Disclosure: I received compensation from Feast for writing this post. All opinions are most definitely my own.
Do you cook?
Well. Bully for you. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m not much of a chef.
I’ve tried. Really, I have. Years ago, I took a series of cooking classes that were taught by a woman that looked like so:
Who, when I asked the most basic of questions, gave me answers like so:
Yeah. You can probably guess how those classes went over. And I’ve had an irrational fear of organized cooking lessons {referred to in culinary therapy circles as IFOOCL} ever since.
All the same, I was intrigued when introduced to Feast, an online cooking resource that claims that anyone can learn to cook.
Anyone?
Online?
In the privacy of my own home?
I furtively agreed to give Feast a test run, knowing that if things went awry, I could always drown my sorrows with a glass or four of Cabernet and an evening of Feast bashing on Twitter.
It was my intent to have Twin A help me on this little project. She? Is a little chef in the making. Remember?
But alas, Twin A has been away at camp this week. Without my little Betty Crocker, I looked around the homestead and fixed my attention upon the boys.
“Guys! Let’s cook!” I exhorted in the most enthusiastic intonation I could muster.
They made themselves scarce until I hog tied coaxed them back to the kitchen with the promise that we would be using my laptop to learn. I’ve found that my Cherubs can be talked into anything with the allure of a keyboard and wifi dangling in front of them like a proverbial carrot.
We began with Feast’s seven day crash course. It’s free when you sign up…why not, right?
Day One was entitled “How to Use Your Tongue.” There were no R-rated shenanigans…just a brief lesson in trusting your instincts and playing with flavors in your spice drawer.
After some blind taste-testing, The Small One found that he had an affinity for Mexican spices…
…paired with ginger. My IFOOCL flared up a bit when I saw this, but the lesson was about trusting our palates, so I rolled with it.
So far, so good.
We then moved on to Day Two, where the most basic of basics was covered: How to Hold and Use a Knife.
This is the point at which I began to fall in love with Feast. Within minutes, My twelve year-old Twin B was wielding a knife like a pro and chopping up vegetables for in preparation for Day Three.
Am I the only person on the planet that didn’t know that this is the correct way to chop? Fingers and thumb of the non-cutting hand behind the blade serving as a guide.
Purty. Or as purty as raw diced spuds can be, anyway.
On Days Three and Four, entitled “How to Cook Everything” and “Order of Operations,” we were challenged to use our preferred spice combinations along with the veggies that we had chopped and saved in order to prepare a simple dish.
You are now so smitten with this image of cute puppies that you have completely forgotten that there was to be a picture of spicy sauteed potatoes here. Let’s just say that Gwen the rescued Foxhound-Beagle Mix kept me away from the stove for 15 minutes, during which time the poor potatoes had our smoke alarm singing. This is no fault of Feast’s.
Day Four’s lesson was about How to Fix Broken Dishes. And no, it did not involve superglue…it was a series of quick-fixes for food disasters.
Chili too spicy? Feast has an answer for that.
Sauce too runny? They’ve got that covered, too.
Unburning diced potatoes? Dude. They’re not magicians. But still…I have printed out these fixes and tucked them into my recipe box for quick reference. I love how Feast readily admits that things can and very well may go awry. Such is the nature of the cooking beast.
The rest of the series was equally applicable: Sexy Food and The Final Project challenged us to create palatable looking dishes as well as to take on one of the recipes from their online recipe book.
Feast’s crash course put my mind at ease and made my tragic case of IFOOCL nothing but an unpleasant memory and an unsavory acronym.
Now…if you’re a bit more advanced than I? Feast has online recipe tutorials that would impress even the snobbiest of food snobs.
Fire Roasting
Searing the Perfect Steak
All presented in an extremely palatable, non-threatening, often hilarious format.
Want to get your Feast on?
Of course you do. Sign up for the free Crash Course here…
And use the following code to receive an enrollment discount on any of their already modestly priced recipe lessons: spincycle50
Before you go, tell me in a comment, please: Have you taken cooking classes before? If so, how did they go over?
heh heh – what a fun post. And interesting at the same time. I consider myself a great cook because I can make anything with the aid of a cook book. But thinking up my own recipes, food prep, etc and I know nothing at all. I’m going to go heck out that site.
I’m a recipe follower, too, Debbie. Love how Fest encourages its users to make it up as you go along.
You’ll be able to take those recipes to the next level (=
No, I was afraid yo were going to cook the puppies. I’m intrigued and wanting to learn more. I cook all our meals at home. It doesn’t mean I do a great job, though, my potatoes usually look like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Poppy! There are healthy recipes on Fest as well! Plus? It’s a Sverve campaign..
Cook the puppies. Heh. Just noticed now that it’s how it appeared on my FB post.
This sounds like something we should “gift” to every kid before they leave home. Or maybe, to all those adults who left home and still manage to burn water. Might be fun for newlyweds, too.
I know, right? They’re just giving away free knowledge! Aweseome.
We have a lot of college students, recent grads, newly weds and new parents that sign up for a classes. I think it’s because they’re life transitions where people want to become more capable in the kitchen (=
Looks very informative and lots of fun! I never have taken a cooking class, but if credit is given for hours of Food Network-watching, then I may already be halfway to chef status. I love cooking and cooking shows!
Oh..that TOTALLY counts. I’ve never watched a cooking show in my life, so I give you all the credit in the world for it.
This sounds very intriguing! Every time I saw IFOOCL I scrolled back up to see what it stood for again! It sounds like a condition….well, I guess it kinda of is a condition!
I’ve never taken cooking classes, I just make up stuff as I go along,which isn’t always a good thing. Or I rely on my stand-by dishes that my family loves…or at least digest without issue. 
It’s totally a condition, Tracie. *twitches*
I have never taken cooking lessons, unless you count watching my grandmother, the expert. Looks like a great idea! (And maybe if I chopped food like that I could quit knocking my fingernails!)
Who knew about that chopping trick? Nifty.
WOW! I suck at cooking and I hate it but I’m SO willing to try this!! And, no, I had no idea that’s how you’re supposed to handle a knife. So much knowledge in one tiny post!
(= Glad you liked the post. We’ll keep sending daily little tricks like that to make your life easier as well. Let me know what you think!
-David
CEO, Feast
This site rocks, Allie. And it’s got juuuuust the right amount of sass to keep things interesting.
I just love coming on here. It makes me feel so….human! LOL Seriously I suck in the kitchen and to this day I do not…repeat… DO NOT fry anything! I got popped in the face with grease when I was younger and therefor feel as though it will happen again. And I once caught the oven on fire trying to broil some blue cheese cheeseburgers… *sigh* Anywho enough about me… I may just try and check out this classes since you say it’s easy and rope my tween into cooking with me!
Now I think about it… I actually got the oven on fire more than once…LMAO!!!
It’s a wonder that they wanted ME, of all people, to write for them. Guess they figured that I’d be, like, their Cinderella story.
I’m more like an Ariel, combing my hair with a dang fork at the table. But still. I DID learn a lot from Feast.
Love this!
From a foodie? High praise.
Oh, this is way cool! (and now I know it is possible to spend too much time with your 9yo…) bit I digress. I’m an obsessive cookbook collector and I’ve taken a few cooking classes but they usually focus on one or two meals worth of dishes. Sounds like this curse gives you SKILLZ!
It really is cool, Jenn. And you hit it on the head…it’s skillz based.
So taking the free courses! Not sure if I’ll move on from there but it sounds like a great tool.
Your the fitness lady, yes? I believe threre’s a paleo dish or two in their offerings. Just sayin’.
Cooking=not for me. But with this, I feel like I could actually make a go of it! Great post!
-Ashley
A great article! No wonder they chose you to do it.
I think they aim at foodies that already can cook but would like to learn a thing or two, but also at those still at the beginning of their cooking journey. With your witty writing style you can easily attract both of those groups.
As for your question… I do cook and I have actually been to a cooking class before. I am from Europe, so I guess that is not such a strange thing. I have often been told most of us Europeans look like hardcore foodies to an average American. Good food actually is important over here.
Back to the cooking class… it was actually a chocolate making class in Perugia, Italy and I think you should definitely check it out at my blog: http://www.travel-pb.com/2012/06/chocolate-making-class-in-perugina.html
You are also very welcome to browse around and maybe even discover your next vacation destination.
Have fun!