Smoke Alarms, Recipe Substitutions and 11 Lessons from One Year of Cooking Classes

Plus, midweek reads & the ethics of restaurant delivery apps

I hosted my first online cooking class on February 11, 2021. I think 12 people came and we made this soup with garlic bread and I had to mute myself at one point because I set off my smoke alarm while using the broiler. There have been other mishaps since then, like crying while chopping onions (it never happens when the cameras aren’t rolling), pots boiling over, and accidental unmutes.

When I ended that first Zoom, my kitchen was a mess and I was exhausted, but satisfied. My phone pinged with positive reviews and Instagram story tags and I knew I would keep going. Teaching cooking classes was in some ways a natural progression. I minored in education in college and spent lots of time volunteering in Philly schools. My favorite programs involved food, like an after school cooking program at a high school where we cooked in the science lab on hot plates, or a kindergarten program where we taught the alphabet through different fruits and vegetables. Writing and teaching are really complementary types of work and I love when my week includes a combination of the two.

Since 2018, I’ve taught religious school part time in Manhattan and some of that involves teaching cooking (less so due to Covid). I love working with the kids to make challah, rugelach, pita chips, and salads and we’ve even cooked together on Zoom. Transparently, I’d like to make cooking classes a bigger part of my revenue and work life, by growing the group classes I teach and adding more private classes to my schedule. If you or anyone you know is interested in setting up a class for your office, family, or group of friends, I’m here to help.

I taught a few cooking classes on my own before teaming up with Erica in April 2021 for a meal prep class. We taught it in separate kitchens because of Covid and it was a hit. We’ve been friends for years and really enjoy working together (we’re having a summit next week to plot some things for the rest of the year and beyond). I’ve been freelance for almost 4 years and it’s really nice to have a sort of coworker, for accountability purposes and for bouncing ideas off one another.

If you’ve taken a class in the past year, I want to thank you! It’s been such a joy to connect with people over food in such a present way and I definitely count launching this as a pandemic silver lining and plan to continue!

I can confirm the set up is never as neat as this. Photo by Some Shelly Photography

Now, some rapid fire lessons.

1. Keep it simple. I try to teach techniques that people will use outside of the class, like a jar of salad dressing you can always have on hand, or ways to perk up a can of refried beans for tacos, quesadillas or something else, a baked pasta with random leftovers, etc. I want people to feel more comfortable cooking through the classes and feel confident to adjust things to their diets and preferences.

2. Writing recipes takes time and care! When I’m not testing a recipe for a class, I rarely measure unless I’m baking. Written recipes need to be accurate and tested so someone could follow them without taking the class. This has been a big adjustment and there are so many variables (people are cooking in different kitchens with different ingredients in different climates).

3. Platforms come and go. Airsubs, the platform I first used to set up classes, shut down in November, which was a huge (and expensive) inconvenience. We migrated to another platform and took the much needed step of building out our own website that we fully own. Make sure you save recordings of all your classes and reviews because platforms are not permanent. And if you’re thinking of starting a business, buy the domain name now (I buy them on Namecheap).