evening cookery classes - how does this sound to you?

vfairbrass

Having seen two teenage daughters come out of school having been taught absolutely nothing about real home cookery - apart from how to make a pizza - I am pretty horrified at what passes for home economics, or as it's called now, food technology. In those families where parents don't cook from scratch there must be children becoming adults without the first idea of how to prepare a meal. I would say they'd be a fair sized audience for a class that started from basics. I don't say they have to know how to make puff pastry, as I was taught at school, but just the basics would be a start.
Valerie

Spendi

I was lucky, my mum taught me to cook, as home ec lessons at school were useless and totally impractical, who wants filo wrapped mushroom parcels ??

It never actually occured to me that my freinds mums never taught them to cook, until one invited me round for a yummy homemade spag bol, she exclaimed how much she loved cooking, and didnt have time to do it often, whist opening a jar of ragu...

Lets just say i was gobsmacked....

spiddy100

I've been having a good old think about this

As someone else said, I think it's worth working out your market.Are you doing this to spread knowledge of cooking or to earn money, or a bit of both?

If it's for money, I can see two lucrative markets (there are probably more but these are the kind of people I am familiar with..). The first being young professionals in their 20s-30s, who probably had little or no training in cookery at school. Cooking is sexy with young people again and I'm sure they would pay decent money to do something like this. however, I'm not sure whether they would sign up to evening classes to learn the basics, as it's not really very glamorous I'd suggest going back to the dinner party idea, giving them something they can learn which will impress their friends/the opposite sex, but include lots of transferrable skills they can take away too. For example, maybe over three weeks they could learn a starter (soup with HM bread for example, two *really* important things to know how to make), a main (beef bourgignon or coq au vin perhaps, with discussion on making stews and how to use cheaper cuts of meat for good effect), and a pud (maybe pastry could play a part here). Make your fliers etc look as glamorous as possible, maybe sell it as a social thing as well as cookery lessons - young men especially will flock if they think there will be single young women there!! Provide a glass of wine and they will be well away....

Another market ripe for exploitation are parents (especially working parents) of young children. I've got toddlers and we are constantly being reminded of how important it is to cook with our children, get them interested in food etc, but a lot of mums don't do this (no time, don't know how or just too messy), therefore there is a lot of guilt. Honestly, every time I go to a toddler group the mums are saying how guilty they feel because they don't cook or paint with their kids.

Working mums have a little more disposable income, and a lot of them would like an organised activity to go to on a Saturday (or so I am always being told by my friends) because they miss out on all the toddlers groups etc which only run during the week. A series of sessions where mums and tinies made cakes, pizzas, cheese scones etc then enjoyed the results with milk and/or a cup of tea would be great. The average price for a toddler activity (tumble tots etc) is £5 a session where we live, and the ingredients for this would be cheap. If you could teach fussy eaters to make and enjoy something savoury and healthy most mothers would fall on the floor and kiss your feet!!

Just my thoughts.......... Obviously these are two money-making ideas, rather than necessarily being the most enjoyable or useful cookery lessons, but hope they are useful thoughts anway

spiddy100

Ooh, I forgot! One more: cooking for students.

Parents sign 18 year olds up for a basic cookery course before they start university. Emphasis on simple skills and cooking on a budget, also shopping cheaply etc. Lots of parents worry about how their kids will manage to cope on their own once they leave home and would love to know they were grounded in basic skills. All the OS knowledge would come in really useful here too.

Hope this helps

Katgoddess

I work for Surestart in my local area, and our cookery lessons are always popular.

We have 2 courses run by a dietitian which are aimed for parents of fussy eaters, and babies who are weaning.

The other course is called "Healthy Eating on a Budget" and involves learning how to cook basic food from scratch. Mainly things like beef burgers, chicken curry, stir fries quiches and baked puddings like apple crumble. They cook the food themselves from simplified recipes with a max of 5 ingredients. They decide as a group what they want to cook in the last lesson.

The 2 people running this course (parent development manager, and one of the health visitors) are always shocked at people who don't know anything. One woman thought you boiled mince in water to cook it. (You probably can, but she thought it was the only way) Another parent was too scared to use the oven.

As for a course for the 20's/30's people, I think a hands one course would be best, as people (like me!) would learn more, and be less scared of trying stuff at home by themselves. I like the idea of dinner party stuff, and learning easy, but impressive food.

GardenMillie

I love to cook and have attended a Mexican cookery course - we were given the list of ingredients for the next week and then made the dishes with input from the tutor on the night - it was great fun and you had something to take home with you. Hands on is preferable for me.

Hope it goes well for you.:D

apprentice_tycoon

Thanks for the continuing good ideas, you've all been great (as I knew that you would!) - there's plenty for me to work on, I'll kick all these ideas around until they take shape then pitch it and hope!

MATH

I think there is a deffo need for basic, beginners cooking. A quick look down the questions on the OS board show you there are those who know a fair bit, those who know some, and those who would starve to death if Lean Cuisine closed shop!;) This basic training is very fashionable at the mo with Jamie Oliver et el spouting off.

What I need is a cookery class where I can sit with my feet up and watch you cook a two course eveing meal for a family of five and then take it home with me, returning the dishes still dirty to the next class:rotfl: If you can travel to the emids you've got your first 'pupil' LOL

Peartree

I've never had any real lessons in cooking, I think I must have learnt by osmosis from being brought up in a 'good home cooking' household.

I think there is a gap in the market for 'real cooking'. So many courses seem to be around 'flavour themes' in cooking - indian, italian, etc, and not about techniques. Most cook books around now are by celebrity chefs and are about following recipes to the letter and not about learning to be a real cook. Many of my friends will follow recipes in these books but, I think, would be hard pressed to cook an omlette without instructions. I went round to a friend's house and she was following a recipe from a book - to fry a steak!!

I think there's a lot of opportunity for 'back to basics' type courses with 'master recipes', and 'what always goes well with what'.

I also think that a lot of what's out there in cookery books and on TV is very much 'make it fast and serve it immediately' which is can be a very stressful way to cook - especially if you don't have the back up of a whole pile of people in a professional kitchen. With normal working patterns and family life, 'cooking ahead' is a much more stressfree option. Rushing in and cooking every night is a chore. Spending a couple of hours a week doing several meals (with the radio on and a glass of wine) can bring back some enjoyment to cooking, and children can be involved (not in the wine obviously!).

What about something around 'planning and cooking a week's meals for a family', 'making your own healthy ready meals for the freezer' or 'stressfree entertaining'?

Some degree of hands on (and most importantly tasting) must be best though - otherwise why not just stay in and watch it on TV?

Peartree

artic_fox_2

Peartree wrote:

What about something around 'planning and cooking a week's meals for a family', 'making your own healthy ready meals for the freezer'

i think these ideas are brill


hope this happends im my area id love to go