Cookin' With Class has a bunch of online offerings in case you are getting tired of your local take out or running out of ideas of your own cooking. My husband thinks this is a winning solution for us. https://cooking-classes-uzes.com/book-online-cooking-class/
Chef Eric is in the south coming to us from beautiful Uzès.
Could you share some other online cooking classes to help with the gustatory and culinary doldrums.
I’m watching ‘Fat Salt Acid Heat’ on Netflix. It’s not really a how to, more of a world food documentary - just fascinating, and with some truly gorgeous cinematography.
If there has been any upside to confinement, it has resulted in a noticeable improvement of culinary skills.
The French Cooking Academy is an excellent course on French cooking, basic and beyond. I just watch Youtube videos but the information here is superb. Stephen is obviously French but he is currently living in Australia.
Two shows started me on an exploration of Italian pasta recipes: Two Greedy Italians (chefs Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo) and les Recettes de François-Régis Gaudry.
Two Greedy Italians is an 8 part series of the two chefs traveling Italy, remembering their early years, and finding amazing things to cook. Their improvisation of composing compelling dishes with the local products of wherever they happen to be is as captivating as it is charming and has been a source of many new recipes for me. Everyone should cook this way.
François-Régis Gaudry is a food critic who has written several cookbooks. His most recent, On va déguster l'Italie, was accompanied with a number of new videos illustrating how to prepare several pasta recipes. The programs are in French, with subtitles in French, but are relatively easy to understand. Here is the program explaining how to make la Puttanesca. With Francois-Régis is Alessandra Pierini, an Italian who has a fabulous Italian épicerie in the 9th arrondissement called RAP. Gaudry´s French cooking book, On va déguster la France, is available in English (Let´s Eat France) and would be a valuable addition to any culinary library.
Fanny M la Cuisine is another French cooking series but these recipes are amazingly simple and should be easy to follow and to understand. However; the results can be surprisingly impressive.
I should note that in all the mentioned programs and all the chefs cook using metric measurements.
Bets, Have you taken a virtual class from Cookn with Class? If so, what did you think?
La Cuisine in Paris is also running virtual classes.
Thanks all. I’ll check out the other leads. A couple look promising. The Moroccan cuisine offered by Les Petits Farcis is interesting, as well as the Italians, Gaudry, and Fanny M. I have the metric measures and the language. Les bonnes inspirations. Merci.
Laura—Yes, I’ve taken demo classes from Chef Eric. He’s very clear and easy to understand and ingredients were obtainable. The ones they are offering are interactive, so he can see you, people can ask questions and the number of participants is under ten. I’m interested in the savory rather than sweets and baking, and will do the three-course meals. He times them for North American participants.
The classes you mentioned are demos, not hands on, but with access to the videos afterwards. I didn’t see any savory, except a sauce class.
The Moroccan classes have been really enjoyable, with delicious results this fall/winter, even though we don’t have an actual tagine; we made it work with pans already in our kitchen. Chef Fuad will also teach making proper mint tea - you need a LOT of mint leaves, and then practice pouring really high from the pot, to aerate the tea before serving. Small glasses for the tea are optional, but a teacup with a handle is a lot less hot on the fingers.
Rosa’s culinary Tour de France has been fabulous, too, with regional specialties in each class. You don’t have to complete the entire Tour, and we skipped a couple virtual classes.
Since you asked, Bets, and this is Italian, not French, but Chicca Maione has been doing zoom cooking classes since last summer. There’s even a free easy Flour Gnocchi class this coming Saturday, April 3, at 12:30 PM Central Daylight Time (adjust according to your time zone). Her Website is
https://cookingintuscany.cc/gnocchi/
She’s lived in Tuscany with her French husband, 3 miles from the ocean, and taught cooking for over 20 years at their place. She’s from Naples, but has adopted a Tuscan way of life - sage features in a lot of her recipes, straight from her garden. She does the recipe planning, teaching, and on-camera cooking, while her husband does the camera work. A couple in Oregon, who’ve collaborated with her, handle the Zoom tech part.
There’s now also a Chicca Cooking Club, which has 6 lessons over a 3-month session, every other Saturday, same time each class. Enrollment for the upcoming April-June quarter starts April 1. Over a hundred members are now cooking with each class, getting questions answered via Chat and sometimes with the Audio on. Individual classes have been possible, too, but the 6-class package is such a deal!
Shopping lists and recipes are provided ahead of time, along with videos to help with preparation, mise en place, and options for people with dietary needs or preferences, along with options for those of us without access to Tuscan ingredients at our local supermarket. Like this Travel Forum, Chicca has developed an international group of participants in these classes.
Thanks Cyn. I signed up for Saturday. I may do couple in the upcoming series.
Bets, Thanks for the report. I’ve taken a number of the in person classes at Cookn with Class and have been getting emails throughout the pandemic advertising the virtual ones. To date, I’ve been reluctant to sign up given that I already spend so much time on virtual meetings. I may have to give it a try.
Yes, even Air France served excellent airline food.
