A little write-in help, please
I am experiencing a small problem with the cooking school/lessons for which I need advice. I will so appreciate comments expressing your genuine opinion.
We do not set up the subject of a lesson until someone has signed up for it. That person then gets to say what he/she would like to learn, based on seasonal availability of course, and excluding things that must cook longer than class time. Maybe it’s just one thing, and we build the rest of the menu around that, or sometimes someone says, “Anything but that!” when they have food hates or sensitivities. Lately, however, we have had more people want us to say what they should learn. (Of course, if they are the second or the third to sign up, that’s already been done for them, probably.) With some discussion that may seem like social work, I can probably suggest things. It makes no sense to teach people to cook things they’ll never find where they live. Some dishes are unique, and so learning to make them will not open the doors to many other parts of Italian cuisine. I like to teach things that lead to other things, in essence you should leave class prepared to make judgments about so-called Italian recipes you run across, or be able to remove ingredients that just shouldn’t be in a real Italian recipe. It is meant to be the most durable souvenir ever– the ability to choose, to cook and to judge Italian cookery forever (plus some printed recipes that you made, etc.)
This means that I feel like I have designed the policy and whatever you want you can have within that policy. That’s why lessons at the school start with shopping, because shopping right is very important in Italian cookery. So we could teach you to make genuine Italian dishes from whatever you found in the pantry and the fridge– after all, 50% of Italians are going to do that at lunch today– but we think figuring out what ought to be in that pantry and fridge is important.
So the question is this: is it better to offer an unformed and customizable class? Or is it better to design classes and then let the people who want that class sign up for it? Since almost all the students are travelers, should that be instead: “This is what we can teach any day, you choose which one.” Which would mean dividing the information up into a few offerings.
Although my pleasure at teaching is certainly key for me, suiting just me is not what I want to do. I like being able to teach food of the north one day, food of the south another, food from the center on a third. I like being able to do one meat Wednesday, a different one Saturday and vegetarian Friday. But it might be easier for travelers to know that, for example, every Friday was vegetarian, or every Thursday was southern food.
In trying to be as flexible as we can be, we may have made ourselves too formless so that those with little experience don’t know where to start?
What would you prefer and why? What would make your experience of a day or two in an Umbrian kitchen just perfect?
10 comments March 13th, 2008
