Cooking workshops - a way to entertain and expand your culinary experience

Modern life pushes us to constantly search for new sensations and unique experiences. We can skydive, drive monster trucks, and race a Lamborghini without any problems... what about a simple activity like cooking? In a time of ubiquitous boxed diets and restaurants at every turn, does anyone want to learn the art of cooking? And yes!

Cooking workshops have been a very fashionable way to spend time for several years now. In addition to developing a passion for cooking, we can also discover new tastes during them or just have a nice time with friends.

In my opinion, we can divide them into several categories, which I will briefly describe: 

Ticket Sales Workshop - that is, those that we can choose for ourselves! Just buy a ticket at a culinary school, and under the guidance of a professional chef, you will learn several dishes from this cuisine, for example, Italian, Vietnamese or French. Participants strive to absorb as much of the knowledge passed on by the chef as possible. 99% of the dishes are prepared from scratch, which is very time-consuming, but ultimately very interesting, because who isn't interested in making, for example, ramen from scratch? Everyone is focused on memorizing little things, tricks that they later very often implement in their kitchen. This is my favorite type of seminar, because I love and, as far as I know, can transfer knowledge well. I am happy when after a while people come back to me with the message that they are very good at checking my advice and passing it on to their family and friends. In addition, there is always a calm atmosphere, and everyone listens carefully to all comments. 

Cooking classes at corporate events "it's more of a form of entertainment than a typical science. As a rule, this is one of the attractions during corporate integration. It's fast, loud, and sometimes too much fun. For the most part, these are large parties, where the main goal is to prepare dinner for the participants in a way that it is not boring, long and tedious. This is due to the fact that often dishes are partially prepared by us, for example, during corporate dumpling workshops, we skip the dough preparation process – we prepare it in front of the workshops. We need to avoid boring processes where some of the participants will stand idle. An additional obstacle to these parties is usually alcohol and the speed of its consumption. We deal with knives, stoves, hot pans, etc. Several times in my career, it has happened that for safety reasons, I have had to stop cooking, put participants at the table, and cook on my own. 

Product / Place Promotion Workshop - during such events, usually the guests are influencers, and the whole party is based on presenting a particular product/place as best as possible. For example, company XYZ is releasing a new tomato sauce, and at the workshop we make 2-3 dishes based on this sauce. Here it is important to make the dishes as photogenic/fashionable / interesting as possible. The result of such an event will be "hype" in social networks. Not every chef can host such an event. Here you need to have a lot of confidence, a sense of humor and communication with the cameras, because most of such an event is recorded or photographed. Very often, famous chefs act as hosts of such events, for example, participants of culinary TV shows. 

Very important when organizing culinary master classes is the place where they should take place. 

It is most convenient to organize them in cooking studios adapted for this purpose, but sometimes the places where the client would like to cook are, in short, crazy. Can you imagine 150 people cooking in the middle of the pitch at the same time? Or 400 people preparing meals on time in a huge conference room? How about making fish tartare for 30 people on a boat? There have been many such events in my career. I cooked most of them when I was part of the wonderful Food Lab Studio team led by Grzegorz Lapanowski. 

In addition to the place, the person who conducts such seminars is also very important. I know a lot of very talented chefs who do not like and do not know how to conduct such seminars. The point here is often that they work with chefs every day, and it is normal for them that each of them knows how to quickly slice, prepare basic sauces, fry, bake, etc.In workshops, everything is completely different. I once witnessed how a very talented pastry chef, starting a workshop, spoke in the "kitchen" language, and none of the participants knew what he was talking about. It was only after a while that he realized that he was dealing with amateurs after all, and he had to calmly explain it to them. However, I also know super chefs who are very good at running such seminars and can pass on a ton of valuable knowledge to the participants. 

In my opinion, the worst-case scenario is when the workshop is run by someone who is famous and doesn't necessarily know how to cook... I witnessed a workshop with one of the European cuisines being run by a man who was very handsome, spoke Polish with his foreign accent, and all the ladies were charmed by him. However, the dishes he prepared with the participants were very bad and different from what they really should have been. He couldn't even answer any questions about cooking methods and product characteristics. In my opinion, this is very unfair to the participants who paid for knowledge of this cuisine, products and methods. Therefore, it is worth seeing who will lead this workshop and what they specialize in. 

Recently, cooking classes for children have also gained popularity, during which we can teach little ones not only how to cut carrots, but also where vegetables come from, and why it is important to eat them. Many children, unfortunately, have bad eating habits, and they don't know what is good and what is not for their health. Such events are attended by both children themselves and children with their parents. The main thing is for parents to understand how they can approach children with healthy food and how to prepare visually appealing and flavorful dishes for the youngest without any problems. As we know, children don't really like spinach and beets ... but already green and red smoothies or colored pancakes disappear in the blink of an eye 😉 

Culinary workshops also have a significant impact on the development of the culinary culture of the community. We chefs can influence what products people buy, how much they buy, and we help them avoid wasting them. We raise awareness about the quality and origin of food products. Through the use of seasonality of products, we also support local food producers. We also have the opportunity to advise on the selection of equipment for the participants ' home kitchens. I have often come across questions about choosing the right frying pan, pans, or planetary mixer. Thanks to us, people know what to choose and what to pay attention to when making purchases.

In general, cooking workshops are not just about learning how to cook, but a real taste and social experience. During them, we can discover completely new products, culinary techniques, equipment, meet new people, and also have a very pleasant time. For both participants and organizers, they provide a great opportunity to share knowledge, build relationships, and share unforgettable moments in the kitchen. They are also an interesting springboard for busy people who can temporarily forget about everything and indulge in a passion for food.