Cooking Classes

4 years ago when I was constantly trying to take Jo's eye out and helping to facilitate cooking classes and corporate bonding sessions at the Coriander Leaf, I never thought that I would be running classes of my own. Back then, I couldn't understand why people would pay so much for the same information they could easily find on videojug and youtube. I have a different view on this now.

In Singapore, there isn't much to do. After watching every movie that's out and pacing the malls, cooking classes offer an alternative activity that is interactive without being sweaty, as opposed to passive movie watching and sweaty games of tennis.The tactile learning one goes through by participating in a class gives form to the words and numbers in a recipe. What does consistency of magma or stiff peaks or over whipped cream mean? Better to discover it with your own senses then waste several batches of ingredients finding out on your own.

These classes are also a great way of meeting like minded people. Sure I've met really obnoxious know-it-alls but the majority of the people just want to have a good time doing something they enjoy. One thing I enjoy about hands on classes is that it's a 2 way learning highway. I am there to present a class but we all learn together along the way by fixing things that go wrong on the spot and by trading tips.

Besides being a good source of income, sometimes even better than the cooking stints we get at JAM, we get to showcase our skills and get new leads for what I love doing most, cooking for people. I used to tutor chemistry. I love chemistry but I hated teaching it. I'm quite ok with teaching how to cook though, maybe it really is about the content.

I still think that these classes can be expensive but I can see the allure they have. Check out what I'm doing this month with ToTT and Cookyn with Mervyn.

:)