, I attended the fresh pasta class and had a wonderful time. They offer classes nearly every night of the week and on the weekends there are day classes and night classes.

I make pasta dishes pretty frequently and have always wanted to try to make fresh pasta so signing up for this class was a no-brainer. Everything you make in class is written up in a packet you receive before the class starts so you don’t have to worry about jotting down recipes or even the steps you take. You can spend the entire time picking up the helpful hints from the staff and chatting with the other students.

The class was sold out which meant that we had sixteen students and when we worked on our own we were at four tables of four. Although we had nametags I forgot to get the names of the ladies that I worked with. I know one of them was Carol, because her husband was also named Ed and so that stuck in my head. I’m not good with ages, but if I had to guess, they were retired and took the class as something to do as a group. They, like me, liked cooking but had never made fresh pasta and were looking for something new to learn.

The general flow of the class would have us all stand around the central station and watch the instructor do something. We would then split into our groups and divide the prep work up amongst us and then execute whichever step we had just learned. When the step allowed for it, we would each do the work. For instance, when we mixed the pasta dough, we all did one egg worth of pasta and the instructors collected it up for later. However, when we prepared our sauces, one person would dice the shallot and another would work the sauté pan, and our group would then have some sauce to donate to the class total. Since all three of the sauces we made required some reducing, the instructor staff took care of that part after we initially made it.

The final portion of the class we again broke into groups and each group made a different cut of pasta. We were told to go to whichever station was cutting the pasta we wanted to learn, but everyone just went back to their original groups. The class offered four different ways to roll out and cut the pasta and I probably should have joined the group that was using a stand mixer attachment since that is what I own, but instead I felt loyal to the group I had been with for the previous hour and a half and made the fettuccini with the hand crank pasta machine. T his was actually very fun and my group accused me of being a ringer, so I must have been doing it correctly. I think the real secret was just that I was young enough still to coordinate the cranking of the handle and the holding of the pasta ribbon. In the end we all helped each other to make our little piles of noodles and turned them in to the instructor.

Based on the class I have serious interest in buying several of the devices we tried and I suspect that is partially why they offer the classes. We had a break at the half way point and I know that nearly everyone in the class purchases something at that point. I wanted to see how the real hardware stuff worked before I committed to buying anything, but I think I’m hooked now. I want the pasta roller attachment for the stand mixer and another device that I don’t know the name of. Picture a wood box that is maybe 18x12x3 inches in dimensions and has a few dozen guitar strings running parallel to the long axis. You place dough on it and then roller it through the strings so they cut it. With modern tools this is probably just a show piece, but it was pretty cool and it did work really well. The instructor claimed that the spaghetti it made would have a slightly different texture than the spaghetti from the machines, but I didn’t have a chance to see the two side by side. In the end, I’ve seen Iron-chef Morimoto use of those, so I’m sold!   J

The class was two hours long and other than the break we took, it really flew by. I didn’t even remember to take pictures for most of the class, so the only one I’m including is the shot from the finale of the class….TASTING!

When I try what I learned on my own, I will be sure to take plenty of pictures each step of the way. Fresh pasta is delicious, pretty easy to make and fun. Enjoy.

Local Sur la Table cooking class calendar