Room: COOKING LORIS

Cooking Classes With Cookly

We decided to check out Cookly, an awesome company which allows you to search for cooking culinary experiences all over the world. Simply put, it’s like Airbnb, but for foodies: you pick a location then book a culinary experience. Similar to most booking websites, it has all the information needed to book a tour, including reviews, prices, and more, allowing you to compare multiple schools just by using one website.

Being a massive foodie myself, I love the concept as I am a big believer that one of the best ways to truly experience and get to know a country is through its food. As a frequent traveler, I also have no room for souvenirs so being able to cook my favorite dishes from the countries I love the most is probably as good as it gets.

can’t believe it’s already Sunday! If you guys couldn’t tell already, but I use my Sundays to typically plan out my weeks – and this includes what I’m going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The first two are usually the easiest to plan since I’m kind of a creature of habit and will eat the roughly the same thing for these two meals. Dinner can get tricky since I’m not making something just for myself, but I’m also making something for Nick.

In comes Cooksmarts! I’ve briefly touched on this service in a few other posts, but essentially Cooksmarts takes the guessing out of what to make for dinner for the entire week. Every Thursday, the website is updated with a weekly meal plan. This meal plan will then feed into a grocery list and even what you can prep on Sunday. One feature I particularly like is that you can vary the serving size (if you’re having 2-8 people over for dinner) and even dietary needs like Paleo! This has been extremely helpful when it comes to planning my Whole30 compliant meals. Even though Paleo does include some natural sugars like honey, I’ve been able to easily modify here and there to make sure it fits in with the program. Other diets they cater to are Gluten Free and Vegetarian. They’ve even added a MyFitnessPal button for those tracking their nutrition closely.

Now, what if you don’t like what’s on the list for the week? No problem – go scan through the archives and find a week that tickles your fancy a little bit more.

Nick and I usually make 3 out of 4 meals for the week for 4 servings. This gives us the option to dig through any leftovers for lunches/weekend meals. And Nick usually eats a little more than a serving since he can.

Cooksmarts is a subscription service, so it does cost some money. It’s $21 for three months which really isn’t that much when you think about how many things you get with it. They even have other flexible options of billing – monthly and yearly. However, I will say that there was a little hiatus I took from utilizing the service and was bummed when they automatically billed me after not even using it. I guess that’s partially my fault, but I hate automated billing – I wish they had a friendly reminder that they’re about to charge my card!

Oh and how are the meals? They’re absolutely delicious and most are somewhat easy to prepare. Some do take a bit of preparation and organization, so they’re not completely effortless. A nice feature though is that if you aren’t a cook and don’t even know how to dice an onion, Jess (the founder) will teach you! They have videos showing step by step how to do it. I’ll be honest, I had no idea how to cut fennel before this.

The service has actually expanded my cooking repertoire. Prior to subscribing, I pretty much stuck to casseroles, stir-frys, lame protein + vegetable combinations (think salmon and green beans….boring) and maybe tacos. I’ve now experimented with a lot of different Asian flavors like Korean and Vietnamese, Cajun, Indian and other American favorites that I would have never attempted before. However, I have found that not every grocery store will have all of the ingredients on the list, so sometimes I’ve had to improvise. Things like fish sauce and rice paper wrappers aren’t stocked regularly in my Trader Joes, so I’ve had to make extra trips to conventional big-name stores to find some ingredients.

1. UNDERSTAND YOUR CARBOHYDRATES

The 3 main types of carbs are sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars are generally simple carbs that are quickly digested, starches are complex carbs that take longer for the body to break down, and fibers are indigestible carbs.

Keep in mind that simple carbs aren’t always “bad” and complex carbs aren’t always “better” for someone with diabetes. The effect of a simple or complex carbohydrate on blood sugar levels is accurately understood through glycemic index ranking.

2. HAVE A GLYCEMIC INDEX CHART HANDY

Although studies show that the amount of carbs in a food you eat is the best predictor blood glucose response, checking the glycemic index (GI) of a food is always a good idea. The GI ranks carbohydrates based on both the increase in blood glucose levels and the speed in which they rise after eating a particular food. Here are the GI rules:

• Low = 0-55
• Medium = 56-69
• High = 70+

A quick GI check is especially helpful if you are at the grocery store or eating out and can’t count carbs. Here are two convenient GI search engines – Diet Grail and Glycemic Index.

Smart Kitchen Online Cooking School, is making learning to cook easy and fun.  Have you ever wanted to learn how to cook like a professional chef, to impress family and friends with your amazing cooking skills?

No need to quit your day job, or spend hours in evening evening cooking lessons.  You attend the online cooking school at a time that is convenient for you, with the streaming cooking lessons.

In these lessons taught by professional chefs, you will emulate the training of a formal culinary school without the big cooking school expense.

You can learn to cook like a professional chef with this affordable online cooking school in the comfort of your home, and at your own schedule that is convenient for you.

You won’t pay $40,000 dollars here!  The cost is reasonable at just $9.99 per month, and you can attend the online cooking classes a time that is convenient for your schedule, 24/7.

Smart Kitchen online cooking school can help you achieve your goal of cooking like a professional chef, or at least being able to make dishes your family will love!

How does the Smart Kitchen Online cooking school work?

 

The Smart Kitchen online cooking school is broken down into three segments:

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced

In the Beginner Level you will learn over 250 basic foundation cooking techniques taught into 8 online lessons.  You then progress to the Intermediate Level, where you will master advanced food prep techniques, cooking methods and recipes, and and finally reach the Advanced Level with 100 lessons, where you will hone your cooking and food prep skills, the way a sous chef advances to become a head chef.

You will follow text and video cooking lessons at your convenience in a series of lessons that builds on your new found cooking skills.  If you need to repeat or restart a lesson, no problem.  The cooking lessons are available to you 24 hours a day/7 days a week at the click of a mouse.

These affordable online cooking classes are structured like a professional cooking school.  You will get all the flavor of culinary school at home with Smart Kitchen online cooking school, without the big cost of those expensive culinary schools costing thousands per year.

Who is Teaching the Online Cooking Lessons?

 

Each online cooking lesson is taught by a Smart Kitchen instructor, who is also a trained chef.  Some staff members are chef instructors at culinary schools, and some are working chefs.  Either way, you are being from working professional chefs.

No need to drive to a cooking school. Smart Kitchen brings the professional online cooking school to you, with hundreds of lessons taught online, in the comfort of your home at your schedule, not theirs.

If you have some cooking skills you can move ahead in lessons, but it is recommended that you follow the cooking lessons in the order they are taught, so you gain all the skills needed for that lesson, particularly in knife skills and food preparation, which are the foundation for the more advanced lessons.

GOT A QUESTION FOR THE CHEF/INSTRUCTOR

 

If you need to reach the instructor to ask a question about the lesson, just click the “Ask the Chef” feature to connect with one of Smart Kitchen’s staff instructors.

 

Great for Stay at Home Parents

Are you a stay at home parent, and you wish you could learn to cook like a professional chef to make delicious and nutritious recipes for your family, but thought it was out of the question and out of your budget?

Tired of making chicken or mac n cheese every day? With Smart Kitchen now you can make a variety of delicious and nutritious dishes your family will love!

While the kids are napping or at school, with just a click of your mouse, you can learn how to cook from a Smart Kitchen professional chef instructor,  and impress your family and friends with your new found cooking skills, for only $9.99 per month.  Thats less than the cost of a bag of groceries

Trial and Membership

I do recommend that you sign up for the free 7-day trial that is offered.  This way you get to see the layout of website and you get some exposure to what the lessons will look like.  There are even some quizzes for you to test your knowledge.  What I found with the trial was that I was able to skim through the material, pass the quizzes, and all without ever stepping into my kitchen!  Personally, I needed something that was going to hold me more accountable!  I could certainly not commit to an online course that kept me on my couch and not in my kitchen!

The standard Rouxbe membership is much like the trial, and to me should be used more as a resource.  It is not set up like a course in that there is no order to what you are learning.  You decide what you want or need to know, search for it, and learn.  There is definitely some value in this if you do not have the time to commit to a full course!  But, I’d guess that once you got started with a membership, you’d be even more curious about what the courses have to offer!

Courses

Rouxbe offers several different courses.  The main two that I looked at were the Forks Over Knives Course versus the Plant Based Pro.  Both of these courses are excellent choices depending on your level of interest and commitment.  Here’s a comparison to help you decide!

In looking at the syllabus for each course, it seemed that most of the content covered in the Forks Over Knives Course was also covered in the Plant Based Pro Course, plus the Plant Based Course covered so much more!  I ended up deciding that the value of the Plant Based Pro Course was more of what I was looking for.  All 18 units seemed very interesting and I decided to dive right in!

From the start, I was not as excited about the unit about “Culinary Wellness” and wanted get to “Global Flavors” as soon as possible!  As it turns out, the “Culinary Wellness” units was one of my favorites!  (There is a short Culinary Rx Course if you want to focus on the health benefits of a plant based diet!) The “Global Flavors” unit really pushed me to learn about different world cuisines and create my own recipes!

While you are encouraged to complete the course in order, you do have access to all the lessons right from the start.  Also, you can skip over an activity that requires you to create a recipe until you have the time and ingredients to make it.  Just don’t leave it for too long, or your assignments will start piling up, and you don’t want to fall too far behind.

Course Work

Each unit is divided into sections and each section has several tasks to complete.  Tasks could be reading, watching videos, trying recipes, activities, unit review, and assessments.  Activities usually include photos and written descriptions of the recipe that you prepare.  Each activity has 3 sections, mise en place (preparation), in process, and final dish.  Here’s an example of a recipe assignment.

Benefits

Over the course of six months, not only was I learning and refining my techniques in the kitchen, I was becoming a better writer (aka…food critic), and developing my skills in food photography.  These are two additional aspects that you may not expect going into any of these courses, but definitely skills that you will develop as you move through the courses!

In addition to the learning that I expected, I also learned more about writing about food.  I was constantly googling lists of descriptive words to accurately describe my dishes.  Since the instructors can’t actually taste what you’re making, it’s up to you to describe the flavors!  Originally, I thought an online class was a definite disadvantage to being able to take a live class, however, it left me developing another skill that I hadn’t expected.

Food photography was another big focus for me.  Although the instructors do let you know that they are not judging the quality of your photo, but rather the look of your food (uniformity of cuts, colors, textures), it is still beneficial to try to refine this skill!  My favorite photo is the cover image of this post!

This course pushes you to make things you may not have ever imagined.  Some examples…I made my own udon noodles, ravioli, and vegetable stock.  I researched spices used in various world cuisines and tried them out in my own cooking.  I tried different variations of a plant based diet including cooking with no oil, raw meals, and gluten-free recipes.  I cooked with ingredients I had never used before…agar agar, ñame, and lentils (previously not a favorite of mine, but now I would eat them again).

My biggest piece of advice is to stay on track!  The number of hours per week in the chart above is fairly accurate.  The thing is, you will be spending much of that time cooking…and eating!  It does take quite a bit longer to prepare a meal for an assignment than it would to throw together a quick dinner on a work night, so be prepared for that.  This is a commitment and in order to get your money’s worth, you want to complete the course!  They do give you enough time if you are regularly logging in and completing tasks.  I was able to finish in a little less than six months and took off about a month total for traveling.

What would you pay to learn from a master? Someone at the top his or her profession. What if that person, on top of being one of the most respected in his or her field, is also an international television star and celebrity chef? In the case of Gordon Ramsay’s MasterClass, you would be paying $90.

Paying less than a hundred dollars to learn all there is to know from one of the best chefs in the world seems too good to be true. To find out if it is, I took Ramsay’s 20-part online course. I don’t think I need to point out that I’m not a trained chef. Before I met my wife, I didn’t even know how to properly use a crock pot, let alone follow an elaborate recipe for Beef Wellington or how to make pasta that didn’t come out of a box. In fact, before starting this class, I still didn’t know how to do most of those things.

So, on a cold, wet Sunday in late April I got to work. Since my ability was rather limited to basic knife skills and Hamburger Helper, I was glad to see that the first lesson wasn’t actually a lesson at all. It was more of an introduction. Like in a real classroom, before starting any work, you get a chance to meet Gordon Ramsay, in online video form.

If anyone stumbles upon this class and doesn’t already know who Ramsay is, they are in for a treat. The first clip begins with Ramsay praising the food made by a young girl on MasterChef Junior. Fans of Ramsay more used to

seeing his F-bomb-loaded rants, might be surprised by the compliments.

After that, you are treated to some beautiful classical music while viewing close-ups of (presumably) Ramsay preparing to cook before you’re shown a plate with the words “Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking” superimposed over it (just in case you didn’t know what class you were taking).

Not surprisingly, the chef doesn’t even make it two sentences before dropping his first F-bomb. You might not learn how to cook like a professional chef from this class, but you’ll definitely learn how to swear. “If there ever was a moment that I wasn’t going to be working on TV, I have a f***ing day job,” says the colorful, temperamental chef. “Nobody fully understands what it’s like, where I’ve been and what makes me f***ing tick,” he adds in reference to the media fascination with his television rants.

He explains that “for the first time” students are going to see real detail, real understanding, and real finesse brought together from start to finish. He’s going to teach you everything he’s learned and perfected, and everything he’s stolen. It’s immediately clear that this isn’t the loud, foul-mouthed angry Ramsay that is portrayed on the television screen every week. This is the kinder, gentler, much more patient Ramsay. He says he can do this because for the first time he’s “uninterrupted.”

“Watch. But watch f***ing carefully.” He says that to enjoy this class, you only need your computer and a desire to learn. Access to a kitchen is obviously a plus, as are a few other items to enhance your learning experience. That means that to get the full effect of this course, you’ll have to pay close attention, but you’ll also have to pay for quite a few extra ingredients on top of the original $90 fee.

Ramsay uses the second lesson to explain how he got to where he is today. Like many of us, he was an awkward, gawky kid. He ended up growing into a talented soccer player. He was set to take the path of a professional soccer player until he ruptured his Achilles tendon and tore his ACL and had to find a different path. “So, sport wasn’t happening.” His parents told him to take a foundation course in CATERING. He was barely sixteen and he had to wait tables as well as learn the ins and outs of the kitchen. He took this course before even attending college. He quickly learned that waiting tables wasn’t for him. One of his instructors referred to his waiting skills as, “a piece of horse sh-t always in the middle of the road.” He realized that cooking might be more his style. He immersed himself in cooking. Within six weeks, he was promoted from waiting tables to cooking.