Retired and Ready To Cook

I get a lot of retirees and empty-nesters taking these classes because they want to explore regional cuisines or dishes they enjoy at restaurants but are not sure how to recreate them at home. By attending my live cooking classes, they can have hands-on experience with their knives and learn how to hold, sharpen and maintain them properly. Moreover, they can acquire knife skills such as slicing, dicing, julienning, and making matchstick cuts with their vegetables.

In addition, my classes teach them how to season their food in layers with salt and pepper and the importance of monitoring sodium in their diet by how to bring out the natural flavors of what is being prepared. Understanding regional cuisine is also an exciting conversation we have as they appreciate the flavors in restaurants but are intimidated by replicating them at home.

By breaking down the cooking process into basic steps and explaining the reasons for each step in flavor profiling and seasoning, they can confidently prepare meals at home. For instance, when they want to recreate a dish like pad Thai, they can learn the correct way to prepare plant-forward noodles. They can learn the new concept of reconstitution, where they boil water and then add noodles, turning off the heat and allowing the noodles to sit. This reverse technique of time and temperature results in perfectly cooked, beautifully opaque plant-forward noodles. This concept alone can be so eye-opening, as some attendees have previously been intimidated by potential failures with plant-forward noodles.

With my live cooking classes, retirees and empty-nesters can step outside their recipe Rolodex and learn new techniques and concepts, gaining confidence in the kitchen and preparing restaurant-quality meals at home.