For the fresh pasta-making, Cheryl had us make a well of flour and crack and egg into it. I wish I’d gotten a photo of Kavi’s perfect egg sitting cracked in the well, but I was busy trying to corral my egg that escaped its well and slithered across the counter at warp speed.
I have to say, it’s more fun photographing cooking classes than writing classes. No offense, writers! You’re all lovely. 🙂 Cheryl Knecht Muñoz took exactly 1.5 hrs (I was impressed with her timing), to teach seven of us to make a vegetable ragout and fresh pasta, which we then ate and took home. This is a ‘clean-out-the-fridge’ sort of ragout, tasty and healthy, esp. if you use lots of fresh herbs.
I’ve never used a pasta machine before — it was fun! Felt sort of like magic, seeing how Cheryl sending a few passes through the machine made it so long and thin. And then we made ribbons!
There’s lots of laughter in cooking class. Though one thing Cheryl and I talked about, that was interesting, was the difference between a ‘demo’ class, which is the kind of thing you go to with your girlfriends to drink wine and have fun, and a ‘hands-on’ class, where the instructor is trying to teach people to actually cook.
I admit, I’ve gotten a little frustrated teaching cooking class when I thought I was teaching the latter, and it turned out people wanted the former; maybe the solution is to just be as clear as we can be in our descriptions, and use the demo / hands-on language throughout? Also, maybe I should only serve mimosas at the demo classes — alcohol and sharp knives don’t mix that well anyway…
It’s a little magic, how Cheryl can make flour and egg and a bit of water, plus the leftover veggies from the fridge, turn into happy food for happy bellies. Well, and cheese. Must have cheese.
While our classes are geared towards adults primarily, we leave it to the instructors’ discretion to decide whether they’re okay with letting kids participate. This class was 5 adults and 2 kids (with their parents).
