Holiday Ideas

Explore Your Inner Chef

A chef lurks within even the most hopeless Kraft Dinner veteran (or so I am told, as I throw together another Tabasco-Infused KD Tuna Disaster With Medallions of Burnt Cheese Globs). Even if you specialize in burnt everything, you’re dabbling in haute cuisine: burnt butter, I’ll have you know, is a sauce.

Urban cooking classes are ramping up for another busy autumn and winter. You have plenty of choices. We’ve interviewed top teachers for a sneak peek and you’ll discover some of the most popular cooking courses.

For hapless cooks, aspiring chefs, adventurous eaters and people who just plain love good food, cooking classes in Calgary and Edmonton offer a safe harbour. Mistakes can be made in the joyful company of others (“Uh, folks, I’ve found a finger in the Nicoise salad, is anyone missing a digit?”) and new skills easily learned (“Wow, cooking with one less finger is easier than I ever imagined!”)

Actually, the only accidents that happen in these classes are happy ones, where you might bump into a recipe you’ve never considered, and cook a relentlessly fine meal that your friends would have never thought you capable of accomplishing.

Cooking classes are a swiftly growing business as TV food shows and an explosion of fine dining in Alberta’s two largest cities encourage people to learn the craft of preparing succulent dishes at home. And personal chefs are more and more in demand, as young professionals demand in-home service with quality ingredients customized to their tastes.

But why should you try a cooking class?

Choose Your Season

Food activist and well-known Edmonton cook Gail Hall, owner of Seasoned Solutions Loft Cooking Classes, says her small, exclusive classes (no more than eight people) are hands-on, so you’re not just watching her cook and then trying to remember what to do.

“Plus, we have some wonderful wines paired with the food and the next thing you know, several hours of cooking have gone by and you’ve enjoyed a mini-vacation,” says Hall, whose loft in downtown Edmonton is nearby the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market, providing easy access as she and her students shop for fresh ingredients.

“If you’ve never really cooked before, it’s not hard,” she says. “You lose your fear pretty quickly with other people there. And if you have cooked and for some reason really want to get back into it, this is a great way to do it.”

If you’re aged 18-35, cooking at home may not have been as high a priority as it was in previous generations, when there was more time and less fast food and processed foods available.

“So much food nowadays is ready to go with take-away, but the magic of food for me is to share it with other people and prepare it,” says Hall. “Food is one of the last things we think about, but I think it should be one of the first things. It’s not difficult to do, and it’s rewarding.

Take a class and “you are involved, it’s informal, and classes reinforce that cooking is not difficult,” she says.

“If you are a young professional you can learn how to make the foods you love and discover that it is less expensive than going out all the time,” she says.

Gail’s classes this year include Market Fresh Cooking on Saturdays, Sept. 9 and 23; The Best of the Fall on Saturdays, Oct. 14 and 28, and hors d’oeuvres for Christmas Entertaining on Nov. 4, 25 and Dec. 2.

Market Fresh Cooking

Here’s a glimpse of what you might experience at one of one of Gail’s Market Fresh Cooking courses.

• Start with award-winning Alberta cheeses, such as Sylvan Star Gouda, giving you an introduction to Alberta products as you shop with her.
• Do a roasted tomato and bell pepper soup. (“In Edmonton we have some incredible market gardens with greenhouses, so we can get outstanding vine ripe tomatoes and bell peppers,” says Hall).
• For the main course, Bison Wellington, medallions in puff pastry. Plus fresh green and yellow beans that are available (a traditional amandine using green and yellow beans; you cook those off with butter and lemon juice and toasted almonds).
• Roasted baby potatoes and carrots with birch syrup and some canola oil (fresh pressed); coat the root vegetables with that and roast those off in the oven.

Time counter:  30 minutes to shop the market.  Cooking at the loft by 2 p.m.  Eating by 4 p.m. Total of some three to four hours of fun.

The Cookbook Company Cooks

If you don’t consider yourself a cook and you’re looking for a class that will get you started, Gail Norton, co-owner of The Cookbook Company Cooks in downtown Calgary, says a few of her classes are especially popular with beginners.

“The couples classes are really popular and tend to be under age 32 or so, bringing out boyfriends or newly married people for a social evening that revolves around food,” she says.

“It’s kind of a night out,” she adds. “You break into teams, and each team prepares one part of the meal. You get together with a glass of wine and you prepare the food. So it’s a communal effort as you work your way through the menu.”

But you don’t have to be part of a couple for a hands-on class. If you’re a bit intimidated, don’t be. Norton says a guy in one of her classes last year was 35 years old and he’d never even boiled water.

The hands-on Italian and French classes also tend to sell out. In this case, hands-on means that you are doing the cooking, as opposed to classes that are mostly demonstration, where a chef at the front works his or her way through a meal, showing techniques and ingredients.

There are usually 16 people in the hands-on class. Demonstration classes run up to 24 people.

In January, there’s a new swanky cooking school coming, so the classes won’t be as sold out and there will be more space available, says Norton, who’s been in business since 1994. Note that by the end of this season, she expects all the classes will be sold out.

If you’re looking to save time while still enjoying a quality meal, cooking classes might be the answer, says Norton.

“We get a lot of men in here but always more women,” she says. “We get people all the time who want to cook quickly, but it doesn’t mean they want to east fast food or just open up a container and microwave it. We can give them fast preparations that are healthy.”

You can find the 2006 cooking classes schedule online along with contact information, or try visiting the downtown location at 722-11 Ave. S.W. in Calgary

Personal Chefs Rock the House

Elaine Wilson, personal chef and owner of Allium Foodworks in Edmonton, sees more and more people seeking her services. They have less time to eat, but on the other hand, increased knowledge about good food and how it can benefit their health.

With many young professionals in Alberta’s cities working at breakneck speed, a personal chef is a viable financial option, says Wilson.

Expect to spend in the ballpark of $350 for a two-week package for two people. That includes 20 meals Monday to Friday.

There is a move toward a more global interest for foods, she says. Thai and Mediterranean are very popular these days. Wilson has 10 different versions of a Thai recipe to accommodate people who, say, love a particular dish but want it without meat.

“The things I’ve noticed the most in the eight years I’ve been cooking privately is an openness to flavours and trying new things, as people look to expand their culinary experience,” she says.

And if you learn to cook with Wilson, all the better, she says.

“If I can get people excited about food and allow them to be their own personal chef, that’s very exciting for me,” she says.

She’ll ask her clients what they are seeking, give them a detailed questionnaire, and then set up a customized meal plan as well as a complimentary consult. She brings all her own pots and pans, so if you want, you just eat. You can pick up some tips and, if you like, she offers cooking classes.

Here’s one of Wilson’s tips on how to prepare Lemon Grass if you love Thai food: you have to bang it and smash it to get the perfume out, using the flat side of your knife, or the blunt end, and just hit the length six or seven times, so the perfume is released, and that releases the flavour.

Finding a Personal Chef

Check out these links to The Canadian Personal Chef Alliance and The Canadian Personal Chef Association.

Other Choices

There are other cooking classes, as well as chefs that offer a range of services. Here are a few.

Brad Smoliak Cooks based in Edmonton provides home cooking classes. He also does some catering and some personal chef services. Thai and Italian cuisine are customer favourites, he says. He describes his cuisine as “the real stuff that’s easily approached.” A three-hour class might include ‘updated Italian’: a pancetta wrapped prawn with roasted tomatoe and red pepper bruschetta, an antipasto salad and a risotto; halibut poached in olive oil and served with roasted vegetables; and then zabaglione, which is a custard made with an Italian wine.

Food stylist and cookbook author Lovoni Walker in Edmonton offers corporate and private cooking classes in a unique setting, reflecting her Australian roots at Nisku’s Fabulous Food Creations.

And there’s the Cooking Room in Red Deer.

With so many different options for personal chefs and cooking classes, go ahead and immerse yourself in the word of food - see what you can cook up this fall!