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Last night I went to my cooking class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. It ran over an hour and a half longer than I expected it to, but I learned a lot and had a good time. I can now pan-sear chicken with confidence, and I learned the easiest and yummiest roast potato recipe ever. There's a maple salmon recipe with a couscous salad that I'm definitely going to try, and a pork tenderloin recipe that I might actually try despite my dislike of pork.
The other girls in the class (it was all women) were mostly really cool. Four of them were from Saudi Arabia, vacationing in the US for the summer. Haneen wrote my name in Arabic for me. I thought that all of them were really beautiful. However, I hit it off best with another white girl, Kim, who had some of the same culinary confusions I did:
Kim (as I emerge from the walk-in freezer carrying three large bundles of Swiss chard): Wow, I thought chard was going to be a cheese!
Me: Well, I thought couscous was going to be a meat!
Our teacher, Jenn, was supercute. She made cooking look all graceful and artistic. Watching her sprinkle salt on a piece of pork was artful. I think she got a kick of out of me, too, especially when I said things like "So the maple syrup in this recipe... we're not talking Aunt Jemima here, are we?"
Overall? I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it, but it was an awesome thing to do, and I'd totally do another such class. I would be more confident next time, because I can in fact follow recipes accurately, even if I can't pick a stainless steel saute pan out of a lineup. Last night it was largely my lack of confidence that was holding me back, since I was too intimidated to try a food project that was unfamiliar to me (hence me making the pan-seared chicken instead of the couscous). Kim told me that she had asked for gift certificates to the place for the last few holidays, and now she had enough for several such classes, which I thought was an absolutely awesome idea. Once I get to Philly, I'd like to find a cooking school and do the same thing.
The other girls in the class (it was all women) were mostly really cool. Four of them were from Saudi Arabia, vacationing in the US for the summer. Haneen wrote my name in Arabic for me. I thought that all of them were really beautiful. However, I hit it off best with another white girl, Kim, who had some of the same culinary confusions I did:
Kim (as I emerge from the walk-in freezer carrying three large bundles of Swiss chard): Wow, I thought chard was going to be a cheese!
Me: Well, I thought couscous was going to be a meat!
Our teacher, Jenn, was supercute. She made cooking look all graceful and artistic. Watching her sprinkle salt on a piece of pork was artful. I think she got a kick of out of me, too, especially when I said things like "So the maple syrup in this recipe... we're not talking Aunt Jemima here, are we?"
Overall? I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it, but it was an awesome thing to do, and I'd totally do another such class. I would be more confident next time, because I can in fact follow recipes accurately, even if I can't pick a stainless steel saute pan out of a lineup. Last night it was largely my lack of confidence that was holding me back, since I was too intimidated to try a food project that was unfamiliar to me (hence me making the pan-seared chicken instead of the couscous). Kim told me that she had asked for gift certificates to the place for the last few holidays, and now she had enough for several such classes, which I thought was an absolutely awesome idea. Once I get to Philly, I'd like to find a cooking school and do the same thing.
